by Tom Balog / LSSU Beat WriterThe Lake Superior State Lakers vaulted into fifth place in the CCHA after sweeping the Northern Michigan Wildcats over the weekend.
Friday night was all Lake State as they dismantled their UP foes, 5-1, at the Taffy Abel Arena.
The recently high powered Lakers got a pair of goals from Rick Schofield and one each from Ben Power, Fred Cassini, and Chad Nehring to run their unbeaten streak to five games.
Phil Fox scored the lone goal for the Wildcats with just 58-seconds left in the contest to break up the shutout bid by Brian Mahoney-Wilson.
Mahoney-Wilson finished the night with 30 saves and second star honors.
Brian Stewart started between the pipes for NMU and stopped 33 of 37 shots before being relieved by Reid Ellingson with about 10 minutes to go in the game. Ellingson turned away 6 of 7 shots in mop up duty.
Schofield racked up the first star and Power completed the LSSU trifecta by picking up the third star.
It was more of the same for the Lakers on Saturday as they completed the sweep with a 6-3 drubbing of the ‘Cats.
Six different Lakers scored and 14 recorded at least a point.
Zac MacVoy (pictured) and Will Action scored power-play markers to spot LSSU to a 2-0 lead after twenty minutes of play.
Rick Schofield racked up his third goal of the weekend at 9:17 of the second period to give the home team a 3-0 lead.
The Wildcats fought back in a wild third period that saw each team score three goals.
Jared Brown got NMU on the board at 3:33 and then added a short handed marker at 6:19.
Not to be outdone, John Scrymgeour scored the eventual game-winner, shorthanded at 7:48 to give LSSU a 4-2 lead.
TJ Miller added an even strength goal for NMU at 12:19 to pull Northern to within a goal, but empty net lamp lighters from MacVoy and Chad Nehring iced the game for LSSU.
Brian Mahoney-Wilson finished the night with 28 saves for the Lakers.
Reid Ellingson started for NMU and was lifted at the 10:28 mark after giving up his second goal on 10 shots. Brian Stewart finished up and stopped 27 of 29 shots.
The Lakers (10-7-3, 7-6-1-0 CCHA), have won four straight and have scored 16 goals in their last three games. LSSU is also now seven goals up on the Wildcats in the race for the Father Cappo Cup. The two teams will face off twice more this season to determine the total-goals winner. The Lakers are off until their non-conference series at Robert Morris on Jan. 2-3.
Northern Michigan (6-8-4, 5-6-3 CCHA) has stumbled to a 1-3-2 record in their last six games and will play one non-conference game at home next Friday against Michigan Tech.
Photo courtesy of LSSU Athletics.
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