Lakers Eliminated From Playoffs

Lake Superior State University took a 1 game to none lead winning Friday night but were unable to close out the series against Western Michigan University and where eliminated from the CCHA playoffs, ending the 2008-09 season on Sunday evening. Friday night LSSU jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Nathan Perkovich opened the scoring for the Lakers with Troy Schwab and Brad Cooper assisting at the 3:47 mark of the first period on the power play. Troy Schwab scored his 11th goal of the season at 8:26 to give LSSU a 2 goal lead with Josh Sim recording the assist on the Lakers second marker. Matt Cowie scored his scored his second goal at 12:01 of the first period with Tyson Hobbins and Dan Barczuk recording assists. LSSU added two goals early in the second period to take a 5-0 lead with Fred Cassiani and Brad Cooper scoring at 0:27 and 2:34 respectively in the period. Sim assisted on the Cassiani goal while Brent Wall and Kyle Haines assisted on the cooper goal. Western Michigan broke up Brian Mahoney-Wilson’s bid for a shutout scoring at 4:08 of the second period. LSSU’s Nathan Perkovich scored his second power play goal at 10:32 of the second period Matt Cowie and Sim recording assists on the tally. WMU scored two power play goals in the third period but were unable to come back from the five goal deficit that LSSU was able to put them in early. Western Michigan outshot LSSU 42-to-39 in the game. Lake Superior’s Brian Mahoney-Wilson allowed WMU’s three goals while making 39 saves. WMU’s Riley Gill recorded the loss allowing all 6 of the Laker goals in just over 30 minutes of playing time, backup Jerry Kuhn shutout the Lakers in the 29-plus minutes of action he saw. Both teams where 2-for-5 on the power play. Saturday night saw LSSU and Western Michigan battle into the second overtime period before WMU finally stunned the Lakers to tie up the first round series 1-to-1. WMU took a 1 goal lead midway through the first period with Greg Squires scoring unassisted against Mahoney-Wilson. LSSU’s Dan Barczuk scored his 6th of the season at 13:19 of the first period with Oleksy and Nehring assisting. WMU added a power play goal just over 3 minutes later to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. WUM took a two goal lead on the heals of a goal by Jared Katz, which Nathan Perkovich cut back down to 1 goal with his third goal of the weekend and 11th of the season at 17:17 of the second period. After over 20 minutes of scoreless hockey Matt Cowie scored the game tying goal at 17:30 of the third period with Zac MacVoy getting the only assist on the play. Following a scoreless first overtime period in which WMU outshot LSSU 12-to-8, the two team battled into a second overtime period before WMU’s Kevin Connauton scored the game winner for the Bronco’s at 7:57 of the second overtime period. LSSU put 57 shots on WMU goaltender Riley Gill, while LSSU’s Brian Mahoney-Wilson stopped 41 of the 45 shots he faced. WMU was 1-for-4 on the power play, including one chance in the first overtime period, while LSSU’s power play went 0-for-6. Sunday evening Western and Lake Superior swapped power play goals in the first period, highlighted by Nathan Perkovich’s 4th goal of the weekend, and 12th of the season, with Troy Schwab and Simon Gysbers assisting. Western scored twice in the second to put away the Lakers for the season including back breaking goal with just 14 seconds remaining in the period, to take down the Lakers 3-to-1. LSSU was unable to score in the third period despite putting 11 shots on WMU’s Riley Gill. Ending their season with a 11-20-8 record. Lake Superior put up 30 shots in the game while WMU recorded 28 shots. Each team was 1-for-3 on the power play. Lake Superior ended the season going 27-for-209 on the power play.