Lakeland Jr. B Heat score first two wins of the season

The Heat are starting to turn the temperature up.

The Heat Junior B lacrosse team started to bond on their first road-trip of the season and picked up a pair of victories, their first of the young season, last weekend in the Edmonton area.

Led by an eight goal 2nd period, Lakeland took down the St. Albert Crude 9-6 at the Jarome Iginla Arena on Saturday. That momentum stalled in the 1st period allowing team shorthanded goals, before the offence came alive against the Sherwood Park Titans on Sunday afternoon. The Heat reached double-digit goals for the first time this season in a 13-9 victory.

As head coach Daryl Hodinsky pointed out in conversation with Lakeland Connect, his club is playing a well-rounded game where there are several key contributors. He also praised his team defence.

“They’re honing in on their sights and they’re able to find a net,” said Hodinsky. “It’s kind of nice, the scoring has been spread around pretty good. Like we did against the Titans, the one young man Jaxx Gale ended up potting four goals, but other times it was a goal by this guy, and maybe two by this guy, which is really nice to spread it around versus one guy doing all the scoring,” he said.

The Heat now sit 2-3 on the season with four practices until their next game on May 28. They get the May Long weekend off from Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League season play.

“At the beginning of the season, they didn’t really know each other. Especially when you combine two towns like it’s just tough. We’ve really been working in practice, we’re doing some of the drills, but just tell us instead of saying, ‘hey,’ for a pass, they’re supposed to see yell the guy’s name, so the names are starting to come out. The guys are really starting to know who each other are and whatnot. I think that’s a big part of it,” said Hodinsky.

“When you have been away from it for two years, these guys just don’t know each other.”

With team chemistry building, the Heat will get a pair of home games at the RJ Lalonde when they take the floor again.

The Heat host the Red Deer Renegades on Saturday, May 28 at 7:00pm. On Sunday, the Heat and Crude will play their rubber match at 1:30pm. Each team on the north side of the draw play a home-and-home during the regular season.