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LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Randy Russon has the LSSU Lakers and all the local hockey teams covered like no one else, on www.hockeynewsnorth.com

Tied for seventh in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association — but only one point behind sixth-place Bemidji State and two points back of fifth-place Northern Michigan with two games in hand on both — the Lake Superior State Lakers are in Alaska tonight and Saturday for road games against the Nanooks.

The Lakers have a record of 2-3-3 within the 10-team WCHA and are a point ahead of ninth-place Alaska with a pair of games in hand.

Both games at Alaska are slated to begin at 11:07 p.m. (our time) and will be broadcast live on Sault Ste. Marie radio station 99.5 YES-FM.

The Lakers have an overall record of 4-9-3 through 16 games this season.

TOP FRESHMAN

The Lakers are in Alaska fresh from a 3-2 come-from-behind win at home against Ferris State last Saturday.

In that Laker victory, freshman defenseman Owen Headrick — formerly of the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League — scored the game-winning goal late in the third period.

Headrick has 3 goals, 2 assists in 16 games and among freshmen defensemen in the WCHA, is tied for the lead with 5 points.

With a 1997 birth date, Headrick, who hails from Garden River First Nation, is the youngest player on the Lakers.

TOP GOALIE

Lakers sophomore goalie Gordon Defiel is coming off an impressive month of November between the pipes for Lake Superior State.

In November, Defiel posted a WCHA-best .956 save percentage and 1.52 goals against average.

HOME TO TECH

Following the two games at Alaska tonight and Saturday, the Lakers will cap the first half of the WCHA schedule with a home series against Michigan Tech on the December 11-12 weekend.

Former Laker goalie and assistant coach Joe Shawhan is in his second season as an assistant at Michigan Tech. A Michigan Soo product, coaching veteran Shawhan has also been an assistant at Northern Michigan.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Big road win for the Lakers. Globke continues to play well and is getting rewarded. Also nice to see Nellis, Cuglietta and Correale get goals. Looks like Gordie was pretty solid in net again. 3 out of 4 on the PP and a SH goal to boot. Good team effort. Great job guys. Lets do it again tonight.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

So much nicer getting up in the morning and checking the lakers late night game and finding they won. Good win guys.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Another HUGE win for coach Damon Whitten and the good ship Laker in Alaska. This potentially going be a program changing sweep for the surging LSSU Lakers.

Freshman sensation blueliner Owen Headrick now leads all Western Collegiate Hockey Association freshmen defensemen in scoring.

A Garden River First Nation product, Headrick — who played the past two seasons with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League — had a pair of assists on Friday as the visiting Lakers upended the Alaska Nanooks 4-2 to even their WCHA record at 3-3-3 and improve their overall mark to 5-9-3.

A 1997 birth-year skater and the youngest player on the Lakers, Headrick now has 3 goals, 4 assists, 7 points and has played in all 17 games for Lake Superior State.

Special teams were a big factor for the Lakers, who scored three power-play goals and a shorthanded tally in Friday’s win, their second straight triumph.

The Lakers play at Alaska again tonight in an 11:07 p.m. start, eastern time. The game will be broadcast live on Sault Ste. Marie radio station 99.5 YES-FM.

See www.hockeynewsnorth, and Randy Russon for more.

Ringy dingy!
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Hope the Lakers can get at least a tie tonight. They will be playing a very P*ssed off Michigan Tech team next weekend. The Seawolves pullled off a shocking sweep of them this weekend.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

LSSULaker889294 said:
HUGE win and weekend sweep! Awesome to see Kossoff fill in for an ill Defiel and get a shutout.
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Sounded like Kossoff stood on his head. Kudos to him for his second collegiate win and second collegiate shutout. Off the top of my head, I believe it is the first road sweep by the Lakers since Damon Whitten took over as coach.

It's absolutely dumbfounding to think the Lakers scored six goals on the weekend, with none of them (technically) coming at even strength.
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

jsmithe said:
Sounded like Kossoff stood on his head. Kudos to him for his second collegiate shutout and second collegiate shutout. Off the top of my head, I believe it is the first road sweep by the Lakers since Damon Whitten took over as coach.

It's absolutely dumbfounding to think the Lakers scored six goals on the weekend, with none of them (technically) coming at even strength.
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Congrats on the sweep. Couldn't have done it to a team I dislike more! ;)
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

The last time the Lakers swept UAF in Fairbanks was November 29-December 1, 1996! It was a three game sweep then.

The six game road unbeaten streak for the Lakers is the longest since 1992-93! They were unbeaten in their first six games of the season on the road. They lost the next road game.

These accomplishments hadn't been done in 19 years and 23 years respectively until this weekend. This is something Damon and the team should be proud of!
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Winning sure makes checking the score board a lot easier. Good sweep Lakers.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

What an amazing weekend for head coach Damon Whitten and his good ship Laker.

Lake Superior State captured a road sweep over Western Collegiate Hockey Association foe, Alaska, with a 2-0 victory in Saturday's series finale.

Freshman goaltender Nick Kossoff (2-3-0) captured his second career shutout with 36 saves in the winning effort.

Gage Torrel (3-6--9) netted the game-winning goal for the Lakers (6-9-3, 4-3-3 WCHA) while shorthanded and 1:14 remaining in the second period. Torrel received a perfect centering-feed from Mitch Hults (4-5--9) to chip the puck past a sprawling Jesse Jenks.

Jenks (2-3-2)made 25 saves and allowed only the goal by Torrel in the losing effort.

The Lakers killed off six power-play opportunities by the Nanooks (4-10-2, 2-8-2 WCHA) en route to the victory. LSSU went 1-for-6 on the power play, thanks to a power-play tally by J.T. Henke (6-5--11) on the empty net.

Following a penalty call against the Nanooks' Josh Atkinson with 1:24 remaining, UAF pulled Jenks in search of evening the sides to 5-on-5. Henke received a chip pass from Torrel and fired a goal from center ice to seal the victory.

James Roll (2-3--5) also assisted on the empty-net goal by Henke.

The victory gives the Lakers their first three-game winning streak of the season. In the last three series, the Lakers are 4-1-1.

On the weekend, all six Lakers goals came while on the power play or shorthanded.

With the pair of wins over Alaska, LSSU earned their first sweep of the season.

The Lakers return home next weekend to face Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech Dec. 11-12. The Huskies (9-6-1, 8-6-0 WCHA)fell victim to a sweep at home at the hand of Alaska-Anchorage this weekend.

The Lakers and Seawolves (8-6-2, 5-4-1) sit tied for 6th in the WCHA standings, one point back of Northern Michigan with both teams having two games in-hand on the Wildcats.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

See Randy Russon' article at www.hockeynewsnorth.com as the surging LSSU Lakers go over the .500 mark.

hey have won their last three outings — including a two-game, weekend road sweep of the Alaska Nanooks — and the Lake Superior State Lakers are showing serious signs of being a very-solid squad under the steady hand of second-year head coach Damon Whitten.

The surging Lakers have moved into a tie for sixth place with the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves in the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association with 10 points from a record of 4-3-3. Over the past three weekends, the Lakers are 4-1-1, including a 3-0-1 mark on the road.

The Lakers have an overall record of 6-9-3 through 18 games this season.

To be sure, Lake Superior State has an opportunity to move further up in the WCHA standings when they play host to Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech Huskies this Friday (7:37) and Saturday (7:07) nights at Taffy Abel Arena.

The sixth-place Lakers are just one point behind fifth-place Northern Michigan with two games in hand on the Wildcats and are three points back of fourth-place Ferris State with four games in hand on the Bulldogs. In fact, the Lakers trail third-place Michigan Tech by only five points and have two games in hand on the Huskies.

What is impressive about the Lakers performance under the coaching of Whitten is that it’s the younger Lake Superior State players who are the statistical leaders.

For example, of the Lakers top eight scorers, five are freshmen, one is a sophomore and the other two are juniors.

Sophomore forward J.T. Henke leads the Lakers in scoring with 6 goals, 5 assists, 11 points followed by freshman forward Mitch Hults at 4-5-9, freshman forward Gage Torrel at 3-5-8, junior forward Gus Correale at 3-5-8, freshman forward Anthony Nellis at 2-6-8, freshman defenseman Owen Headrick at 3-4-7, junior forward Alex Globke at 4-2-6 and freshman forward Diego Cuglietta at 2-4-6.

Headrick, who played the past two seasons with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, leads all WCHA freshmen defensemen in scoring. With a 1997 birth date, Headrick, who hails from Garden River First Nation, is the youngest player on the Lakers.

The Lakers have also been getting good goaltending from sophomore Gordon Defiel and freshman Nick Kossoff.

Defiel has a 4-6-3 record to go with a 2.57 goals against average and .922 save percentage. Kossoff has a 2-3-0 record with a 1.97 goals against average, .926 save percentage and two shutouts.

Ringy dingy!
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Anyone know when Drapluk is coming back and what is actually wrong with the guy ? Does anyone know how to block LakerBaker ?
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

sm2pk said:
Anyone know when Drapluk is coming back and what is actually wrong with the guy ? Does anyone know how to block LakerBaker ?
Click to expand...

I don't know what his specific injury is, but I think Damon said that he may not be back until after the holidays.

You can put LakerBaker on your Ignore List. Choose Settings (far upper right of the screen), then choose Edit Ignore List on the left side of the screen, then add LakerBaker to the User Name Field and click on Okay. You will still see that LakerBaker has posted something, but you won't see the content of the post. There is also a small triangle on the bottom left side of each post; if you click on that triangle, you can then report an offending post to the Board Admin.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Suze said:
Congrats on the sweep. Couldn't have done it to a team I dislike more! ;)
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Good job to you guys too. Taking the broom to Tech in their barn is something UAA should be on their high horses (or is it ponies?) about.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Thanks Bill. I just hate people pasting things. I knew Drapluk was out but never knew what the injury or reason was.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

sm2pk said:
Thanks Bill. I just hate people pasting things. I knew Drapluk was out but never knew what the injury or reason was.
Click to expand...

I thought I heard that the injury had to do with his ankle on the pregame show before the game at BG.
 
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