Brainerd and Lakeville North took the ice Friday for a pool play game to start the Brainerd Bantam B tournament.  The early action was up and down the ice as both teams wanted to get on the scoreboard first.  Brainerd’s Jared Erickson gave Brainerd the first goal of the game with a wrist shot on a two on one break created by a neutral ice turnover.  Brainerd used this goal and a power play to gain momentum and Donovon Floyd’s wrist shot from just inside the blue line and with some help with traffic in front of the net put Brainerd up 2-0.  Lakeville North didn’t make the drive north just for a change of scenery, as Jeremy Santiago’s unassisted goal after constant pressure put Lakeville on the board.  Lakeville North had a 5 minute power play to finish the period but Brainerd’s tenacious penalty kill and solid goaltending by Jacob Mitchell held off Lakeville and allowed Brainerd to keep its 2-1 lead after the first.

Both teams started the second period cautiously no team wanting to give up the next goal.  After several minutes of back and forth play Jared Marthaler found the net for Brainerd from a tight angle off an Eli Sundquist pass and Brainerd was once again up by two.  Both teams continued to trade scoring opportunities throughout the period as Brainerd tried to stretch the lead and Lakeville battled to close the gap.  Brainerd’s Eli Sundquist’s late goal assisted by Nicholas Hasting’s sent the teams to the locker room with Brainerd up 4-1.

As mentioned earlier, Lakeville North was not in Brainerd for sightseeing as their hard work finally paid off midway through the third as they scored back to back goals by Jack Wallenta and Adam Tremblay that made the score 4-3 with plenty of time left.  With momentum on Lakeville North’s side Brainerd’s Jared Erickson collected his second goal of the game with a rebound goal off a tipped shot from the point.  Lakeville North however responded once again as they had all game. Adam Tremblay’s goal 16 seconds later once again would cut the Brainerd lead to one.  This allowed North to pull it’s goalie making the final minute interesting, however Brainerd in the end was able skate away with a 5-4 victory and give them a great start in their home tournament.