Monday, January 17, 2011

Yanakeff, Kapalka the story in the Soo

By Bob Miller/Lake Superior State Beat Writer

A pair of young goaltenders battled it out over the weekend in Sault Ste. Marie.

Michigan State visited Lake Superior State in a clash between teams trying to edge their way up from the lower echelon of the CCHA standings.

Lake Superior State's Kevin Kapalka and Michigan State's Will Yanakeff have both taken over as the go-to guy in net for their respective teams as the season has progressed.

Yanakeff took round one with a 4-0 shutout of the Lakers on Friday night, stopping all 24 Lake Superior shots in the process.

Kapalka gained a measure of revenge in the Saturday night series finale, albeit in an unusual fashion.

The freshman Laker netminder stopped 31 shots in regulation time and overtime sending the game to a shootout, evntually won by Lake Superior on Ben Power's goal in the fourth round of the shootout.

Kapalka suffered a shoulder injury during the shootout, but still managed to hang on to grab the extra point in the shootout.

Yanakeff, for his part, made 34 stops in the Saturday night re-match.

“Will played great,” Michigan State head coach Rick Comley told USCHO. “He was outstanding. It's the first time he's played back-to-back games and started two games in a row. It was a different game than Friday night. Tonight (Saturday) was and up and down game where both goalies had to come up big.”

Both goalies did come up big on the weekend for their respective squads and undoubtedly earned more playing time in the process.

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