Lake Superior State to Open Home CCHA Season Against Miami of Ohio

The Lake Superior State University (5-2-0, 2-2-0 CCHA) hockey team will take on the #4 ranked Miami University RedHawks (7-3-0, 4-2-0 CCHA) team at the Norris Center’s Taffy Abel Arena this weekend. LSSU is coming off of a split last weekend at Bowling Green while Miami of Ohio split last weekend with Northern Michigan after sweeping Bowling Green the previous weekend. Miami was picked to finish third in the CCHA in the preseason media and coaches polls, after finishing first in the league last season. Miami's penalty kill was successful last weekend holding NMU to 1 for 10 on the power play, and scoring one shorthanded goal. Miami’s power play went 5-for-17 for the weekend; giving them a season total to .198, tied for sixth in the CCHA, Miami’s power play also surrendered a short handed goal to OSU. LSSU went 2-10 on the power play against BGSU, and held BGSU goalless in 8 power play opportunities. The Lakers have the second best power play in the CCHA scoring 26.0% of the time. The Lakers are sixth in the CCHA in penalty killing with a giving up one goal per game with a kill rating of .830. LSSU leads the all-time series against Miami, 51-25-10, including a 32-7-4 advantage at in the Sault. Last season, the Lakers and RedHawks split their series in the Sault. The Lakers have struggled as of late against the RedHawks, going 3-11-0, in the last 14 meetings. The Redhawks and Lakers are in the same CCHA cluster this season, with LSSU traveling to Miami the second weekend in Feburary. LSSU saw freshman Nathan Perkovich’s goal scoring streak come to an end at 6 games last weekend, a school record for freshmen. Jeff Rainville has a point in each of the Lakers past 4 games including scoring 4 goals, Rainville has 5 goals on the season. Trent Campbell leads the Lakers with 8 points on 6 assists, followed closely by Derek A. Smith who has 7 assists on the season. LSSU goaltender Jeff Jakaitis stopped 34 out of 35 shots on Friday night but only managed 22 saves on 25 shots before being pulled midway through Saturday’s game after allowing 2 goals in 23 seconds. Jakaitis is currently the CCHA’s third rated goaltender with a .942 save percentage, Jeff saw his goals against average raise to 2.21 on Saturday’s performance. Miami of Ohio is led offensively by junior Nathan Davis who has 21 points, 9 goals and 12 assists, in 10 games this year. Ryan Jones has 6 goals and 6 assists on the season, and defenseman Alec Martinez has 5 goals and 9 points on the season. Miami goalies Jeff Zatkoff and Charlie Effinger have spit time in goal this season with Zatkoff posting a .931 save percentage and 1.81 goals against average, while Effinger has a .897 save percentage and 2.41 goals against average.