On the eve of the National Hockey League finally ending the lockout, the Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League returned to action after a long holiday break.

Bret McHale netted four goals to help propel Parkland (10-0-1) to a 7-0 win over Northampton last Monday night at Lehigh Valley Ice Arena.

Head coach Brian Ruff is not blaming the holiday layoff, he knows his team was ready, they just met a good team.

"Games against Parkland are very easy to prepare for," Ruff said. "You don't have to do a lot of work. The kids just get up for games like these against good teams. All you can do as a team is the fundamentals; try to get pucks in the net."

That was one thing that the Konkrete Kids struggled with. Northampton (6-5-1) was shutout, and were outshot by the Trojans 37-10.

Morgan Bensinger tallied two goals and Benjamin Zager added one to go along with McHale's four goals for Parkland.

Goalkeeper Robert Stock was never really threatened on his net.

"That's just who they are," noted Ruff. "Parkland is just so big and fast. They're a really good team. You try to hold your own, but they find ways to win. If you can survive the first ten minutes, then you're in good shape. We kept it close for a little bit, but it got away from us at the end."

Parkland put the game away with three third period goals.

This was a matchup of two of the top two teams in each division. Parkland leads the pure division, and Northampton leads the non-pure division. The intensity showed, as the referees called a total of sixteen penalties.

Adam Orsulak stopped 27 shots on 33 attempts, and Chris Tanczos made three saves in relief.

Northampton next takes on non-pure Whitehall/Salisbury Monday night at 7:45 p.m. at Lehigh Valley Ice Arena.