It might have been reasonable to assume at the start of the 2021-22 season that Lake Superior State might have some issues scoring goals this year.
After all, the Lakers lost four of their top five scorers (Ashton Calder, Pete Veillette, Hampus Eriksson and Will Reidell) either to graduation or the NCAA transfer portal (in a few cases, to both).
Many members of the college hockey pundit class (this writer included) thought that losing all these players might make LSSU’s pursuit of a second consecutive NCAA tournament berth or conference tournament title a little more difficult.
How’s that working out for us? Well, so far the 5-3-0 Lakers are eight games into their season and have already scored 30 goals — tied for second in the country. Junior Brandon Puricelli has six goals and 11 points already, while junior Louis Boudon has three goals and 10 assists.
Oops.
As is usually the case, Lake Superior State’s coaching staff knew better.
“I think people who cover the league and around college hockey, that was a big question for a lot of people was how we were going to score, but maybe not so much on staff,” Lakers head coach Damon Whitten said Tuesday morning. “We knew that some of the people we lost and moved on would be big losses, but we’ve shown a history around here of having guys step up.”
Whitten mentioned the 2018-19 season, when Diego Cuglietta led the nation with 25 goals in 38 games. The next season, the Lakers’ Max Humitz ended up netting 22.
“Diego a few years ago leads the nation in goals, then he graduates and people ask ‘Who’s going to score?’ Then Humitz steps up and does it with a huge year,” Whitten said, saying he sees some similarities in his team this season. “I think we felt we had some pieces in place to replace the guys we lost and we’ve done that at a really high level so far, which is great. And we’ve had a few different guys step up.”
Aside from Boudon and Puricelli, who were known quantities, the Lakers have so far been getting a lot out of players who are either newcomers or aren’t household names to anyone outside the Soo. Whitten said that the Lakers are currently using six or seven freshmen along with two transfers in the lineup most nights.
Boston College transfer Harrison Roy has 11 points so far, while sophomore defender Jacob Bengtsson and senior forward Miroslav Mucha both have eight. And in last weekend’s sweep against Union, a pair of freshmen — Josh Nixon and Timo Bakos — each had multi-point games.
“Coming into the weekend we wanted to get some secondary scoring to go along with Boudon and Perch and Roy, and we did it with some young guys stepping up,” Whitten said. “We’ve certainly answered some of those questions so now sustaining that will be the big challenge as we move forward.”
One consequence, though, of the Lakers utilizing so many new players in the lineup is that the team still has to work on maintaining discipline. They’re currently the most-penalized team in the country, having taken 49 penalties for 131 minutes. Their penalty kill is 33 for 43 — just 76.7 percent.
“We’ve got to stay out of the penalty box,” Whitten said. “We did a little bit better job this weekend, but part of that inexperience we have is on the penalty kill. I think our top six penalty-kill guys moved on. So we have to clean that up in the future. It will help our goaltenders if we can stay out of the box and they can see even more even-strength situations.”
A trickle-down effect of the Lakers’ ill discipline is that their goaltending tandem of junior Seth Eisele and sophomore Ethan Langenegger have each given up 14 goals. The two goalies have been alternating games every weekend and Whitten said he plans to do the same for the Lakers’ upcoming home series against St. Lawrence. Nether has yet emerged to take over for stalwart Mareks Mitens, who went pro after graduating last season.
“We’re very comfortable with how both guys have gone so far. They’ve both done a good job, but those numbers are being inflated a little bit because of all the time we’ve spent on the penalty kill,” Whitten said. “But we’re very comfortable with both guys. We started with Seth playing the first night of a series and Lang the second night and we’ve flipped it the last two weekends. We’ve got to revisit that soon but I think we’re going to rotate for a little while and see if anyone emerges.”
This weekend’s series against the Saints represents the Lakers’ final nonconference games of the season. At least one win this weekend guarantees they’ll have at least a .500 record outside of CCHA play. Not bad, considering three of their four nonleague opponents were NCAA tournament teams last season.
“We went down and had some good games down in Ann Arbor against Michigan despite getting swept, and in Omaha we played very well. I think they still only have one loss and that was to us. We’ve had a really challenging schedule, and our young guys have been thrown right into it and they’ve done a really good job,” Whitten said. “You’re seeing some quick growth and building from them, and they’re just going to keep getting better and better.
“We’ll be very experienced when it’s all said and done, and we’ve had some really good things to build on.”
