North Stars Forward to Play At LSSU in 2010

TRAVERSE CITY - It's a long way from northern California to the Upper Peninsula, but Dan Radke has always felt right at home in the Soo. The Traverse City North Stars center and Orinda, Calif. native spent the previous two seasons plying his trade for the midget major Soo (Mich.) Indians - just across the river from his father's hometown. Now Radke will be able to keep the home fires burning for at least four more years, having committed to play collegiately at Lake Superior State University. "The Soo is like a second home to me," said Radke, who is tentatively slated to join the CCHA's Lakers in 2010-11 along with fellow Stars forward Kyle Jean. "Lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends there. Growing up in California I never got to play in front of them, but when I got to the Indians, they were very supportive, always coming out to the games. My brother is playing in Soo, Ont. and my mom even is teaching a class there (LSSU) this year. "When I came to the Soo, the goal was to earn a college scholarship. It's been a bit of a journey, but it all seems worth it now that college hockey is a reality. It's pretty exciting to get the chance to do that so close to family and friends." North Stars head coach/GM Anthony Palumbo - an LSSU alum and two-time national champion with the Lakers - says his alma mater is getting a dynamic contributor. "I think they (LSSU) saw what we saw as a midget major - and that was the day-in, day-out best player on the rink," Palumbo opined. "He has great vision and great skill - he sees the entire ice. With his great sense of anticipation, he's an offensive performer and is really starting to come into his own at the junior level." Radke has six goals and 19 assists through 33 games this year for Traverse City, but has 11 points in his last 11 games - including three in a 3-1 win at Alpena on Feb. 28 where he bagged the game-winning tally. The recent increase in statsheet ink coincides with a more frequent shift - something that Radke had grown accustomed to playing in sport-diverse California. "Out there, playing time was never really an issue," said the Traverse City Central H.S. senior. "The term 'healthy scratch' was a whole new thing when I got to the Soo, and again when I got to Traverse City. It's tough, and no competitor likes it. I just tried to keep working hard and to make the most of my opportunities when they came along." Radke led the Indians in scoring last season, with 32 goals and 31 assists in 58 games, including six multiple-point outings in the Soo's 26 league contests. He was tendered along with fellow Indians stalwart and current North Stars defenseman Bo Jacobs. "I try to be a complete player at both ends of the ice, but like most guys it's fun to try to score goals, to make plays," Radke explained. "Things were a lot faster and a lot more physical when I got here (to juniors) - you have to do everything out there a little bit faster at this level." While his formidable acumen has emerged at the junior strata, Radke may well have caught the eye of Lake State coach Jim Roque as a midget. "We practiced in the same rink, right after them, all the time," he explained. "Their staff would see us practice, see our games. I thought maybe someday there'd be a chance of going there, given all that exposure." Radke and the North Stars have a critical weekend ahead of them, with the U.S. National Team Development Program's Under-17 squad coming into Centre ICE arena for a Friday-Saturday series that will go a long way in determining playoff position in the NAHL North Division. The teams are currently tied for second place - and the final home-ice postseason slot - but USA has three games in hand. "It's a big weekend, no doubt," Radke admitted. "That's who were fighting it out with for second place right now. Of course, we'd like to get the home ice, it's where we seem to be most comfortable, record-wise." Radke, who sports a 3.71 grade-point average and scored a 28 on the ACT, plans to major in math at Lake Superior with an eye on graduate school. His father is a professor of geographic information sciences at Cal-Berkley, and mother an adjunct faculty member at LSSU. While there are sure to be many happy homecomings for the Radke family, Dan's Soo relations will almost certainly help slake his college-caliber appetite. "I have one aunt who's an especially awesome cook," he added. "My favorite is this lemon-poppy loaf - and she makes a mean bean salad, too."

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.

Playoff Season

From LSSU's Alumni Association: After splitting their regular season series with Western Michigan University two weeks ago in Sault Ste. Marie, the Lakers are heading to Kalamazoo for the first round of the CCHA playoffs this weekend. The hockey Lakers will taken on WMU’s Broncos in a best of three series this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:35pm each night in Lawson Arena. Tickets to the game are $33 for the three-game series or $16 per game and can be purchased online at www.wmubroncos.com or by calling 888-4WMU-TIX. For more on the upcoming series, click here http://www.lssulakers.com/sports/m-hockey/2008-09/news/lssu-wmu_playoff_preview. Join Laker alumni and hockey fans at Gallaghers Eatery and Pub located at 4210 Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo!The LSSU Alumni Association will be sponsoring a pre-game social for alumni and fans from 5 – 7pm on Saturday, March 7. Laker students, alumni, fans and friends are all invited to Gallaghers before the game for free appetizers and great LSSU door prizes. Please RSVP to alumnirelations@lssu.edu no later than March 6 to ensure that we have enough tables to accommodate Laker fans. For more information on your LSSU Alumni Association go to http://alumni.lssu.edu/ or email alumnirelations@lssu.edu. Go Lakers!

Lakers Magic Number of 6

SAULT STE. MARIE – Lake Superior needs to post six wins in their next 8 contests to make the NCAA tournament. After splitting their regular-season series two weeks ago in Sault Ste. Marie, the Lakers (10-18-8 overall, 7-15-6-1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) are heading to Kalamazoo for the first round of the CCHA Playoffs. No. 10 seed LSSU plays No. 7 seed WMU (12-17-7 overall, 9-13-6-2 CCHA) in a best-of-three series at 7:35 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if-necessary). Friday’s game will be televised live on FSN Plus, and Saturday’s contest will be televised live on Comcast Local. Satellite and cable channel numbers for FSN Plus are listed below. Both games will also be broadcast on Rock 101 with audio streaming on http://www.rock101.net/. The LSSU Alumni Association is sponsoring a pre-game social for alumni and fans from 5-7 p.m. Saturday in the Endzone Room of Gallagher’s Eatery & Pub, which is located at 4210 Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo. Tickets to the game are $33 for bench seats for the three-game series or $16 per game and can be purchased online (http://www.wmubroncos.com/) or by calling 888-4WMU-TIX. LSSU won the first game of its Feb. 20-21 series against WMU, 7-4, but the Broncos came back to win the second game, 4-1. Junior forward Zac MacVoy scored a goal in both games. MacVoy, who leads the Lakers in goals scored with 14, also tallied two goals at Northern Michigan last weekend. He has five goals in the Lakers’ last seven games and is tied for seventh in the CCHA in goals scored. Junior forward Nathan Perkovich and freshman forward Dan Barczuk both had a goal and two assists during the Lakers’ 7-4 victory over WMU. LSSU stormed to a 6-0 lead during the first 24:12 of that game. WMU turned the tables on the Lakers and took a 3-0 lead in the second game of the series. NMU picked up where the Broncos left off and built early three-goal leads in both games of last weekend’s 7-3 and 4-3 sweep. Barczuk did not play in the NMU series. Lake Superior State and Western Michigan last met in the CCHA Playoffs in 2005-06 during a first-round series played in Sault Ste. Marie. The Broncos won 3-2 in overtime and 1-0. LSSU has an all-time CCHA Playoffs record of 5-2 against the Broncos dating back to the 1973-74 season, which was the second year of the league tournament. Last year, LSSU was eliminated by Bowling Green State in three games during the first round, while WMU was swept by Ferris State, 4-3 in overtime and 6-3. Senior forward Patrick Galivan leads the Broncos in playoff points with 1-2—3. Junior defenseman Kevin O’Connor, sophomore forward Travis Paeth and junior forward Cam Watson are the only other WMU players who have scored a goal in the playoffs. Senior forward Troy Schwab is LSSU’s points leader in the playoffs with 1-10—11, followed by Perkovich at 5-4—9 and junior defenseman Simon Gysbers at 4-4—8. Other first-round matchups include Bowling Green at Ohio State, Ferris State at Nebraska-Omaha and Michigan State at Northern Michigan. FOX SPORTS DETROIT PLUS CHANNEL NUMBERS Below is the list of FOX Sports Detroit Plus channel numbers for Friday, March 6, 2009 (Lake Superior State at Western Michigan) as designated by the video providers: SATELLITE Channel DIRECTV 664 DISH NETWORK 453 CABLE Channel ACR AUBURN HILLS 64 ALLENDALE COMMUNICATIONS 56 AT&T U-VERSE 738 BLOOMINGDALE 56 BRIGHT HOUSE NETWORKS 77 BROADSTRIPE 18, 19 or 97 BUCKEYE CABLEVISION 8 or 13 CABLE AMERICA 48, 49, 65 or 96 (varies by community) CARR 212 CEBRIDGE Channel varies by location CHARTER 88 CITY OF NEGAUNEE 51 COLDWATER CATV 95 CTS 46 COMCAST 901 D&P CABLE 21 EDWARD ROSE PROPERTIES 3 PARISH COMMUNICATIONS 24, 26, 97 or 98 SOUTHWEST MI COMMUNICATIONS 56 SPRINGCOM 50 T2TV 144 TVC 97 VOGTMANN ENGINEERING 97 WESTPHALIA 56 WOW! 195 WYANDOTTE MUNICIPAL 17

Swept again.

Goaltending continued to haunt Lake Superior State on Friday night with Pat Inglis being pulled in the third straight game allowing 3 goals on 7 shots, giving up 9 goal on the past 21 shots he has faced over three games. LSSU jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead in the first period forcing Lakers Head Coach Jim Roque to pull Pat Inglis at 13:42 of the first period with the Lakers lone goal coming from Laker Senior Carter Lee, unassisted at 13:21, his second goal in three games, seeing action in just his 12th game of the season. NMU added a second power play goal in the period against backup goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson. Northern Michigan added two more goals in the second period to take a 6-to-1 lead into the third period. LSSU managed to pull the game to within three goals with Zac MacVoy scoring his 13th goal of the season at 2:04 of the third period with Will Acton and Steven Kaunisto assisting. Josh Sim added his 11th goal of the season at 3:34 with Will Acton and Steven Kaunisto assisting. NMU was able to stifle the lakers comeback scoring a goal less than 30 seconds later to take back a 4 goal lead, with a final score of 7-to-3. LSSU put 28 shots on NMU goaltender Brian Stewart, while LSSU’s goaltending tandem faced 27 shots with Inglis recording 4 saves and Mahoney-Wilson stopping 16 of the 20 shots he faced in relief. NMU was 3-for-6 on the power while LSSU’s power play went 0-for-9.Saturday night Brian Mahoney-Wilson started for the first time since January due to a concussion. LSSU fell behind 3-0 before MacVoy notched his 14th goal of the season with Simon Gysbers assisting with just 1:54 remaining in the second period. NMU added a 4th goal, the eventual game winner at 12:37 of the third period. LSSU’s Will Acton scored his 7th of the season less than 20 seconds later with Schofiel and Kaunisto assisting. With Brian Mahoney-Wilson pulled in favor of an extra attacker LSSU was able to score a third goal with MacVoy netting his team leading 15th goal of the season with Troy Schwab and Nathan Perkovich assisting with 48 seconds remaining in the game. LSSU was unable to net another goal falling 4-3 to the Wildcats. Both teams put up 23 shots in the game, NMU was 1-for-5, 4-for-11 for the weekend, on the power play while LSSU’s power play went 1-for-7, 1-for-18 on the weekend. Carter Lee who has scored 2 goals in the past three games was a scratch. With the sweep by NMU, Lake Superior finished 10th in the CCHA tied with 21 points with Michigan State. Lake Superior will travel to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan in the first round of the CCHA playoffs.