Area Male Athlete: Reed's play sparks Lightning

Brett Reed

Year: Sophomore

Team: Northern Lakes Lightning

Sport: Boys Hockey

Position: Center

Highlights: Scored five goals against River Lakes

Brett Reed almost matched his goal total from all of last season in just one game.

The sophomore center for Northern Lakes registered all five Lightning goals in a 5-2 victory over River Lakes Tuesday.

His first goal came 20 seconds into the contest. Hats flew at 5:06 of the first period and he tallied his fourth goal at 14:02 of the first.

"It was just kind of unreal for me," said Reed. "Generally that doesn't happen that often-that many goals-but it happened. It was just my teammates around me were giving me the puck and making opportunities.

"That's the first time (scoring quickly) ever happened to me. To be honest, last year, I had an alright game against those guys so it's always been a passion for me to play against River Lakes and to always go in there with some intensity against them."

Goal No. 5 came off assists from Aaron Cable and Josh Maucieri in the second period. Reed centers the first line of Maucieri and Wyatt Kokesh, who just returned from injury.

"With us, we come from three different schools with Pequot, Crosby and Aitkin, but I've known Wyatt and Maucieri since I was a Squirt," Reed said. "We just always had that chemistry with each other."

Through the team's first 20 games, Reed owns 22 goals and 25 assists for 47 points. He's dropped in three power-play goals, eight power-play assists and one short-handed goal.

As a freshman, Reed posted seven goals and nine assists for 16 total points. He tallied one power-play goal and one power-play assist.

"He's a big kid, 6-foot, probably 200-pound sophomore forward who skates well," said Lightning head coach Craig Larson. "He's very tough on the puck. He finds open areas on the ice and when you have a guy like Josh Maucieri, who can pass the puck to him, he's going to score.

"He was able to jump on some pucks right away that were good-working plays that Josh dug out for Reed and he was able to get the first one right away. He scored in the first 30 seconds and that was the spark that we needed. He's that guy. He's our sparkplug."

Reed finished with two assists in a 3-1 victory over Dodge County Jan. 28. He notched a goal against Kittson Central and added a goal and two assists in a 10-0 win over Red Lake Falls. The Lightning have outscored their last four opponents 23-4.

"He worked very, very hard off the ice during the summer to be better than he was," Larson said. "To have that improvement he knew what he needed to do. He really didn't start scoring his goals until the end of last season. He climbed his way to our first line last season, when Josh and his older brother Nick went down with injury.

"He spent a lot of time in the gym and on the ice this summer working on his strength and his stickhandling skills and his shot."

Reed's mantra last offseason was to "bust my butt five days a week." He concentrated on power conditioning and power sets of squats and cleans. He did anything he could to generate power.

"In my opinion, I thought I was going to do just as good as I did last year and keep doing what I've been doing," Reed said. "My expectations, I've already exceeded them for what I wanted."

Reed's development is one reason Northern Lakes is sporting an 18-1-1 record with a 16-game win streak.

"My honest opinion, we were expecting to have this good of a year, but not this many wins in a row," said Reed. "We've always known each other since Squirts and ever since that partnership between the Grizzlies and Patriots to form the Lightning, the chemistry started there. We all knew each other and it just turned into good chemistry."

Other notable performances:

Basketball: Nick Christenson, Lake Region, finished with 21 points and 18 rebounds against First Baptist and 25 points and 17 rebounds against Cambridge and 16 points and 16 rebounds against Foreston.

Gavin Smith, Staples-Motley, scored 30 points against Pequot Lakes.

Cody Huss, Pequot Lakes, scored 30 points against Staples-Motley.

Noah Ross, Wadena-Deer Creek, scored 27 points against Wadena-Deer Creek.

Lucas Otte, Pierz, finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds against Braham.

Hockey: Matt Stangel, Northern Lakes, finished with 17 saves in an 8-0 shutout of Prairie Centre and made 18 saves in a 5-1 win over Kittson Central and made 14 saves in 3-1 win over Dodge County.

Josh Maucieri, Northern Lakes, finished with four goals against Prairie Centre and added two goals and four assists against Red Lake to become the program's all-time leading scorer.

Adam Josephson, Little Falls, scored three goals against Princeton.

Wrestling: Alex Erpelding, Spencer Miller and Owen Bjerga, Staples-Motley, each finished 3-0 during the Heart O'Lakes/Mid-State Conference championship.