Lakers enter break on a high

							          Lakers enter break on a high
KEN PAGAN THE NUGGET
December 4, 2010

Two seconds.

That's how long it took for a decision to switch line combinations to pay dividends
for the Nipissing Lakers as they rallied with four second-period goals during a 5-3
win over the University of Toronto Blues at Memorial Gardens, Friday.

Trailing 2-1 with 9:05 left in the second period, forward Dorian Peca was sent out
on the left wing alongside Ryan Maunu and Andrew Marcoux for a faceoff in the
Toronto zone.

Two seconds later, after Maunu had kicked the puck ahead off the draw, Peca
buried a tap-in to tie the score and the Lakers never looked back.

Conor O'Donnell followed with a tap-in of his own from Jason Gray to put the
Lakers up 3-2 before adding the eventual game-winner on a nifty rush in the final
minute of the period, blazing into the Toronto zone and roofing a laser top-
cheese against Toronto goaltender Andrew Martin to cap Nipissing's four-goal
period.

It was O'Donnell's fourth of the season, his third in the past two games.

In practice, Mike (McParland) has been getting on me to shoot the puck,"
O'Donnell said.
I do have a good shot, but I just don't have the confidence in it. The last couple of
games, I've been shooting the puck and it's been going in.

Tonight, Jason gave me a great pass and Christmas came a bit early for me -- it
was a gift. On the second one, I just stepped to the middle and picked the top
corner. I just have to start shooting the puck. I know I have a good shot and if I
keep putting it on net, good things are going to happen."

Paul Cianfrini and Brandon Happeney also scored for the Lakers, who enter the
monthlong holiday break two games above .500 (8-6-3).

Bryden Teich, Anthony Bergin and Byron Elliott scored for Toronto (5-8-3).

The middle frame didn't start well for the Lakers, with Teich and Bergin scoring
two goals in a 58-second span to give the Blues a 2-0 lead, the second coming
after a missed assignment off a faceoff.

After Lakers head coach Mike McParland called a timeout, the Lakers got things
rolling.

I thought we had to take the timeout to get refocused, first of all, and then we
made that little change and put Peca with Maunu and he scored on the first shift,"
McParland said.

That ignited it for us. The Happeney line had just scored before that (Cianfrini's
goal) to get us going again and that little line change really helped that line. They
got skating and all of a sudden, everybody got skating."

The Lakers outshot the Blues 36-31, with Matt Hache making 28 saves to
preserve the win in front of 1,530 fans.

The Blues pulled their goalie with 1:51 left and O'Donnell had a good shot at the
hat trick, but he misfired from a tough angle deep in the Blues' zone.

My Dad was standing right at the end there and I wanted to put it in," O'Donnell
said. I think I grabbed my stick a little too tight. Give me that shot 10 times in
practice, I'll put it in every time."

While heading into the break on a winning note is a positive for the team,
O'Donnell also heads in with some confidence after an obvious adjustment
period in the season's first half.

ADJUSTMENT

Coming into the CIS league and you don't know what to expect after playing
major junior for four years, where it's a totally different game," O'Donnell said.
To be honest, I came into this league thinking it was going to be a walk in the
park--I was just going to be able to skate through everybody and score tons of
goals and get tons of points -- but I found out pretty quickly it's not like that.

You have to play your systems and rely on your teammates. I feel I've been
getting back to that these last couple games. At the start of the season, I was
trying to do too much by myself."

The Lakers now have the rest of the month off before a pair of home exhibition
games Jan. 1 and 2 against the NCAA's Lake Superior State Lakers.

At 8-6-3, Nipissing is further ahead at the holiday break from a year ago (6-9-1),
when they had to scrape to qualify for the playoffs.

I think this is more than we could have expected," McParland said of the team's
first half.

It's great.

Realistically, when we saw the first phase of our schedule, it was tough. There
hasn't been an easy game and tonight wasn't easy, either. I'm very proud of the
guys and what they've achieved and how they are playing, because they're
playing hard."