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LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

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

sm2pk said:
I have no idea how most Atlantic Conference teams survive with crowds of 600-700 and less fans at so many of their games.
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Yeah it does make you wonder about that although I think they do have lower operational costs. They only give out 12 scholarships instead of 18. Travel costs are also lower compared to the western conferences. They have 2 clusters of teams (1 in Western NY and NW Pennsylvania, and a 2nd closer to the NE coast) plus Air Force as an outlier. So not a lot of long trips for teams other than Air Force (and money probably isn't a big issue for them).

I think Damon and Doug are on the road recruiting this off weekend. Probably looking at younger kids for the future and also checking up on some existing recruits. Maybe also looking for a goalie to replace Gordie after next season.
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

I think the Atlantic Conference raised the number of scholarships to 14 now.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

sm2pk said:
I think the Atlantic Conference raised the number of scholarships to 14 now.
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OK, but there is still some lower costs there compared to other conferences.

We got some help from UAH last night. Would be nice to see them do it again tonight.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Lakers D-man recruit Kristofers Bindulis had a hat trick tonight for Aston of the NAHL. Hard to say how good he will be at the college level but he appears to have some offensive capability as a D-man and is supposed to be a pretty good skater..
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Another tough weekend series and the Lakers need some points out of it .
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Randy Russon in www.hockeynewsnorth.com has a great preview of the good ship Laker and their trip to Michigan Tech. http://www.hockeynewsnorth.com/ncaa/wcha-notes-lakers-in-tough-at-tech/

Ringy Dingy!

As the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season heads into the stretch run, the seventh-place Lake Superior State Lakers face the daunting task of playing the third-place Michigan Tech Huskies on the road as part of Winter Carnival weekend.

Appearing on the Laker Hockey Show, which airs on Mondays from 6-7 p.m. on Sault Ste. Marie radio station ESPN 1400, Lake State head coach Damon Whitten — who used to be an assistant at Michigan Tech — spoke of the party-like atmosphere that the Lakers will be facing this Friday and Saturday in Houghton.

“It’s a fun atmosphere but they get into the adult beverages during the day and their fans will be noisier than usual,” said Whitten. “We just have to stay focused and concentrate on the games.”

Friday’s game is an 8:07 p.m. start and Saturday’s match is slated to begin at 5:07 p.m. Both contests will be broadcast live on Sault Ste. Marie radio station 99.5 Yes-FM with Bill Crawford calling the play-by-play.

The Lakers head into the weekend set at Tech with a WCHA record of 6-8-4 while the Huskies have a mark of 11-6-3.

All 10 teams in the WCHA play a 28-game regular-season schedule within the conference. The top eight teams make the playoffs.

The Lakers and fifth-place Northern Michigan Wildcats have played 18 WCHA games to date while the other eight teams have all played 20.

As they head to Michigan Tech with an overall record of 9-15-4, the Lakers have scored only 51 goals in 28 games, which is the lowest in the 10-team WCHA.

Conversely, Michigan Tech has scored 78 goals in 26 games.

The lack of Laker production is evident in comparing top point-getters with Michigan Tech.

Sophomore forward J.T. Henke, who leads the Lakers in scoring with 6 goals, 8 assists, 14 points, is 34th in the WCHA in scoring. By comparison, Michigan Tech senior forward Alex Petan leads the entire WCHA in scoring with 14 goals, 11 assists, 25 points.

Experience-wise, Michigan Tech is a much-older team than the Lakers and to boot, the Huskies have five National Hockey League draft picks on their roster.

From a Canadian Soo standpoint, freshman defenceman Owen Headrick of Garden River First Nation is sixth on the Lakers in scoring with 4 goals, 5 assists, 9 points.

WILDCATS AT HOME

Fifth-seeded Northern Michigan, which has 18 points from a WCHA record of 7-7-4, is home to eighth-place Alaska Anchorage Seawolves this Friday and Saturday evenings.

The Wildcats, who have an overall record of 10-10-6, feature a pair of former Soo Eagles as regular forwards.

Sophomore Robbie Payne is third on the Wildcats in scoring with 9 goals, 6 assists, 15 points. Freshman Denver Pierce has 3 goals, 3 assists, 6 points.
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

For those of you talking worrying about LSSU turning things around, I feel your pain but you need to be patient. For the previously mentioned worries about being able to get scorers because of the style, I'll have more to say after watching the Winter Carnival series, but Dilks is probably more right than wrong about Damon trying to do it right and push tempo which will bring players. I know for a fact that Luke Morgan was wanted, and Damon managed to win that battle. Maybe it's because he was willing to make an official offer first but sometimes that's what it it takes. I also see that Brayden Gelsinger committed recently...while he might be older, he's still top 20 in the BCHL and that's no small feat. As for Winter Carnival and other LSSU/MTU related things...THG relaunched recently and my friend did a big writeup on the Damon today. I also broke down all the places you can watch Friday's game via American Sports Network, and tomorrow morning I'll drop by to add my link for our series preview.

Good luck after this weekend guys!
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Fresh off their only bye week this season Lake Superior State travels to Houghton, Mich., for a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series against Michigan Tech, as part of the Huskies' annual Winter Carnival series.

The Huskies, who began holding a Winter Carnival hockey series in 1950, have won the title 44 times in 66 editions. The two-game total goal series decides the winner of the MacInnes Cup. If the series is tied at the end of Saturday's game, a three-player shootout will decide the outcome. Tech holds a record of 73-45-14 in their Winter Carnival series.

The series opens with the 65th meeting between the teams on Friday night at 8:07 p.m. ET. Saturday's game starts at 5:07 p.m. ET.

Both games will be broadcast live on 99.5 YES FM with the Voice of the Lakers, Bill Crawford.

The Lakers (9-15-4, 6-8-4 WCHA) enter the matchup fresh off their first bye-week of the season, after suffering a sweep on the road against Minnesota State the weekend prior. While the Lakers sat idle last weekend, Alaska Anchorage was able to move into a tie with LSSU for seventh place in the WCHA standings. Just two points out of fifth place, the Lakers still hold two games in hand on every team in the conference except for Northern Michigan.

Sitting at No. 15 in the USCHO.com poll, the Huskies (14-7-5, 11-6-3 WCHA) have been on a roll, earning three points in each of their last two series against the top teams in the WCHA. After claiming the inaugural Dessert Hockey Classic over UConn and Yale, the Huskies earned a tie and victory in consecutive weekend series against Minnesota State and Bowling Green to finish the month of January undefeated (3-0-3).

The series between the two Upper Peninsula schools dates back to 1969 with the Huskies holding a 38-21-5 all-time series advantage. Since the Lakers joined MTU in the WCHA, the Huskies hold a 5-2-1 advantage in the series and a 6-3-1 mark in the last 10 games.

The last time the teams met was in December at Taffy Abel Arena. During the series opener the teams skated to a 1-1 tie on Friday night before the Huskies earned a 6-2 victory in the series finale.

In their last eight games since falling to the Huskies on Dec. 12, the Lakers are 3-5-0.

Against the Lakers in December, senior forward Alex Petan scored three goals and added an assist for the Huskies, including back-to-back power play tallies during the first period of Saturday's 6-2 victory. For his efforts that weekend, Petan earned WCHA Player of the Week recognition.

The Delta, B.C., native was also named the WCHA Player of the Month for January in recognition of posting four goals and six points in four league contests during the month of January.

Freshman Nick Kossoff was strong in net for the Lakers during the 1-1 draw. Kossoff made 27 saves, allowing just the lone goal to Petan during 65 minutes of action, and helped the Lakers kill off a pair of penalties.

Senior captain Austin McKay (1-2--3) scored a goal and registered an assist in the last meeting. The 6-5 forward was also a +2 on the weekend.

Following this weekend's road trip the Lakers return home for a Feb. 12-13 meeting against Bemidji State. The Beavers are idle this weekend and sit two points ahead of the Lakers in a tie with Northern Michigan for fifth place in the WCHA.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

I just read on here that the WCHA is actively going after Arizona to join the league and is also talking to some other western schools that are showing an interest in starting up a hockey program. The league would also like 12 teams and divide them into two conferences based on geographic s.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

sm2pk said:
I just read on here that the WCHA is actively going after Arizona to join the league and is also talking to some other western schools that are showing an interest in starting up a hockey program. The league would also like 12 teams and divide them into two conferences based on geographic s.
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Two divisions? that would be great for the minnesota schools getting to go to Alaska/Arizona and where ever all the time...I'm sure Bemidji State loves that idea. Maybe they'll split the alaska schools up?
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Seawolf Fan said:
With the love/hate marriage we have a split doesn't seem a likelihood in any realignment.
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I'm not saying you guys wouldn't get to play 4 times, I think they'd find a way to make that happen, but limiting the frequency of a team making trips to both UA_ and UAA has to be an important part of expansion...and don't start complaining about how many times your team comes down here, it doesn't change the fact that no one likes going up there twice in the same season.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

sm2pk said:
I just read on here that the WCHA is actively going after Arizona to join the league and is also talking to some other western schools that are showing an interest in starting up a hockey program. The league would also like 12 teams and divide them into two conferences based on geographic s.
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Link? If the info is coming directly from the WCHA, it may be accurate. If it's just a rumor someone heard, then you have to wonder. I think Arizona has probably had discussions with all 3 "Western" conferences.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

I beleive there is also the rumor that Bowling Green might try to blow up the WCHA (and possibly snatch teams from other conferences) and try to start their own league or restart the CCHA that will make it more travel friendly. I extremely doubt it will happen but you never know. I believe there are many schools unhappy with travel costs (LSSU is one of them) so you never know.
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Shirtless Guy said:
http://www.uscho.com/2016/02/04/robertson-eyes-wcha-growth-both-on-the-ice-and-off/
looking at the numbers, it doesn't really make sense to have a split conference, they'd just need to go to the pod system that the old CCHA had with 12 and the WCHA did before the big realignment.
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Thanks Shirtless Guy. I suppose it's nice that the WCHA is interested in ASU, but if I'm ASU I would want to be in the Big Ten as my first choice and the NCHC as my second choice. Of course whether those two conferences would take ASU is another matter.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Bill said:
Thanks Shirtless Guy. I suppose it's nice that the WCHA is interested in ASU, but if I'm ASU I would want to be in the Big Ten as my first choice and the NCHC as my second choice. Of course whether those two conferences would take ASU is another matter.
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I think they might jump ship later, but right now they want to succeed, and while the WCHA has done well against the Big Ten, ASU is still better off in WCHA for now...
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

LSSULaker889294 said:
I beleive there is also the rumor that Bowling Green might try to blow up the WCHA (and possibly snatch teams from other conferences) and try to start their own league or restart the CCHA that will make it more travel friendly. I extremely doubt it will happen but you never know. I believe there are many schools unhappy with travel costs (LSSU is one of them) so you never know.
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That rumor won't go away, they've been trying to do that since the Big Ten schools left the CCHA.
Just an FYI, I tried to move this discussion to the WCHA conference thread.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2015-16: The 50th season

Shirtless Guy said:
I think they might jump ship later, but right now they want to succeed, and while the WCHA has done well against the Big Ten, ASU is still better off in WCHA for now...
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I agree that if they do wind up in the WCHA, it will only be a temporary thing.
 
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