Lakeshore Badgers fall twice over the weekend

SCOTTVILLE — Injury and illness have cut a wide swath through the Lakeshore Badgers co-op hockey the last few weeks. Finally, they are getting back to full strength.

Forced to cancel two games two weeks ago, the Badgers finally returned to the ice on Friday when they traveled to Gaylord. Despite the snow and ice, which made the roads treacherous, the Badgers suffered a 6-9 shutout.

Needless to say that wasn’t a good way to start the weekend. But the Badgers were back on their home ice at West Shore Community College on Saturday and things were much improved.

Unfortunately, the result were the same as the Badgers saw a 4-1 lead at the end of the first period dissolve and the result was a 6-5 overtime loss to visiting Southgate United.

“I think experience factored into it,” said Badgers coach Parker Rey. “We’ve only led one other game this season, and then it was crunch time, too. It’s tough playing with the lead, whether you’re used to it or not. They came out playing really well against us in the second. We dropped an egg in the second and they took advantage of it. You take your foot off the gas pedal and get ran over.

“We’ve had a sickness run through the team this week, too, and you could tell everyone was sluggish. It was very evident in our game up in Gaylord,” Rey said. “Once this flu bug gets through our system, hopefully we’ll come out better on the other side. But we definitely need to get the legs back in shape. We were dogging it.”

But there were a lot of good things the Badgers accomplished, like scoring two power-play goals. Scoring on the power play has been a struggle for the Badgers this season..

It also marked the fourth game Ludington sophomore Joey Castonia was in goal for the Badgers after missing the early part of the season with an injury.

The Badgers gained an initial 1-0 lead after just under five minutes had elapsed in the opening period, thanks to Ludington freshman Lukas Schade punched in a shot that eluded the United goalie at 12:01 of the first period. Jason Szoboszlay (Ludington) and Gavin Rhodea (Manistee) each were awarded an assist on the goal.

United came right back, though, scoring in the tying goal just 30 seconds later.

The Badgers showed their resiliency, answering that goal with a power play goal from Nevin Slater (Ludington) with Schade providing the helper, with 10:19 left in the first.

Lakeshore added two more goals before the end of the period, one by Rylan Miretti (Ludington) at the 8:12 mark on assists from Schade and Szobozslay, and the other by Slater with 1:51 left after passes from Szoboszlay and Slater to make it 4-1 at the first intermission.

United, however, put in three unanswered goals in the second period to tie the game, 4-4 before the Badgers finally ended their scoreless string with a goal from Austin Quillan (Mason County Central) with helpers from Rylan Miretti (Ludington) and Rhodea to give them a 5-4 lead going into the third period.

“Second period we came out and were a little low on energy,” added Rey. “There was what I would guess you could call a controversial, from our standpoint, high sticking call that led to the game-tying goal.

“They took two penalties on the same play and we had a 5-on-3 for the last 1:30 of regulation, and we missed two open nets (shots). Got to overtime and they got one through our goalie.”

United won the game when Ty Cornett scored his third goal with 4:37 left in the extra session. Casey Sullivan contributed two goals for the visitors.

Despite the loss, Rey was generally pleased with the Badgers’ effort and performance.

“We’re getting production from all of our lines right now, and even our defensemen are stepping up and getting some assists,” Rey commented. “There were a lot of great things shown in the game. But, we’ve just got to put together a whole game and not just show flashes of brilliance is what it comes down to. We got punched in the face in the second (period), and we never really responded very well. Having Joey back (in goal) is big. I think he’s still finding his feet. This is his first year on varsity, so plays are a little faster during games than they are in practice and I think he’s still adjusting.

“But, I think he’ll be ready to go by the new year, no doubt about it. He’s got a lot of raw talent, and we are very excited to have him back.”

Lakeshore has one game left before the holiday break. The Badgers host Big Rapids at 3 p.m. Tuesday.