Lakers Salvage 1 Point in East Lansing

Lake Superior State University’s hockey team was able to pick up their first point in cluster play this season and third point in league play with a tie against Michigan State on Saturday night. On Friday night LSSU fell to MSU in their most lopsided loss of the season giving up 8 goals in the game including 3 on the power play. LSSU found themselves down 1-4 after the first period after letting in two first period power play goals on 11 shots. LSSU’s lone bright spot in the first period wad Zac MacVoy’s shorthanded goal to tie the game at 1-1 just under 5 minutes into the game. After taking the 1-0 lead into the locker room after 2 periods LSSU gave up a power play goal to UNO’s Tomas Klempa less than one minute into the third period. LSSU and starting goaltender Pat Inglis gave up two more goals in the second period including an additional power play goal, LSSU’s Justin Gutwald was able to score his first goal of the season with just over a minute remaining in the second period (18:57) with Josh Sim getting the assist on the goal. Coach Jim Roque replaced Inglis with Brian Mahoney-Wilson in the third period who subsequently gave up 2 additional goals to the Spartans resulting in a 2-8 final score. LSSU’s goaltender Pat Inglis recorded 19 saves on the 26 shots he faced, while Mahoney-Wilson posted 8 saves on the 10 shots he faced in relief. LSSU was able to get 2 of their 34 shots past MSU goaltender Jeff Lerg, while Bobby Jarosz recorded 3 saves in relief. LSSU went 0-for-5 on the power play while MSU scored 3 goals on 4 opportunities in the game.Saturday night again saw a much better outing from the Laker’s skaters who managed to hold a one goal lead in the third period before settling for a 3-3 tie. LSSU took an early lead with Nathan Perkovich scoring his team leading 11th goal of the season just 24 seconds into the game with Simon Gysbers and goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson tallying the assists on the goal. MSU was able to tie up the game and take the lead with Bryan Lerg and Chris Mueller scoring goals at 14:12 and 15:23 of the first period respectively. The only scoring of the second period came from Steven Kaunisto, with Dillin Stonehouse receiving the assist. LSSU took the 3-2 lead 1:12 into third period with Rick Schofield scoring his 5th goal of the season, with MacVoy and Dan Eves tallying the assists on the goal. MSU was able to tie the game up 3-to-3 with a power play tally at 4:16 of the third period. Neither team was able to capitalize in overtime with was highlighted with a scuffle in the final 30 seconds of the game that sent Gysbers, Perkovich, Josh Sim and Troy Schwab of as well as 4 Spartans to the locker room early with roughing minors.Mahoney-Wilson made 36 saves on the 39shots he faced while Lerg recorded 34 saves on the 37 Laker shots he faced. LSSU went 0-for-3 on the power play (0-for-8 on the weekend), while MSU scored 1 power play goal on their 7 opportunities (going 4-for-11 on the weekend). Next weekend Lake Superior returns home to play host to Bowling Green State University. The Lakers are still in search of their first win in CCHA action.