If the Nipissing Lakers men's hockey team were in the OUA's West Division, they would be in fifth place and just four points out of top spot.
Instead, the Lakers who have been solid for the most part this year, but a tad inconsistent, find themselves in sixth spot in the East Division, 12 points out of first place.
Regardless of how far back of the top of the division they are, the Lakers are poised to make a strong run in the second half of the season and will be aiming to finish as high as third, or worst case, grab fourth spot and home ice in the first round of the playoffs.
Nipissing will play just a single game this weekend, welcoming the top ranked McGill Redmen to North Bay for the second and final matchup between the two teams.
Nipissing handed the Redmen their first loss of the season early in October on the road, putting together one of their best efforts of the season.
McGill has just lost twice since then.
The Lakers, who earned their first victory with the tight 3-2 decision in Quebec, finished the first half with a win, but were just 2-3-0 in their final five games of the semester.
The team did manage to score a give-game winning streak to begin November, defeating Lakehead twice, Toronto, Ryerson and Concordia during that stretch.
While their record – 8-6-3 – doesn't necessarily show it, the Lakers have been unlucky in a handful of games.
A few overtime/shootout losses, coupled with games where they deserved better, it's been a season where Nipissing could easily have 10 or more wins at this point.
A prime example of that is their game at home against Laurentian, where they out-shot the Voyageurs 49-23, but lost 4-2.
They controlled the play, peppered the Vees net, but were unable to find the back of the net and fell short of the two points.
But regardless of how things went in the first half of the year, the Lakers are looking forward to a strong second half and qualifying for the playoffs for yet another year, extending their impressive streak of seven straight years in the post-season.
McGill brings an extremely strong offence, holding three of the top five scorers in the league, along with two of the top five goal scorers – they're second in the OUA in goals scored and already have five players with at least nine goals.
Impressively, all but one skater who has suited up for McGill this season has at least one point and six players are over a point per game clip.
Defensively, they're not too shabby either, sitting fourth in the league in goals against.
On the flip side, the Lakers don't possess that explosive offence, but their success comes from balance. Twelve players on the Lakers have more than one goal on the season and 15 have scored at least one goal, led by
Colin Campbell and
Erik Robichaud, who have each scored eight times this year.
In goal, Nipissing is comfortable with both goalies who have both shown the ability to steal games and hold their team in.
Domenic Graham and
Kirk Rafuse have both been good for Nipissing and they'll need them down the stretch.
With a solid start to 2016, Nipissing can potentially jump into fourth place, a spot they'll be striving for as the season continues.
Things kick off this Saturday night against the Redmen at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
A Look Ahead – JANUARY Sat. 9 McGill (15-2-1) Memorial Gardens 7 PM Sat. 16 at Waterloo (8-8-0) Columbia Ice Field 7 PM
Sun. 17 at Laurier (7-9-0) Sun Life Arena, Waterloo Rec. Complex 7:30 PM
Fri. 22 UOIT (10-5-1) Memorial Gardens 7 PM
Sat. 23 Queen's (10-4-0) Memorial Gardens 7 PM Fri. 29 at Laurentian (6-8-2) Countryside Arena 7:45 PM
Sat. 30 Laurentian (6-8-2) Memorial Gardens 7 PM
