Sault products key to Laker hockey

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association season has reached the unofficial second half of the season and a pair of area products continue to impact the Lake Superior State Lakers hockey team.

Owen Headrick, who suited up a season ago with the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Soo Thunderbirds, is in the midst of his first season with the Lakers.

The freshman blueliner is playing on a defence corps that includes Sault product Aidan Wright, who is a sophomore with the team.

For Headrick, the new season brought new challenges and he credited the Lakers coaching staff for bringing him along slowly early on.

“They put me in a lot of the right situations at the start of the year,” Headrick said. “They didn’t put me in any situations that I didn’t feel comfortable in and now I’m starting to feel comfortable in more and more situations and I’m starting to play better.”

Lakers Coach Damon Whitten credited Headrick’s ability and was pleased with how quick he has grasped the college game.

“It’s been a great growth for sure,” Whitten said of the freshman blueliner. “As a young guy we wanted to make sure we were putting him in certain situations where he could find success. At this point we’re not worried about where we put Owen. He can play in all situations.”

“He’s a very good quarterback for our power play,” Whitten added. “It was a really strong half. We weren’t sure when he would get to the level we thought he could get to but it didn’t take long and that’s a credit to Owen and his ability.”

For Wright, the season was a struggle early on but the sophomore defenceman feels as though he has “found his game.”

“I struggled early on but I feel I’ve found my game here,” Wright said. “I’ll continue to work with it, continue to do video and work every day.”

“For me it was just a matter of time,” Wright said of working through the early struggles. “If you’re working hard in practice and giving everything every day, eventually you’ll work your way out of it.”

Whitten said that struggling to start a sophomore season isn’t uncommon.

“I don’t think he had the start (to the season) that we wanted from him or that he wanted from himself. When you get to that second year sometimes those things happen,” Whitten said. “The good thing is he worked himself out of it. He went from a little bit inconsistent to, in the last four weeks, being back to the Aidan Wright we know, very dependable, very reliable, a top penalty killer and a real glue guy.”

From a team aspect, Whitten spoke of some missed opportunities to start the season.

“It was an inconsistent start,” Whitten said. “We missed some opportunities early on in some games that we had leads in that we could have closed out. The one thing I liked about the response of this team is we’ve learned to do that now.”

“We’ve put ourselves in a really good position in the WCHA playoffs,” Whitten added. “We’re improved that way. It’s been up and down but there are some good things ahead of us and we’re excited for the second half.”

For Wright, the confidence has gone up this season for the Lakers after struggling a season ago.

“We definitely made some huge strides,” Wright said. “It’s been huge for the mood in the room. It’s completely changed. It’s good to get the confidence with a couple of wins early on in the season.”

Headrick called the early season struggles of the team typical of a young team.

“We came out to a rough start but that’s typical for a team that has a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” Headrick said. “Our leaders stepped up in the second half (of the early part of the season).”

After a split at the Catamount Cup in Vermont last week where the Lakers dropped a 1-0 decision to Vermont on day one before blanking Brown 3-0 on day two, the Lakers return to conference action this weekend with a pair of home games against Bowling Green.