There were tic-tac-toe tap-ins. Short side snipes from the half wall. Blasts from the slot. Even the occasional breakaway. 

Spring Lake Park sophomore forward Blake Lueck scored in all manner of ways last weekend as he amassed an amazing nine goals in a home-and-home series with Minnehaha Academy on Friday and Saturday.

“He was hot,” Panthers first-year coach Addison DeBoer said. “No doubt about it.”

Hot? How about molten. Lueck scored 3:14 into the first period on Friday at Minnehaha Academy, added another goal about three minutes later then notched two each in the second and third periods. Three of his six goals in the 10-6 victory came with the man advantage.

“It was a lot of good plays,” DeBoer said after the Panthers improved to 4-3-0. “We moved the puck really well on the power play.”

Lueck joined Brody Lamb of Dodge County as the only other player to score six goals in a game this season.

(See the full list of players who have scored four or more goals in a game this season). 

And the 5-foot-6, 140-pound Lueck wasn’t done yet. A first-year varsity player, he scored late in the first period of Saturday’s rematch on the Panthers’ home ice at Fogerty Arena in Blaine and added two more goals in the second period in a 6-1 triumph over the Redhawks.

“He’s a small guy, so he has to make his living in different ways,” said DeBoer, a former standout forward at Spring Lake Park who played at Colorado College and professionally. “He studies film. He’s got really good vision. “He’s a good distributor. 

“He tries to mold his game a little after (the Toronto Maple Leafs’) Mitch Marner. He’s the NHL guy we talk about.”

Lueck is joined on the Panthers’ top line by juniors Jacob Fritz and Brock Larsen. The trio had a hand in all 10 goals in Friday’s victory. Lueck’s nine-goal weekend vaults him all the way into a tie for third among the state’s goal leaders with 14. 

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