Prior to Saturday night, the Beavers had won eight in a row
(counting a technical tie, but winning on 3v3 OT), outscoring opponents 31 to 10,
including a 5-0 shutout against then #19 Northern Michigan. They’re being led
in scoring by senior Adam Brady, who posted 17 goals, 14 assists for 31 points
during the regular season. He is followed closely by sophomore forward Owen
Sillinger, who tallied a 12-18—30 point season and junior Aaron Miller with
12-16—28.
Sophomore Zach Driscoll owns the net for Bemidji State, having played in all but 4 games this season, and posting 19 wins, 7 losses and 4 ties. He has only a 1.6 GAA and a .937 save %.
This team will be a tough nut to crack for the boys in blue,
since during the regular season the Lakers only took one game from the Beavers,
a 3v3 OT win at Abel Arena. Otherwise Bemidji outscored the Lakers 18-5.
The Lakers and
Playoff Woes
The Lakers have been locked in to the seventh seed for the
tail end of the season, but managed to finish the season fairly strong, winning
six of their last eight (including a SO win), and had a strong performance
against a bad Ferris State team to end the season, outscoring the Bulldogs 9-2
on the weekend.
Even though the Lakers have some big time scorers in Max
Humitz (19-13—32), Ashton Calder (12-14—26), Louis Boudon (6-20—26) and
Pierre-Luc Veillette (12-12—24), they’ll need to get some help on the backend
in order to make this weekend work. Our boys in blue will also need to be solid
on the blueline if they really want a shot at an upset.
As always, Mareks Mitens holds the keys for the net, though
Roman Bengert did tally a win in the final game of the season against the Bulldogs,
so if the series goes to three games, I wouldn’t be too shocked to see him out
there in relief.
If history counts for anything, these are going to be some
rough games. Save for last season, the Lakers have had a recent history of
either blowouts or shutouts. If they lose but keep the score close & low,
I’ll see it as a win, personally.
Puck Drops at 8:07 ET in Bemidji, Minnesota. The game can be
heard locally at 99.5 YESFM, or through TuneIn. Flohockey will have the video
broadcast, and if you are local to the Soo, Buffalo Wild Wings will be having
watch parties for the games this weekend.
So, as you all know this would normally be the spot where we preview the upcoming series and make a few (sometimes funny) jokes. But the fact of the matter is that, even if we don’t get a single point over the next two weeks, we are in the playoffs. Anchorage needs to sweep the next two weeks in regulation to tie us in points, but we would hold the tiebreaker I believe. But they are facing Bemidji this weekend, and Alaska next weekend.
So…
There is the Cappo cup, but it’s just for this weekend series, and I’m not sure if there are any special rules due to that. And the Lakers will, of course, do their best to earn points as we could leapfrog Bowling Green (five points behind) and possibly catch Michigan Tech (assuming they get swept both weekends), but it’s looking like it’s going to be another trip to Mankato, or possibly Bemidji.
But almost more importantly, this Saturday is both Senior night and Check.Slash.Survive, which used to be called Pink in the Rink. A few years back it was rebranded so as not to focus just on breast cancer, which is generally represented by the pink ribbon.
This year’s C.S.S is focusing on Lung, Prostate and Colon cancers. The Check.Slash.Survive organization will be selling shirts, hoodies and other sort of apparel and swag, and a jersey auction will be done during the game Saturday night. The funds raised will go towards various local charities and organizations.
Six seniors will also be honored during pre-game Saturday. Brayden Gelsinger, Ian Johnston, Bryan Basilico, Max Humitz, Colin Saccoman and Brendan McKay will all be honored. Sadly, this will also mean for the first time since the 2012-2013 season, next year will be the first year without a McKay brother. The end of an era for sure.
So come on out, 7pm puck drop both nights. Saturday pre-game will be the senior night festivities. Otherwise, 99.5 YESFm locally or on Tunein will have the call, or Flohockey.tv will have the broadcast.
I wouldn’t want to be the Lakers this weekend as they travel
over to Houghton to face the Michigan Tech Huskies. The Huskies are sure to be
wound up this weekend, not only because of it being the 98th Winter
Carnival, but also because they were trounced by the Alabama-Huntsville
Chargers last Saturday night, splitting the weekend.
Tech is led in scoring by a trio of sophomores: Alec
Broetzman (12-7–19), Trenton Bliss (9-10—19) and Eric Gotz (4-13—17). Brian
Halonen (10-6—16) is also worth mentioning, being second in overall goals for
the team.
Senior Matt Jurusik leads the trio of goalies, having played in 27 of their 31 games. He has
a 2.04GAA and a .921 Save %. Junior Robbie Beydoun and Blake Pietila have also
played a handful of games, with Beydoun having the better record & stats
compared to the freshman goalie.
Tech looks to be set up to be a pretty consistent team over
the next few years, with a large stable of freshmen and sophomores, with their
sophomores leading in scoring.
Lakers Lean into the
Home Stretch
The last few weeks have been interesting. They ‘swept’ the
Seawolves at home, winning on Friday and winning in 3×3 OT, but we all know It
counts a tie, then losing in OT to the US Under-18 team. We also saw our second
100 point player in as many years and a come from behind win.
Co-captain Max Humitz leads in overall scoring & goals
for the Lakers – doubling up on the second overall goal-scorer, Pierre-Luc
Veillette, with 16 goals, 7 assists for 24 points. Junior center Hampus
Eriksson (5-14–19) and freshman Louis Boudon (4-14—18) round out the top 3 in
points.
Goaltending has been the Mareks Mitens show despite having a
2.77 GAA and a .901 save %. Unless something strange happens in the offseason
that would see Mitens leave, we will have another year to find a proper
replacement starting goaltender, especially seeing as Roman Bengert is also a
junior. The Lakers do have former Brahma Seth Eisele who, in 33 games for the
Brahmas last season, posted a 2.28 GAA and a .926 Save5 in the regular season,
and a 1.73 GAA and .943 in 5 playoff games.
This weekend’s games can be heard or seen in the normal
spots: At Michigan Tech, on local radio 99.5 YesFM or on Tunein. Flohockey.tv
will have the video feed from Houghton. Puck drops Friday night at 7:07pm, then
a quick turnaround for 5:07pm Saturday night.
Oh, that’s right, these two teams played just a few short
weeks ago up at Anchorage, where the teams split the weekend, after the
Seawolves shut the Lakers out (which was incredible. I mean, even UAH, the
worst team in the rankings put 2 on NoDak, then #1). But that’s all in the past, right?
After that split, however, the Seawolves were swept by
Northern Michigan, then last week swept Alabama-Huntsville (winning Saturday
night in 3×3 overtime, so technically a tie).
The Seawolves are led
in scoring by freshman forward Nick Wicks, with 6 goals, 8 assists for 13
points. Following him Is senior defensemen Tmi Hakkavirta, who has 1 goal and
12 assists.
Goaltending looks to have been mostly junior Kris Carlson,
who has played in 14 games, with a 2-8-2 record, good for 776 minutes, a 2.55
GAA and a .922 save %. Junior Kristian Stead has appeared in 9 games, and
Brandon Perrone has appeared in just one game.
Oh Captain my
Captain!
When a team isn’t doing well, it’s easy to focus on the
negatives, and in this column I’ve certainly done my fair share of that.
However, this week is a little different. This weekend the Laker family
welcomes back one of our own & a former Captain: Matt Bruneteau. In the
2012-2013 campaign he started as an assistant captain before being named the
Captain in 2013-14. He finished the
2013-14 year trying out in the ECHL, but wound up playing for Strasbourg in the
French league for two seasons. He retired from playing and started as an
assistant coach with Stevenson University one year after they started their
NCAA D3 mens program. This is the second year with the Seawolves, but the first
time returning to Taffy Abel Arena.
So let’s give him a warm welcome home.
After being held to a single goal in their last game, Max
Humitz is still sitting at 97 career points. This should be a good team to
tally the final three to get to the century mark & looking forward to pass
that going into the final month of the regular season, but we will have to see
about that.
Puck drops at 7:00pm both Friday and Saturday at
Abel Arena. Listen to the game locally by tuning your dial to 99.5, or listen
through TuneIn or other streaming methods. If you want to view the game,
FloHockey is where you need to go if you cannot make it to the arena.
It’s been no secret over the last few seasons that the
Fairbanks based Alaska Nanooks have had some consistency issues over the last
few seasons, usually dwelling in the middle to low-mid of the standings, but
still usually making playoffs. This year, however, they are proving themselves
this year, sweeping or splitting with some tough opponents: Starting out
conference play by sweeping Michigan Tech in Houghton, shutting out then #9
Penn State in Happy Valley, taking another win from Tech in Alaska.
The Nanooks are currently sitting in the #4 spot in the
WCHA, which is also the last home playoff spot.
They are led in scoring by a trio of junior forwards, Max
Newton (6-8-14), Justin Young (7-6-13) and Steven Jandric (5-8-13). In net they
are leaning heavily on Anton Martinsson, the senior out of Klippan, Sweden.
They have played sophomore Gustavs Grigals, out of Latvia, having played in 9
games with the same tally of wins.
Bailing Water
The Lakers are sitting just 3 points ahead of Ferris who
currently own the final playoff spot, and just 4 points ahead of Alaska
Anchorage, who they will face again in two weeks at Abel Arena. This is a far
cry from the success the team had last season, but certainly seems closer to
what we as Laker fans have come to expect in recent years.
The one bright spot on the team has been Max Humitz, who is
currently sitting at 97 career points. Humitz is leading the team in both
overall points and goals by quite a bit, with 21 points and 14 goals. Junior
center Hampus Eriksson is second in scoring with 16 points. Pierre-Luc Veilette
is second in goals with 6.
Goaltending has been pretty much Mareks Mitens exclusively,
playing in 25 games, with a 7-16-1 record. Roman Bengert has appeared in 3
games, going 0-2-0. Freshman Seth Eisele has yet to appear in a game.
In other news, it appears some players have left the team at
some point. Forwards Owen Guy and Roberts Bluegers, defensemen Bennet Vida have
all been removed from LSSU’s roster on their website. It appears Vida is now
with Trinity Western University of the BCIHL, playing in 2 games so far with 1
assist. Neither Guy nor Bluegers have updated profiles on Elite Prospects. One
would have to guess the reason they left was lack of playing time. We here at
LakerHockeyBlog would like to wish them the best with their future endeavors,
and also thank them for their time as Lakers.
The Lakers play in Fairbanks Friday and Saturday, puck drops
at 7:07 AT, which should be -4 hours from Eastern time, so the game would start
at 11:07pm eastern. As always, the game will be on Flohockey.tv for a fee, or
you can listen in on 99.5 YesFM locally or on TuneIn.
One big changeup in college hockey this past summer was that
there was going to be a change behind the bench for the Falcons. 9-Year bench
boss for BG, Chris Bergeron, after a spot opened up in his Alma Mater of Miami
(Ohio). Bergeron was the first coach
since Jerry York, whose tenure ran between 1979-1994, to post a positive win
percentage for the team.
Now leading the club is Ty Eigner, a 1993 graduate of
Bowling Green. He is off to a good start too, posting a 7-4-0 record thus far.
The wins come curtasey of Miami (Ohio), a sweep of Western in a home-and-home
series (after a loss to them at the Icebreaker), the split with Michigan Tech,
a split in an overtime win with Minnesota State-Mankato before finally sweeping
Alaska Anchorage.
Bowling Green is led in scoring by senior defenseman Alec
Rauhauser who has 12 points, Connor Ford, a junior forward has 11 points and
Alex Barber, a sophomore forward follows up with 10 total points. Cameron
Wright, a junior forward leads the team with 8 goals. Eric Dop is the go-to
goalie this year, playing in 10 of their 11 games. He has a 7-3-0 record, a
2.19 GAA and a .914 Save%.
Lakers Not Weathering
Early Storms
Whew this season has been rough. At this point last season,
the Lakers were flying high at 6-3-1 record (6-4 if you count the tie as a
loss, as it was in 3v3 OT). They started the season winning 7 straight, between
2 on-conference series, an exhibition weekend, and a weekend of WCHA play. It
seemed the team morale was high, fans were having fun (and would continue to do
so, winning another 8 straight after dropping three in a row).
This campaign isn’t as much fun. While we have played
against two ranked opponents so far this season, keeping it closer than the
score says with then #2 Denver, then a few weeks later at #5 Notre Dame, they
were swept by a really bad Michigan team, having won only 3 games this season
(the other win coming from a pounding of Western), they have yet to win a
conference game and sit at the bottom of the B1G. And save for Saturday night’s
game against cross UP rivals Michigan Tech, they have been mostly blown out.
The defense corp needs to figure itself out. There was only
one loss in that department after last season, Steven Ruggerio. Ruggerio, as a
refresher, was second in the nation with the number of penalties taken (36), and only scored 11 points on the year,
and blocking 57 shots (second to Colin Saccoman). Saccoman already has 9 points
on the season. Only two defensemen ended their year with a worse +/-. Anderson
and Semandel, but they only played 29 and 17 games respectively, whereas
Ruggerio played in all but one. This isn’t trying to say that Steven wasn’t a
good player, he was, but losing just guy shouldn’t make the blue line this
porous. The goaltending could step it up too, but when the play in front of him
is subpar, there’s only so much one man can do.
A split or sweep this weekend would do wonders for this team
and it’s fans. Bowling Green is a long time rival of the Lakers, going all the
way back to the CCHA days. And save for the playoff series that we don’t talk
about, the Lakers always seem to step up their game against the Falcons.
Max Humitz notched another point last week, bringing his
career point total to 88.
Puck drops at 7:00pm both Friday and Saturday nights in
Bowling Green. Listen to the game locally by tuning your dial to 99.5, or
listen through TuneIn or other streaming methods.If you want to view the game,
FloHockey is where you need to go. Get every in conference game for one price.
First, I would like to apologize for the lack of previews
over the last couple of weeks. For the Michigan series, I was still getting
over the sickness I got while on vacation. Then last week a stick of RAM
decided to die in my PC, which made pretty much anything that I opened became
corrupted, and that didn’t get fixed until late Friday. So, let’s get back on
track:
Bulldogs In the
Doghouse
The start of the Bulldog’s season has been an interesting
one. Since starting NCAA play, they’ve beat Colgate in a best-of-one, and split
with Miami in Miami before getting swept by conference rivals Northern Michigan
on their own ice.
They are led by senior defenseman Nate Kallen with senior
forward Dominic Lutz being named as an alternative captain. Bob Daniels also
returns for his 28th season as bench boss. Roni Salmenkangas, the
Finnish sophomore goalie looks to be their workhorse, playing in 4 games, with Carter
McPhail, a Michigan native having played in two games looking like the backup
in the early part of the season, although other than the two wins that Salmenkangas
has posted, their stat lines look very similar.
Lake State Heading
Toward Dry Dock
While there may have
been a number of fans who though the Lakers were going to come out swinging,
starting off where they left off last year, I was not really one of them.
Excited to see what would happen? Sure. But losing the likes of Nellis and
Cuglietta scoring was going to depend greatly on who could step – would it be
sophomore Mucha? One of the Freshman? So far Humitz and Erikson lead the pack
with 8 total points, followed closely by Ashton Calder and Collin Saccoman, each
of whom have 6 total points.
Looking at the start of this season, it has not been easy on
the Lakers. After sweeping Merrimack to start the season, they’ve dropped six
straight, all against non-conference opponents and two ranked teams. In those
six games, they’ve been outscored 26-13. With this week starting conference
play, the rest of the team has to step up and contribute more.
Both games this weekend drop the puck at 7:00pm EST. Bill Crawford
will have the call on 99.5 YesFM, both locally and streaming online. WCHA
Partner FloHockey will have the livestream from the Taffy Abel Arena if you
want to watch the game but can’t make it to the arena.
The Denver Pioneers are coming off their 12th
straight NCAA tournament appearance and another Frozen Four appearance. They’re
also only two years removed from a national championship. Denver is lead by second-year head coach
David Carle, with assistants Tavis MacMillian, Dallas Ferusona nd Corey Wogtech.
Carle, who took over for Jim Montgomery, now with the Dallas Stars, posted a
24-12-5 record in his first season behind the bench.
On the ice, they are captained by senior defenseman Ian
Mitchell, and assisted by fellow defenseman Michael Davies and forward Tyson
McLellan, both of which are seniors. With two games under his belt, and both
wins, it looks like Swedish goaltender Magnus Chrona will be their starter…and
at 6’6, he takes up a lot of net.
Great Lake State Wins
Weekend
Much like their opponents, the Lakers are coming off of a weekend sweep. Tripling up on Merrimack Saturday night, they won by a single goal Sunday. This weekend marks the 24th Great Lake State Weekend, which serves as Lake Superior State’s homecoming. There will be events going on all around campus both Friday and Saturday, but we will be focusing on the two games.
The last time these two teams met was two years ago in
Denver, where the Lakers nearly spoiled the Pioneers’ championship banner raising,
losing in OT, then being crushed 5-1 Saturday. They were also ranked #1.
That Laker team was much different than the current one,
both in players and mindset. After the incredible season last year, the team
finally has a winning attitude, and hopefully co-captains Max Humitz and Collin
Saccoman, with help from their alternates Brendan McKay and Lukas Kaelble can
take the momentum the team had last season and come out of the gate swinging.
If you are planning on attending the games this
weekend, we urge you to go online & reserve your seat ASAP if you have not
done so. GLSW weekend is generally the biggest weekend of the season in terms
of ticket sales. Friday night’s game starts at 7:30pm, with Saturday’s starting
at 7:00pm. The games will be broadcast locally by YesFM, with the Voice of the
Lakers Bill Crawford doing as he has done for so long, calling the
play-by-play. If you are not able to attend or listen, consider watching the
game through FloHockey.
First, let me congratulate all the teams that made it to the
WCHA tournament this year, from top to bottom. As for Ferris & Anchorage:
Better luck next year.
The Beavers from Bemidji has certainly had some interesting
series this year: Starting the year at #13 North Dakota and taking the first
game of the series, to splitting with Northern Michigan to start a 4-game
streak, sweeping Anchorage in the process and taking one against Merrimack.
Then: A four game losing skid, starting with Merrimack, heading into a series
against #2 St. Cloud State, before splitting with #3 Minnesota State. After this
start, we would see them splitting most series.
Going into the post season, they are led in scoring by
senior defenseman & co-captain Justin Baudry, with 8-22-30pts. Following
him are two forwards: sophomore Charlie Combs (11-10-21) and junior Adam Brady
(8-13-21). In addition to Combs, Aaron Miller and Owen Sillinger round out the
top 3 goal scorers.
Their goaltending situation is similar to that of the
Lakers: Zach Driscoll has been the go-to, with the freshman netminder playing
in 25 games & posting a 10-9-4 record with a 2.296 GAA and a .910 Save %.
Henry Johnson, a sophomore, has played 14 games, with an overall record of
5-5-2, with a 1.96 GAA and a .916 Save %. Jack Burgart has a single start &
posted a loss in that contest.
These two teams have met once before this season, on January
25th & 26th, with the Beavers losing Friday night
before winning 5-3 Saturday.
Lakers Face Familiar
Foes in Familiar Waters
Well, Laker fans, what a turnaround this series has been,
eh?
The fans at the Taffy Abel Arena were able to thank the outgoing
seniors and wish them off, in what would be their final regular season game…and
for the first time in a long time, not their final home game of the year. The
Lakers would go to split the weekend, and Senior Night was ruined with the loss
Saturday.
Your top scorers and goal-getters are of no surprise: They’ve
been the ones we’ve been talking about all season. Co-Captain Diego Cuglietta
leads the pack with 23-14-37pts and is currently only 4 points off the century
mark. Following him is fellow Senior & Assistant Captain Anthony Nellis,
with 14-17-31pts and Max Humitz with 14-16-30pts. Everyone wants to see Diego
hit that mark, but I hope the team does not try to feed him this weekend: winning
is much more important than an individual record.
Kossoff, again, owns the net. Playing in 23 contests, the
senior netminder has a 15-6-2 record, with a 2.53 GAA and a .913 Save %. Sophomore
Mareks Mittens did not play last weekend, so his 11 games & 6-5-0 record
and 2.31 GAA and .919 Save % remain unchanged.
The Lakers will have to play much better than they did the
last time they saw Bemidji, and better than we saw for most of Saturday night’s
game last week. They also cannot take any stupid penalties; the Beavers are too
good of a team to give them any help. Note: The winner of this series will go
on to face the winner of the Minnesota State-Alabama-Huntsville series.
Potential Parting
Thoughts
Win or lose this weekend, we as fans should be proud of the
team, it’s been full of fun little tidbits & records: with 23 goals, Diego has
the most goals of any Laker since Joe Blaznek & Jason Sessa had 22 back in
1996-1997 season. Only one player since has even reached 20: Domenic Monardo. Staying
with Diego, he is tied for first in most goals in NCAA with Arizona State’s
Johnny Walker, & finally he is a Hobey Baker nominee.
With 21 wins on the season, Damon Whitten ties Jim Roque for
the most wins in the regular season since Jeff Jackson left the school. Roque
did it in 2006-2007, and Jackson posted 30 wins in his final season in
1995-1996
For the first time in program history, the Lakers took home
a Great Lakes Invitational win.
They have been ranked every week since January 7th.
The Lakers have had 17 players be named for either Player of
the Week or Player on the month between all categories:
The puck drops at 7:07pm Friday and Saturday nights. If a
third game is needed, it will be played at 4:07pm Sunday. Tickets are now
available at the box office or online. If you are in the area, or can make to
the arena, I implore you to, our boys will need all that energy. If you cannot
make it, or are too far away, turn your dials to 99.5 YESfm, or online at yesfm.net,
or use the Tunein App to listen to the game. Or you can watch the game online
for a fee using FloHockey.tv, which is the official source to view every WCHA
game.
Ferris: What happened? Who did this to you? It was only a
few years ago that you guys were a nWCHA powerhouse that rocked our world on
the regular, and now you’re fighting for a playoff spot? On the outside looking
in, Ferris State need some miracles to happen if they want to make the playoffs.
First: They need to not lose more than 1 point on the weekend, and
Alabama-Huntsville can’t get more than one point (maybe…not sure on the
tiebreakers).
They are led in scoring by a pair of defensemen: Freshman
Cooper Zech (8-20-28) and Junior Nate Kallen (7-16-23). Rounding out the top three
is Senior forward Corey Mackin (7-15-22). Zech also leads the team in +/- with
a +4.
In net, expect to see #30, Freshman Roni Salmenkangas, who
has appeared in 26 games with a 3.28 GAA and a .886 Save%. Backup goaltender is
Junior Justin Kapelmaster, with a 3.52 GAA and a .903 Save% in 12 games.
Senior Weekend
After being swept last weekend by their U.P Rivals, the Northern
Michigan University Wildcats, the Lakers look to rebound and maintain home ice
going into the playoffs. As it stands now, if LSSU can win at least one game,
and Bemidji gets only two on Friday, the Lakers will secure home ice to start
the playoffs (as long LSSU wins the tiebreaker, which I think we do). The Lakers
could get as high as second place in the WCHA, but with Bowling Green facing
off against Alabama-Huntsville, that seems unlikely.
(tl;dr: Root for Alabama, Minnesota State & Michigan
Tech..assuming we go to sweep the weekend that is)
Seeing as this is also Senior Weekend for our outgoing
seniors, it seems fitting that two of them are on top of the scoring list,
those being Diego Cuglietta (20-14-34) and Anthony Nellis(14-16-30), with Junior
Max Humitz(14-16-30) bringing up third. Diego had a bit of a slump last
weekend, not getting any points against the Wildcats, so he is still 7 points
out of being a 100 point scorer. Luckily, he’ll have at least 4 more games to get
there.
The last few weeks have seen a goalie rotation. I would
expect to see Senior Nick Kossoff out there at least Saturday night, for Senior
Night, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if he played the whole weekend. At
this point in the year, both Kossoff and Mitens have similar Save %, but Mitens
eeks ou ta slightly better GAA (but that is to be expected).
Rounding out our seniors this year is Steven Ruggerio, former US Gold Medalist for World Juniors, Providence Friar and current Anaheim Ducks draft pick. He has totaled 10 points thus far for the Lakers, and also leads the team in penalties, with 32 total penalties for 64 minutes.
And I can’t forget about Gage Torrel, though when the original article went up, I did. Right out of the gate anyone could see Gage was going to be something special for this team, and he was. Gage, Diego and Anthony were all on track to potentially get to that 100 point mark this season, but after being snakebitten for most of last season, Gage slowly fell out of that race, though he has posted an impressive 24 points this season.
Senior Night is always hard. Having watched most of these
guys over the last four years, it can be hard to say goodbye, especially this
year’s batch with and the talent that is leaving this team. Each and every one
deserves the applause they’ll get during the ceremonies. Most years it is
bitter sweet, however. Either because the team missed the playoffs, or because they’re
headed to Mankato where we hadn’t won at, ever.
But this year is different. This year hope is in the air. We
are looking to have home ice for the first time in years, and it feels like we can
win a round too. We have a win against every
team in the WCHA, so that locker room knows they can beat anybody. If I
dare peek ahead, playoff wins also count towards Pairwise, so there’s still an
outside shot that the Laker could make their first NCAA appearance in over 20
years even without a playoff championship, seeing as they are still #20 in the Pairwise.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, as we have to take each weekend
one night a time – it just feels good to be optimistic.
As always, the puck drops at 7:07pm both Friday and Saturday nights. Senior night will also be held Saturday before the game. 99.5 YesFM will carry the game locally, as will their stream on Yesfm.net, or through the TuneIn App. Flohockey.tv is your source for WCHA hockey this season, so those of you who can’t make it to the arena can watch the game live there.
Updated: Senior night celebrations are before the game Saturday night. Also included Gage Torrel as part of the senior crew since I somehow missed him last night.
