Eagles Soar Past Vikings

With a high flying second period securing the win, Kyle Zunich and the Lakeland Eagles will move on in the MHSAA pre-regional playoffs.

Zunich had four points, two of them coming on goals in the second, en route to a 4-1 victory over Walled Lake Central on Tuesday night.

Zunich scored the opening goal of the contest with 8:35 remaining in the second after deking Vikings goalie Stephen Kobliska. He assisted in the second goal of the period that was scored by Ryan Biondo. Zunich then capped off the period with a power play goal.

The Eagles had previously struggled in the first period and were outshot 12-2.

“I told them if they want to live another day they need to pick it up,” Lakeland head coach Tim Ronayne said. “There’s a lot of heart and soul in that locker room. We didn’t have a good first period. We’ve been starting slow lately and it’s been coming back to bite us.”

“We picked it up in the second," he said. "Until we got that first goal of the second, I was going to come in and have a heart-to-heart with these guys... I’ll save the heart-to-heart for later.”

Lakeland senior defensman Jordan Blanzy put the final goal in net with 6:27 left in the contest off a wrist shot from 15-feet out. He was assisted by none other than Zunich.

“Our goal was to get off to a fast start, sometimes we come out flat,” Blanzy said. “We have to stay out of the box for the next game. Tonight, once we got to even strength we scored.”

Eagles goalie Mitch Leist made 31 saves. The only goal he gave up was after a shot went behind him and back into the stick of Eric Peters who slipped a wrist shot past him.

“I’d give anything to have that goal back,” Leist said.

With the win, Lakeland will play Hartland on Wednesday at the Hartland Sports Center. Lakeland lost the first match-up with Hartland 5-1 however, they were down five players that game and will be full strength during the rematch.