Saturday afternoon was nothing out of the ordinary for head coach Jim Roque and his Lake Superior State squad. His team battled for loose pucks, was physical on the boards and out-shot its opponent, just like every other game this season.
The only thing different for the Lakers this time was they finally got the positive result.
Getting a pair of goals from Josh Sim, a goal and three assists from Troy Schwab and three assists from Zac MacVoy, Lake Superior State broke a seven-game winless streak by pounding Harvard, 6-2, to advance to the finals of the 20th annual Badger Hockey Showdown on Sunday evening.
“I can’t say ‘Wow, this is, like, unbelievable,'” Roque said after his club won for just the fifth time in 19 games. “What you saw out of our team tonight is how we’ve played. A lot of nights we’ve missed them or they haven’t gone in. That’s exactly how we’ve played.”
Despite being out-shot 10-1 by Harvard (4-7-2) to start the first period, Schwab help LSSU shake off the rust when he registered his team-best ninth goal of the season at 9:51 to help get the momentum.
Holding onto a one-goal lead midway through the second period, the Lakers (5-8-6), who had scored just 11 goals during their seven-game skid, exploded for three third-period goals, all coming from a different source.
Even the power play, which had been converting at only 8.6 percent (second worst in Division I), registered a goal, all of which helped propel Lake Superior into the title game against host Wisconsin, who beat Alabama-Huntsville, 5-0, in the nightcap.
“They beat us in every facet,” Crimson coach Ted Donato said after his club pushed its winless streak to seven games.
For whatever reason, the Lakers have found semifinal success playing in the Badger Hockey Showcase, as Lake Superior State has advanced to the title game in all three appearances. The title game is a different story, as the Lakers have lost to host Wisconsin in 1994 and Clarkson in 2006.
