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WATERFORD The Lakeland Eagles defeated Waterford United 5-1 in KLAA boys hockey action Wednesday night.

“We put together three solid periods,” Eagles assistant coach Collin Lindsay said. “The team was playing for each other – the defense helping out the forwards, the forwards helping out the defense, and everyone helping out the goalie.”

Heading into the third period with a slim 1-0 lead, the Eagles blew the game open with a flurry of goals early in the final period, hitting the net four times in the span of five minutes. The Eagles started the period on the power play and cashed in when Nolan Johnson found Blake Kocsis alone on the back side of the play for an easy tap in to make it 2-0 barely a minute into the period. Matt Kovach made it 3-0 when he banged in a rebound less than two minutes later. After, Keegan Finch scored for Waterford United, the Eagles got the goal back just 21 seconds later when Kocsis picked the top corner in transition. Travis Gregg closed out the scoring a couple minutes later. “Being around hockey, it’s like a lot of sports, when you get something rolling the pieces start to fall into place and it’s a trickle down effect,” Lindsay said. “It was nice to see that at the beginning of the third period.”

Despite trailing 1-0, it was Waterford United who had controlled play for much of the first two periods, out shooting the Eagles in both the first and second periods. But it was a game of near misses for United and big saves from Eagles goaltender Brandon Pomerleau, who stopped 33 shots on the night, giving his offense chance to get going. “He made some big saves, and he was pretty active in net,” Lindsay said. “He can make big saves out there, but he has to be active stopping pucks that are getting dumped in behind the net and talking to his teammates, and our goalie was doing that tonight.”

“We had a lot of chances, but didn’t capitalize on the opportunities that we did have,” Waterford United head coach Marty White said. “Good teams, good games you’ve got to capitalize on those and we didn’t do that today.”

With the win, the Eagles even their record in KLAA play at 3-3.

Next up for Lakeland is a tough home match up against Hartland.

Waterford United slips to 2-6 in KLAA play heading into a Saturday night crossover game against Livonia Churchill. “We had moments of good games, but not complete games,” White said of his young team. “We’ve just got to keep working.”

Original Article: http://www.miprepzone.com/oakland/results.asp?ID=15088