Lake washed away by potent Green Wave

Lake Catholic’s Great Lakes Hockey League encounter Jan. 17 with Holy Name was a microcosm.

The promise was there — but with a short bench, the sustaining part can be a challenge, and it was here.

Joe Wright and Cole Horvath lit the lamp in the opening period, but the Cougars had a tough time getting out of the defensive zone in the second and third in a 5-4 setback.

While obviously not the positive outcome for which it was yearning, it was one of the better GLHL performances of the year for Lake (8-16, 0-7), which had scored just 10 goals all year in league play coming in and lost to Holy Name (147-2, 6-3), 6-2, on Jan. 6.

“Good effort. A good fight, especially coming back down, 3-2, to make it 3-3,” Cougars coach Justin Vance said. “And down, 5-3, making it 5-4. We had a couple of good looks there at the end.

“It’s just we put ourselves in bad spots. It’s not a lack of effort. It’s one guy trying to do too much. When things are not going our way, then the next guy tries to do too much. Instead of trying to get back to simple hockey and a basic game plan, everyone is trying to make that extra move or that extra play, and things kind of run south on you real quick. So I think that’s kind of what happened in both games against these guys, and it’s a shame because I thought we were in a spot to win both times.”

Wright opened the Lake account at 2:04 of the first, pouncing on a puck at the right bar with a wrister from a tight angle. Horvath snagged a rebound at 12:33 for a 2-0 advantage, his team-high 24th goal.

But the Green Wave

scored three times in a 2:38 span in the second, including a first-class shorthanded goal by Kevin Habeeb, snapping a wrister top shelf at 9:58 that was a complexion changer.

Seth Miller tied it at 3 for the Cougars just 12 seconds after a Jack Mohar tally on a rebound for Holy Name before intermission.

The Green Wave took the lead for good 30 seconds into the third on a slapper by Niko Negron, and Sonny Dalton’s goal at 4:45 opened a 5-3 lead.

Jacob Schmitt netted his 15th goal of the winter at 5:49, but Lake couldn’t get any kind of quality pressure late with the exception of a final net crash in the game’s final second.

Holy Name enjoyed a 3716 shots advantage.

“I think it just comes down to us going out there and playing a full 45 minutes,” Schmitt said. “I think we’re getting closer and closer to that as the season goes on. A little couple hiccups in the second period put us back. But I see, as the season goes on and we’ve got the last couple GLHL games — it’s a tough road, but if we play the 45 minutes full, I can see a bright future for us.”

Coming soon

For more from this game, as Vance and Schmitt discuss the program’s longterm future, check back in the coming days on NewsHerald.com and in our print edition.