Lakers wrap up regular season at Northern Michigan

Lake Superior State, a team looking for momentum heading into the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Playoffs, closes out the regular season with a series at Northern Michigan, which is 11-3-2 since January. The Lakers (10-16-8 overall, 7-13-6-1 CCHA) play the Wildcats (12-15-5 overall, 9-12-5-3 CCHA) at 7:35 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at the Berry Events Center. Both games will be broadcast live on Rock 101 FM with web streaming on www.rock101.net. A top-eight finish in the CCHA standings and home ice for the first round of the playoffs are still possibilities for the Lakers, who are currently tied for 10th with Michigan State with 21 points. The scenario calls for LSSU to sweep NMU, third-ranked Michigan to sweep Ferris State, and Bowling Green to split with Western Michigan. LSSU appears to own the tie-breaker advantage against WMU, FSU and MSU. Notre Dame, Miami and Michigan have secured first-round byes. Fifth-place Ohio State trails fourth-place Alaska by three points. The Nanooks are playing a non-conference series this weekend and can’t pick up any more points, while OSU plays home-and-home against the RedHawks. Lake Superior State is playing back-to-back games in Marquette for the first time since October, 1997. When the teams met in Sault Ste. Marie in December, they tied 1-1 and 2-2, and the Wildcats won both shootouts. The Lakers are 1-5 in CCHA shootouts, while NMU is 3-2. Northern Michigan, which started out the season 2-9-1 in the CCHA, has climbed out of the league cellar to the middle of the pack. Last weekend, they took three points at seventh-ranked Miami despite getting out-shot in the series, 91-27. The return of junior goaltender Brian Stewart, who had both knees operated on last summer, has been a key to their recent success. When the Wildcats played the Lakers in December, they dressed on two walk-on goaltenders. LSSU split with Western Michigan last weekend, winning 7-4 Friday and losing 4-1 Saturday. Junior forward Zac MacVoy scored a goal in both games for the Lakers, while junior Nathan Perkovich and freshman Dan Barczuk had a goal and two assists each during Friday’s win. MacVoy has three goals during the Lakers’ last five games after enduring a seven-game scoring drought. He leads the team in goals scored with 12 and is third in points behind seniors Troy Schwab (9-17—26) and Josh Sim (10-14—24). Schwab and NMU points leader Gregor Hanson (10-16—26) are both tied for 16th in the CCHA in scoring. NMU’s Mark Olver (10-15—25) is tied for 19th, while Sim and Erik Gustafsson (2-22—24) are tied for 24th. Sophomore goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson played the final 10:32 of Friday’s game and the last 44:33 of Saturday’s game against the Broncos. He allowed one goal and totaled 19 saves during his first weekend of action since suffering an injury at Bowling Green State on Jan. 24.