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Peca the hero as Lakers finally solve the Redmen

The McGill Redmen buzz around the Lakers net in the first period. Photo by Chris Dawson.


The McGill Redmen buzz around the Lakers net in the first period. Photo by Chris Dawson.

Dorian Peca scored in the 8th round of the shootout as the Nipissing Lakers defeated the McGill Redmen for the first time ever 2-1 on Saturday night at a packed Memorial Gardens.

Peca came in with speed, slowed down and went high glove side on Redmen goalie Hubert Morin who stopped the first 7 Lakers' shooters he faced in the shootout.

"It feels great, anything I can do to help the team but this was a total team effort," Peca told TVCogeco's Clark Heipel in a post game interview.

Dan Spence on the other side, was perfect stopping all 8 Redmen shooters including a great glove save on Keven Dupont.

The win had a lot of significance, as the win breaks a streak of 10 regulation losses and 1 overtime loss against the Redmen since Nipissing joined the OUA in the fall of 2009.

"I thought our guys really wanted to close the book on the 'no wins' talk," said Lakers head coach Mike McParland after the big win.

"It feels great that we've beat everyone now in our conference and we've beaten a team with 135 years of hockey history that is also the defending CIS champions."

Guillaume Langelier-Parent got the Redmen on the board late in the first period on a partial breakaway as he snuck the puck past Dan Spence to put the Redmen up 1-0.

In the second, the Lakers got the equalizer when Jason Gray blasted a point shot from 55 feet out through traffic that beat Redmen netminder Hubert Morin to even the score 1-1.

The Lakers dominated possession and looked like the hungrier team in the final 20 minutes including a tremendous chance by Vern Cooper who split the Redmen defence and just missed what could have been the game winner with 7 minutes left in regulation.

The Lakers had a couple of great chances in overtime as Conor O'Donnell missed on a one-timer early in overtime while Vern Cooper and Kevin Rebelo both were thwarted from in tight on Hubert Morin.
Ice Chips:

- The Lakers overall took the play to the defending CIS champions outshooting them 50 to 25 on the night.
- The Lakers honoured 4 graduating players Andrew Marcoux, Jason Gray, Sam Hopewell and Jordan Gallea during a pre-game ceremony.
- The Lakers support was high on their final regulation home contest with an announced crowd of 2,365.

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Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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