Lakers ready for CCHA after first ever win over Colgate

PRESS RELEASES

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

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Jeff Rainville, Nathan Ward and Dominic Osman scored power-play goals on Saturday to lift the Lake Superior State hockey team to a 3-2 victory over 16th-ranked Colgate -- the first Laker win over the Raiders in school history.

LSSU (1-0-1 overall) ended a six-game winless streak against Colgate (1-1-1). Until Friday's 2-2 tie, the Lakers had five one-goal losses against the Raiders dating back to 1985.

Rainville's goal at 10:12 of the first period tied the game 1-1. Ward gave LSSU a 2-1 lead at 3:13 of the second period, and Osman put the Lakers ahead 3-1 at 16:52 of the third.

LSSU killed off back-to-back penalties during the last 10 minutes of the game, but gave up a goal with 1:05 to go as Colgate cut the lead to 3-2. Jon Smyth's deflection goal occurred while the Raiders were playing with six skaters and goaltender Mark Dekanich on the bench.

Marty Gurnoe contributed two assists for the Lakers, and Derek A. Smith, Mark Adamek, Osman and Kory Scoran added one assist each.

LSSU goaltender Jeff Jakaitis totaled 16 saves, while Dekanich finished with 23.

The Lakers were 3-for-10 on the power play. Colgate finished 1-for-6.

*** FRIDAY:

The Lake Superior State hockey team and 16th-ranked Colgate skated to a 2-2 tie in the Lakers' official season-opener on Friday at Taffy Abel Arena.

LSSU (0-0-1) and Colgate (1-0-1) meet again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. The Lakers will celebrate Parents Weekend and honor members of the armed services who received special invitations to the game.

The game was tied 1-1 in the first period after power-play goals by LSSU's Trent Campbell at 5:14 and Colgate's Kyle Wilson at 11:40.

Laker junior forward Derek R. Smith made it 2-1 with an even-strength goal at 11:40 of the second period. Smith also assisted on the first goal of the game, and freshman Troy Schwab drew assists on both Laker goals.

Colgate's Jesse Winchester tied, 2-2, at 5:48 of the third period on a fluke clearing pass from behind the red line. The shot took an unusual bounce off the glass and fooled LSSU goalie Jeff Jakaitis. Winchester's goal came on a delayed penalty.

"I thought we played really well," LSSU coach Jim Roque said. "We played really hard. Our guys respected Colgate. We had a great effort. I didn't like a few of our decisions on the power play, but I haven't had a lot of time to work with it. The thing that hurt our power play was we were without a big shot at the top. We had Kory Scoran out because of a DQ, but we get Kory back tomorrow, which will give us more options on the power play."

Jakaitis finished with 20 saves, including four in the five-minute overtime period. Raider goalie Mark Dekanich stopped 30 of 32 shots on goal.

The Lakers finished 1-for-8 on the power play, while Colgate was 1-for-4.

Overall, I felt badly for Jeff that he got a bad bounce like that, but those seem to work out over a course of a season," Roque said. "We should be better tomorrow night with Jon Booras, Alex Dunn and Kory Scoran back in the lineup -- three seniors that I didn't play tonight since I played some younger guys. It will be a really good test for us tomorrow night."

*** LAKERS SET TO OPEN CCHA SCHEDULE THIS WEEKEND:

After an impressive tune-up against 16th-ranked Colgate, the Lake Superior State hockey team is eager to begin Central Collegiate Hockey Association play.

The Lakers (1-0-1 overall) play host to Ferris State (1-1-0 overall) in their league opening-series on Friday at 7:35 p.m. and Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Taffy Abel Arena. The games will highlight Great Lake State Weekend festivities.

LSSU is coming off a three-point weekend against the Raiders that showed several positives - four players with multi-point games, a comeback from an early one-goal deficit on Saturday and solid special teams play throughout the weekend.

The Lakers, who have not swept an opponent since October of 2002, enjoyed two three-point weekends in 2004-05 and a combined seven during the past two seasons. Their 2-2 tie and 5-4 victory over the Bulldogs on Nov. 19-20, 2004, was the highlight of their home schedule last season.

LSSU wasn't content with one good home weekend last year and is confident that its showing against Colgate is a sign of good things to come in 2005-06. The Lakers, who started out 0-4 last season, hope that last weekend's performance is only the beginning.

Junior forwards Dominic Osman and Derek R. Smith both contributed a goal and an assist, while freshmen Marty Gurnoe and Troy Schwab picked up two assists each to lead the Lakers to a 2-2 tie and 3-2 victory against Colgate. LSSU scored four power-play goals in the series and killed off eight of 10 penalties, including back-to-back penalties to protect a 3-1 lead late in the third period Saturday.

Last season, a Ferris State team that was more successful on the road than at home gave up three goals to the LSSU line of Jon Booras, Matt Restoule and Dan Eves. Ferris State went on to finish 13-22-4 overall and 7-17-4 for a 10th-place tie in the CCHA. LSSU ended up with a 8-14-6 overall record and 9-22-7 mark for ninth place in the league. The Lakers and Bulldogs both hope for dramatic improvements to those records, top-six finishes and home-ice berths in the CCHA Playoffs.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 4-2 loss to New Hampshire and a 5-2 victory over Army during last weekend's Maverick Stampede in Omaha, Neb. Junior forward Matt Verdone recorded his first career hat trick with a four-goal performance in the third-place game against Army. It was the first four-goal outing for a Bulldog since Feb. 19, 1994, when Doug Smith turned the trick (plus one) against Ohio State.

NOTES: Ferris State's roster includes sophomore defenseman Jim Jorgensen, who is a Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., native and a former member of the Soo Indians Junior A hockey team. Jorgensen was coached in juniors by Joe Shawhan, who is an assistant coach at LSSU this season. His teammates included Lakers Marty Gurnoe and Justin Gutwald, and FSU sophomore goaltender Derek MacIntyre...The first NHL shootout involving two former CCHA goalies going head-to-head took place on Oct. 13 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller (Michigan State) stopped Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards of the Lightning, while John Grahame (LSSU), between the pipes for the defending Stanley Cup champs, was beaten by Daniel Briere and Thomas Vanek...LSSU is 2-0-1 against Ferris State since ending a seven-game losing streak against the Bulldogs...Ferris State is one of the Lakers' cluster opponents this season along with Northern Michigan and Western Michigan...CCHA teams are currently 14-7-2 against non-conference opponents...Comcast has added LSSU's Dec. 17 game at Notre Dame to it's broadcast schedule. The Lakers' game at Michigan on Feb. 11 will televised on FSN-Detroit.

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