Holded through the fight: Lakers hard school fuel for future success – Detroit Lakes Tribune

Detroit Lakes – When the Detroit Lakes Boys hockey hockey team returned home

Section 8a semi -final loss

In the Warroad on February 22, head coach Ben Noah asked the boy not to allow the defects of the season to overshadow their achievements.

The 10-14-3 last record of the Lakers did not reflect her last three months of hockey. Detroit Lakes experiences all ups and depths from programs that define victories to the fights in the season.

“The highlights of our season are primarily important that we have the 11th on the hardest schedule in the entire hockey of class A,” said Noah. “In connection with the sixth best defensive hockey team in the entire hockey in class A. Combining these two things is really incredible. “

Detroit Lakes has made it available to strengthen the schedule with top talents in the state and class A. The Lakers played eight of the top 20 teams in the class, five of which went on to the State Tournament.

Detroit Lakes ended with a 2: 9 with her greatest victory, probably 4-0-shutout

East Grand Forks

On November 26, Detroit Lakes Thief River Falls, a team that historically had their number, swept their number, the final straw in a 5-4

Section 8a quarter -finals victory

.

To ward off it, the Lakers had No. 1 team in the section and the class in the ropes in the third period.

“You look at all of these things, she says loudly and realize how impressive the season was and what we could achieve as a program,” said Noah. “Where we started as an employee six years ago and where we are, we are incredibly proud of this group. This class of seniors really left our program a big sign. It is just another springboard that we want to come next year. “

The strong suit of the Lakers was her backline. Their best rated defense made 2.48 goals per game possible. But her biggest problems transformed this defense into the offensive. Detroit Lakes put 2.70 pucks on the net per game.

“A large part of those who we are and the level of skill in our program is that we have to achieve some ugly, harder work goals and dirty goals,” said Noah. “You have to get into these hard areas. It will be important that we design practices that create these options. It becomes more muscle memory. It is deeply rooted in us to get online and to get these second and third ways. “

The struggles of the lakers of the Lakers only started the turn of the new year. In the first 10 games, Detroit Lakes had seven games and scored three or more goals. In their last 17 games, including playoffs, they had only three, including six shutto.

“When we look back on these hard games in January, we have not done enough work to get into the hard areas and have more body on the net than we actually generated shooting opportunities,” said Noah. “We had no screens. We had no people there to get sticks on pucks and clean up rebounds. And so we will focus on next year because our defense hockey should enter the next year. “

The last two months have been worse. The Detroit Lakes collected 11 losses, two ties and four wins. Last season the Lakers went 2-7-1 in January and 3: 3 in February. The middle of the seasonal songs met again.

But as Noah said, it is part of the entire process and the growth of the program. It is also delivered with the drastic change of the average up to the below average schedule for playing a schedule for a top -10 team in the state.

“You won't be successful at first,” said Noah. “You will go through this. It is the old saying: “You have to lose before you win.” The difference between this and last year is that we have strengthened our schedule. We have found ways to just stay and hang around. This year we were there with these good teams. We had the chances of winning games. We played properly with them. And so it shows progress how to deal with it. “

The Lakers lose 12 seniors, four of whom were Landon Scofield, Carter Mouw, Lucas Leshovsky and Harry Poole. Noah wanted to highlight the group, which may not be in the spotlight like the eight seniors at the university.

However, their contributions to the program were just as effective.

“We thanked these JV seniors for the things they could reach, mainly with the news that, if they try to set up this difficult schedule, we don't want to play every team if they do not also have a good product on their JV,” said Noah. “Our JV team is extremely competitive. They had close games with these other big programs. These boys were as big as everyone else in our university. “

At the end of the season, the Lakers had their Varsity senior highlights. The team needed that.

“Keifer Lundmark, Brock Bender, Owen Chiodo and Easton Wall. These boys as strikers played an incredible hockey style in the playoffs, ”said Noah. “Jace Fields, Tommy Suckert, Luke Helm. Only absolute bolts in the back end, defend and bring the team hardness. You speak of being the sixth best defensive hockey team in very class A hockey. It starts with our back end. And I just can't say good things about this group of seniors because we will miss them. “

But those who will return the next season formed the top -point actors of the Lakers. Junior Will Cymbaluk ended with a team high of 27 points (seven goals, 20 templates). Junior and deputy captain Easton Kennedy scored with 21 points (seven goals, 14 templates) and in the second year Mason Deraney were there with 20 points (10 goals, 10 templates).

“It is exciting because the game should slow down a little for you and that you should create more offensive for another year,” said Noah. “You are older with all the big gaming experience. But the difficult part is that the big question mark is, will we have enough depth? “

This year's senior class brought this depth. Noah could not point out many holes in her lineups. The Lakers will be happy for an explosive team next season, but the low season will be more important for the development of the team.

“This low season will be so important for the young children who come from youth hockey and our program. It is such a big leap from the bantam hockey to the high school hockey. Often our young players don't understand that. If you are not great, we have a hard time replacing the depth that we have lost. “

The next season could be the year of the Lakers to have a bite in the section title. Her last publication of the state tournament was in 1996. Since Noah took over the 2019-20 season, Detroit Lakes has done the section semi-final in four consecutive seasons and five in six seasons.

Noah felt the program that approached a section championship. The goal of every season is to take part in the State Tournament, but for the Lakers it starts to give yourself a chance of fame.

“We play in the toughest class A department of the state,” said Noah. “I mean 7a is really difficult in this special season, but every year Section 8a is the most difficult section from which you have to come out because you have to kill two dragons to get there. These are just something we are used to and we understand how difficult a task is. But the future looks really bright. “

Boy hockey blooms in Detroit Lakes in all age groups. The Detroit Lakes' Bantam and Peewee A teams take part in the regional tournaments. It goes back to the success of the university squad. The early victory of the Lakers against EGF repeated the excitement for boy hockey in the city, but an appearance of the State Tournament was able to increase the program into the stratosphere.

“We are very happy about what we have in the pipeline, but it would be really nice to achieve this breakthrough for one of these years,” said Noah. “It only creates a little additional sums for our younger youth players who want to see it and want to be part of it.”