LSSU Defensive Corps Shine

Lake Superior State University defensemen Barnabas Birkeland, Derek A. Smith, Simon Gysbers, Steven Oleksy, and Justin Gutwald where the stars of the game on Friday night after Marty Gurnoe and Steven Kaunisto fell ill on the bus ride down from the Sault. Gutwald drove down to Bowling Green from the Sault on Friday to give LSSU a fifth defenseman, Gutwald saw action for the second time this season after being a healthy scratch for all 36 games last season. The Lakers scored the first goal of the game with, of all people, Nathan Perkovich scoring his 6th goal of the season, at 7:33, on the power play off of a nice pass from Matt Martello with Trent Campbell getting the other assist on the play. If Perkovich scores Saturday night he will tie Mike deCarle’s school record for consecutive games with a goal record with 7 straight games, which deCarle did in 1988-89. There is a good chance that Perkovich has set a school record for consecutive games scoring a goal by a freshman, I am currently checking with LSSU’s Sporting Information Department on this. Bowling Green’s Brandon Svendsen scored his first goal of the season midway through the first period to tie the game at 1-1. Jeff Rainville scored his 5th goal of the season and 4th goal in the past 3 games to give the Lakers a 2-1 lead midway though the second period, 11:11, with Simon Gysbers getting the only assist on the goal. This is Rainville’s CCHA leading 3rd game winning goal of the season. Barnabas Birkeland gave the Lakers an insurance goal, to give the Lakers a final score win of 3-1, on the power play at 17:20 of the third period with Campbell and Justin Gutwald getting assists on the goal. Laker goaltender Jeff Jakaitis saved 34 of 35 shots on the game, while BGSU’s goaltender Eddie Neville saved 29 shots while giving up 3 goals. Bowling Green’s hometown media named Jakaitis first star of the game, and Campbell with his 2 assists second star, BGSU’s Svendsen was named third star for scoring the falcons lone goal in a losing effort. Perkovich, Martello, and Rainville have yet to receive any points in the Perani Cup Three-Star Standings. The Lakers went 2-for-6 on the power play, putting 7 shots on goal, and held BGSU to 0-for-3 with the extra man. LSSU has now scored on the power play in their past 6 games. The Lakers where dominated in the faceoff circle by the Falcons winning only 26 of 69 faceoffs. These same two teams faceoff again Saturday night at 7:05.