They finished the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season on a high note on Saturday night and in doing so also secured their highest standings finish since 1996.
Thanks to a 2-1 victory at Taffy Abel Arena on Saturday over the Ferris State Bulldogs, the Lake Superior State Lakers secured second place in the WCHA standings and home ice next weekend in the opening round of the playoffs.
A power play goal by senior defenceman Will Riedell with 4:09 to go in the second period was the difference for Lake State in the victory, a game in which they outshot their opponent 42-17.
“We didn’t give much up and it was good attention to detail defensively,” Lakers coach Damon Whitten said in a post-game interview on the Lakers radio broadcast on YesFM. “
Junior Pete Veillette had the other goal for Lake State when a one-timer from junior forward Ashton Calder from the right circle deflected off Veillette at the top of the crease and past freshman Ferris State goaltender Logan Stein in the opening period.
Ferris State got on the board at 5:12 of the second period when freshman forward Antonio Venuto beat senior goaltender Mareks Mitens short side.
Mitens finished the night with 16 saves for Lake State while Stein stopped 40 at the other end for the Bulldogs.
After having a pair of weekend series’ postponed in the new year, Saturday’s game wraps up a busy stretch of games for Lake State.
“We’re coming off 10 games in 22 days, seven of them on the road,” Whitten said. “We’re all living through a unique year and some challenging times. For our program, it’s been exemplified. We’ve practice two, maybe three times (at Taffy Abel Arena) in the last month, month and a half. It’s just really unique.”
Earlier in the week, the Lakers split a pair of WCHA road games at Bemidji State.
On Tuesday night, junior forward Tyler Kirkup had the overtime winner as Bemidji State beat the Lakers 2-1.
Kirkup found himself in the slot where he took a pass from junior Alex Ierullo and proceeded to beat Mitens stick side to give the Beavers the victory.
Senior forward Brendan Harris had the other goal for Bemidji State in the win.
Harris beat junior Lakers defenceman Mitchell Oliver just inside the Lake State blueline before beating Mitens glove side on a shorthanded break to open the scoring just under seven minutes into the contest.
Veillette had the lone Lakers goal in the contest.
Veillette tied the game at one early in the second period when he scored on a rebound after senior defenceman Will Riedell’s initial point shot was stopped by Beavers senior goaltender Zach Driscoll.
Mitens made 22 saves for Lake State while Driscoll stopped 23 shots for the Beavers.
In Wednesday’s contest, the Lakers scored three times in the final 20 minutes en route to a 5-2 win in the series finale.
Goals by freshman defenceman Jacob Bengtsson and Calder 17 seconds apart, following by an empty net goal by Calder with 2:30 to go, lifted the Lakers to victory.
Entering the zone as the trailer, Bengtsson took a pass from fellow freshman Benito Posa and proceeded to beat Driscoll from the left circle with 9:03 to go in the contest.
Calder then added to the lead when he beat Driscoll from the right circle to make it 4-2.
The junior forward finished the night with three goals for Lake State after scoring on a rebound midway through the second period.
Lakers senior Louis Boudon opened the scoring in the game, beating Driscoll on a redirection of a back-door pass from Veillette five minutes into the game.
Senior Aaron Miller and freshman Eric Martin completed the scoring for Bemidji State in Wednesday’s loss, both goals coming on the man advantage.
Miller got the Beavers on the board 1:50 after Boudon opened the scoring as he beat Mitens glove side from the high slot and Martin beat Mitens on a one-timer from the left circle on a cross-ice feed from Lukas Sillinger in the late stages of the second period.
Mitens finished the night with 36 saves while Driscoll made 25.
The Lakers finish conference action with a 9-5-0 (win-loss-tie) record and 15-6-3 overall.
The team will host the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers next weekend in a best-of-3 playoff series at Taffy Abel Arena.