Lakers at the top in scoring and coach gives back

Lakers head coach Mike McParland hands out season tickets. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The Nipissing University Lakers are staking their territory at the top of the scoring charts early in this Ontario University Athletics hockey season.

Lakers players currently hold four of the top seven spots in individual scoring stats.

Matt Lahey and John Quarrie are both tied for the league lead with six points each, while Nathan Hewitt is tied for fourth place and Andrew Marcoux sits in seventh spot. Marcoux is also tied for the league lead in goals, with four. Quarrie is the highest scoring defenceman in the league, while also picking up 14 minutes in penalties, tops among the scoring leaders and tied for sixth in the league.

“We’ve got a lot of hockey left to play this season, but it is great to see that our team and our players are competing at the very highest level right out of the gate,” said head coach Mike McParland. “The team has been producing offensively so far and that has helped generate a lot of excitement for our fans. The two games we’ve played at home were very exciting, with both going into overtime, and, judging from the cheering, the fans really enjoyed it.”

The Lakers play the University of Toronto Blues on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gardens. The last time the two teams met, in pre-season action, the Lakers won 2-1. Toronto’s record heading into Friday’s game is 1-1.

“Toronto has a very good team,” said McParland. “The pre-season game really could have gone either way, but we got the win. I think our fans can expect another great game.”

Tickets for Friday night’s game are available at the Memorial Gardens box office.

Giving back

Coach McParland also handed out 4 sets of season tickets to three worthy organizations today as North Stars hockey, Big Brothers and Sisters of North Bay, the Indian Friendship Centre with help from some of his friends in Switzerland.

"Some friends that want to get involved and it was a nice gesture on their part," said McParland about his friends which included his former Oldtimers team in Switzerland which helped pay for the tickets.

"I just wanted to do something for the community," said McParland about the 12 season tickets handed out.

"You feel good when you see how happy people are to get tickets for the games."