November 8, 2009 by Howie · 2 Comments 

The Duluth Lakers Bantam A’s will open a 38-game regular season schedule at Proctor at 8 p.m. today.

The Lakers were 36-15-4 a year ago, and finished third at the Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association Bantam B tournament. Last year’s strong finish and the overall talent of this year’s team convinced team officials to step up to Bantam A in 2009-10.

“It’s the right move for our program, moving up to A,” Lakers Coach Kevin Mattila said. “We have a strong offensive and defensive team, with four kids capable of scoring 20 or more goals each.”

The Lakers are strong up the middle with centers Patrick Potswald, Luke Pavelich and Phil Beaulieu. Potswald’s veteran wingers on the first line are Cade McDonald and Wyatt Wutz.

Forwards Al Larson, Joe Daly, Steven Maciver, Josue Carranza and Miles Leonzal are strong two-way players, Mattila said.

Travis Samuelson, C.J. Smith, Matt Mattila and Kyle Jones anchor the defense, and Morgan Nygaard and Brent Bizanko are goaltenders.

“The guys have worked hard in the preseason and will continue to improve throughout the year,” Mattila said.

– Photo: First-year Lakers center Luke Pavelich worked his skate edges during a skating drill in preseason camp. Howie/HowieBlog

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