Lakers season comes to an end

The Western Michigan Broncos proved that once playoff time rolls around, any regular season stats and numbers can be thrown out the window.

The Broncos, who were defeated in all four regular season meetings with the Lake Superior State University Lakers and were outscored 23-2 in those games, managed a series sweep over those same Lakers over the weekend.

The Broncos completed the sweep on Saturday night with a 1-0 victory at Taffy Abel Arena. Not too bad for a team that entered the playoffs as the eleventh seed.

Thanks to a 31-save performance by goaltender Daniel Bellissimo, Western Michigan capped off a solid series on Saturday evening. The two teams played two scoreless periods before Mike Erickson scored the game's only goal at the 14:00 mark of the third period.

The goal came on the power play as Erickson deflected home a point shot by Ryan Mahrle, who had a strong series as well.

On Friday evening, the Lakers opened up a 2-1 lead on goals by Trent Campbell and Nathan Ward, with a Western Michigan goal by Jason Moul sandwiched between then, only to see Brent Walton step up for the Broncos.

Walton tied the game in the final minute of the second period on the power play before scoring the overtime winner at 6:46 of overtime, deflecting a Mahrle shot past Lakers goaltender Jeff Jakaitis. The 3-2 overtime victory gave the Broncos a quick 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

"I'm very happy for the team," said Broncos coach Jim Culhane. "We were the underdogs coming in and the Lakers handled us pretty well during the regular season. I felt that the team played solid throughout the weekend. The big difference was peaking at the right time.

"The Lakers have nothing to hang their heads about," added Culhane. "Their senior class really put the Lakers back on the map in the CCHA."

The two road wins were a rarity for the Broncos, who finished the regular season with a 1-14-4 record away from home.

"It just seems like it wasn't meant to be," said a disappointed Jim Roque, coach of the Lakers. "I'm really proud of the guys. We battled hard (Saturday). I wish I could say 'We weren't good enough' or 'We need to get better here' but our guys did a good job. I can't complain about that.

"I'm just disappointed for the guys because I think they deserved a better fate (Saturday)," Roque added. "They played really hard. The last three weeks we couldn't get the goal when we needed to get the goal. It was like the last three weeks we ran out of good karma. The guys worked hard but it just wasn't meant to be. Hopefully my young guys will learn something from it. We'll have a lot of new faces next year because we lose a lot of veteran guys."

Roque went on to comment on the senior class – Steve McJannet, Colin Nicholson, Eric Hill, Nathan Ward, Jon Booras, B.J. Pelkey, Mike Adamek, Ren Fauci, Kory Scoran, Mark Adamek, Alex Dunn, and William Ciccone – and their work over the past four years to help get the Lakers hockey program on the right track.

"Those guys did a good job," Roque said of his twelve seniors. "From where they were four years ago when they were getting outshot, losing a lot of games. Those guys did a great job this year. They got a winning record and played well at home.

"Hopefully it will pass on. I remember being a senior (with the Lakers) and we lost to Ohio State (in the playoffs. The next year all the young guys went on to win the whole thing. Hopefully the young guys learn something from those old guys."

The series marks a disappointing end of the Lakers season, after one of their most successful regular season runs in recent memory.

Looking ahead, the Lakers will have some big shoes to fill with the graduation of 12 players, although the program has received verbal commitments from a number of players for next season's freshman class.

With all four CCHA first round series' ending in sweeps, the second round parings, set to take place next weekend, are all set.

Western Michigan will take on Miami (Ohio); Ferris State, who eliminated Ohio State, will travel to Ann Arbor to take on the University of Michigan; Alaska-Fairbanks will take on Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan after defeating Notre Dame; and Nebraska-Omaha will travel north to take on Northern Michigan.

*** AROUND THE CCHA:

In other CCHA playoff action over the weekend, all four of the other series ended on Saturday night in sweeps.

AT BIG RAPIDS, MICHIGAN: After defeating Ohio State on Friday night, the Ferris State Bulldogs capped off their sweep with a 2-1 victory on Saturday. Dan Reidel and Adam Miller provided the scoring for Ferris State while Kenny Bernard scored for Ohio State. Ferris State scored a 3-0 victory with freshman goaltender Mitch O'Keefe picking up the shutout on Friday.

AT SOUTH BEND, INDIANA: Alaska-Fairbanks goaltender Wylie Rogers stopped 39 shots to earn the shutout as the Nanooks scored a 1-0 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Nathan Fornataro scored the only goal. On Friday night, Kelly Czuy scored the game-winning goal as Alaska-Fairbanks beat Notre Dame 3-1.

AT OMAHA, NEBRASKA: Bryan Marshall, Jason Krischuk, Scott Parse, and Adam Bartholomay each scored a goal as the University of Nebraska-Omaha defeated the Bowling Green Falcons 4-2. Nebraska-Omaha scored a 4-2 victory on Friday night as well.