US hammers Lake in rivalry renewal

University coach Andre Lacroix was not thrilled after the opening period Jan. 24 against Lake Catholic in Great Lakes Hockey League action at Mentor Civic Arena.

He let his Preppers know that — and then US let Lake know they got the message.

Ethan Whetstone had a hat trick, and the Preppers blew open a tie game with a three-goal second period for a 7-2 rout in the 48th renewal of the area powers’ rivalry since 2000-01.

“I chewed them out after the first period,” Lacroix said. “I said, ‘This is not acceptable.’ I said, ‘They have 10 kids, and they outplayed you.’ That cannot happen. And I told them before the game, ‘They play a good first period against everybody.’ They’ve been ahead in many games against people, and I said, ‘They’re tired because they only have 10 guys. But you need to be consistent. You can’t give them any light.’

“And I was so mad I walked out of the locker room. We played the second period the way we can play. It doesn’t matter who we play against — if we play like that, we can win a lot of games.”

Lake (8-18, 0-9) won’t beg to differ after the display by US (16-6-2, 5-2-1).

At the 4-minute, 12-second mark of the second period in a 1-1 game, Tyler Alt skated in on a breakaway, and an initial save was made. But a loose puck eventually bounced to Whetstone at the right circle, and the standout senior slotted a wrister top shelf.

Charlie Hollington contributed

a big tally at 7:50 with a tight wrister from the left side to make it 3-1.

Whetstone delivered a power-play goal with 47 seconds left in the period. On a man advantage after a slashing penalty, he dug a puck out from the side boards and did well with a bar-rattling snapper.

The hat trick came 1:15 into the third, his 16th goal of the winter, as US steamed toward the winner’s circle.

“We have had a problem this whole year with getting off to slow starts, especially if we take wins for granted,” Whetstone said. “If the team is ranked a little bit lower, we don’t come out — we’re not ready to play. And I think that happened again tonight.

“But I’m glad we were able to get our feet going. We were moving the puck. People were working hard, moving their feet. And the chemistry looked good, so I was pretty happy with the turnaround.”

Coming soon

For more from this game — a profile of Whetstone and a look at Hollington’s long road back from a wrist injury earlier this season — check back in the coming days on News-Herald.com and in our print edition.