LSSU Splits with Wayne State in Detroit

Lake Superior State University’s hockey team split with Wayne State University this weekend in their final trip to Detroit to take on the Warriors. Sophomore Steven Kaunisto scored his second goal of the season on the power play just 2:06 into the first period, Dan Eves and Nik Sellers made the assists on the goal. Wayne State tied it up at 1-1 with Bryan Olds scoring his first goal of the season some 10 minutest later, at 12:32 of the first period. After a scoreless second period Laker Captain Troy Schwab tallied his first goal of the season at 4:32 of the third period off an assist by Simon Gysbers. LSSU’s Nathan Perkovich added an insurance goal, his 6th goal in 7 games with Rick Schofield and Steve Olesky notching assists on the goal. LSSU needed Perkovich’s insurance goal for the win with Wayne State scoring with 10 seconds remaining in the game with Tylor Michel putting one past sophomore goaltender Pat Inglis as the Warriors played with a 6th attacker. Pat Inglis gave up 2 goals on 22 shots for his first win of the season, while the Laker offense put 3 goals past Wayne State’s Brett Bothwell on 19 shots. LSSU went 1-for-3 on the power play, and kept Wayne State scoreless in 5 power play opportunities. Saturday night saw freshman goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson starting again as LSSU head coach is using the goaltending tandem for the third weekend in a row. Wayne State took a 0-1 lead at 16:56 of the first period with Jon Grabarek scoring his second of the season on the power play. Wayne State’s Jared Katz put the Warriors up 0-2 at 17:06 of the second period. With Lake Superior down 0-2 Perkovich scored his 7th goal of the season, off of a pass from Josh Sim, on the power play at 2:33 of the third period. LSSU was unable to score again despite spending another 2:42 on the power play in the third period including 42 seconds of 6-on-4 play when Mahoney-Wilson was pulled for an extra attacker at the end of the game. Mahoney-Wilson recorded 15 saves in the losing effort, while Wayne State’s Kyle Funkenhauser posted 24 saves on the 25 Laker shots he faced, to record Wayne State’s first win this season. LSSU went 1-for-7 on the power play (2-for-10 on the weekend), while Wayne State scored 2 goals on 6 power plays (2-for-11 on the weekend). Next weekend LSSU plays host to #2 University of Michigan in their first CCHA action at the Taffy Able arena this season, both games start at 7:05 p.m.