The Lake Superior State Lakers got a dose of revenge on the Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday night.
On Friday night the Lakers were outscored 3-1 in a shootout at the hands of the Broncos. Saturday night saw the two teams back in a shootout, after skating to a 5-5 draw, and this time the Lakers came out on top thanks to a Kyle Jean goal.
“The guys showed a lot of resiliency,” Lakers coach Jim Roque said. “We were down 3-1 and (goaltender) Kevin (Kapalka) was really upset about the second goal, he was apologizing for it, but we battled back and late in the game we got the tying goal. I just keep telling the guys, I think we’re doing all of the right things. They’re working hard but they just can’t seem to get over the hump
In a similar fashion to Friday night’s game as well, the Lakers needed the final minute of regulation time just to gain the tie. Rick Schofield, who was the hero on Friday by scoring a final minute game-tying goal, was back at it again on Saturday night by tying the contest with 28 seconds remaining.
“We’ve been pretty good at that (holding leads) most of the year,” said Western Michigan coach Jeff Blashill. “We’ve salted away a lot of wins but for whatever reason, twice we didn’t now. In both situations, we took penalties we didn’t need to take.”
Despite the tie, Blashill thought the Lakers carried the momentum in the game.
“The Lakers came out much more ready to play than we did,” said Blashill. “They carried the play for the most part through the game. We had a stretch in the second period where we started to come on a little bit and scored a couple of goals, but then we got undisciplined. They were penalties we try to work on like not having sticks in guys guts. At the end of the day I thought Lake Superior deserved an even better outcome even though they got down late.”
Blashill went to the same three shooters that got him the extra point on Friday night but, in a complete opposite outcome of Friday, all three were turned aside. Defenseman Dennis Brown pulled out the same move he beat Lakers goaltender Kevin Kapalka with on Friday night but hit the post, Greg Squires was stopped while Max Campbell also hit the post.
For the Lakers, Schofield, Monardo and Ben Power were all turned aside.
In all, seven shooters came out and were turned aside before Kyle Jean scored on a one-handed deke to give the Lakers the extra point.
“Monardo, Schofield, Benny Power or Will (Acton)…three of those four are usually the first guys we start with (in the shootout and then go from there,” said Roque when asked if he had a set list of players he looks to if the shootout gets past the first three rounds. “There’s not a lot of reasoning to it.”
Along with Schofield’s late third period goal, Acton scored a pair of goals and Lain chipped in with a goal in regulation time. Kapalka finished the night with 17 saves.
On the Broncos side of things, Matt Tennyson, Chase Balisy, Kyle O’Kane and Shane Berschbach scored in regulation. Goaltender Jerry Kuhn stopped 20 shots.
With the win, the Lakers record improved to 6-11-7 (4-8-6-4 CCHA) while the Broncos are now 12-6-8 overall (6-5-7-4 CCHA).
Both schools are back in action next weekend. As their four-game homsestand concludes, the Lakers open a four-game road trip Friday night when they travel to Bowling Green to take on the Falcons. The Broncos return home and open a four-game homestand by hosting the Northern Michigan Wildcats.
