Lakers outgun Huskies Sunday evening

By Andy Bourdeau/Michigan Tech Beat Writer

Michigan Tech was coming off a big win against Northern Michigan, while Lake Superior State was coming off a hard-fought loss to Minnesota Duluth, both looking to close the Superior Showcase with a win.

Sunday night, it was the Lakers that earned the win with a 3-1 victory over the Huskies.

LSSU controlled much of the play and were able to capitalize once in each frame. It was senior Zac MacVoy (pictured) who started the scoring, with a goal just seconds after the Lakers first power play was over. The second goal of the night came off of the stick of Chad Nehring, when he tipped in a shot from Rick Schofield. This time it was on the man-advantage, and was the first of two power-play goals for the Lakers.

MTU (1-1-0) was within one when freshman Milos Gordic recorded his first goal of his career when he scored as MTU had an empty net, and was shorthanded, but seconds later LSSU put the game away with a final power-play goal by Pat Aubry.

Kevin Genoe started his first game as a Husky in net and made 29 saves, while his counterpart, Brian Mahoney-Wilson, made 28 stops and earned the win.

“I was happy for our kids,” said Lakers’ coach Jim Roque. “We are hoping this will give us some confidence for next few weeks.”

MTU head coach Jamie Russell was not as pleased.

“I thought we were undisciplined tonight," Russell said. "We did not pressure their goalie as much as we needed to.”

Lake Superior State (1-1-0) hosts Canisius next weekend, while the Huskies have next weekend off before starting WCHA play at Colorado College on Oct. 23.

Photo courtesy Lake Superior State University

NMU tops Minnesota-Duluth at Showcase

By Susannah Nichols/ Northern Michigan Beat Writer

Northern Michigan (1-1-0) posted a 3-1 victory over the University of Minnesota-Duluth last night at the Superior Showcase, redeeming their 5-3 loss to Michigan Tech in the Showcase opener on Friday.

Mark Olver (pictured) had a three-point night, and sophomore goalie Reid Ellingson had a solid night in net with 32 saves.

After a deadlocked first period, Erik Gustafsson lit the lamp with some help from Olver and Mike Maltese. UMD only took five minutes to tie up the game with a goal from Jack Connolly.

Just before the end of the second period, Olver and Maltese connected again, this time to set up Ray Kaunisto for his first goal of the season.

The third period saw a total of 13 penalties, yielding five total power plays in the first 11 minutes of the period. But it wasn't until Tech's Chad Huttel was slapped with two minutes for cross-checking that Northern was able to convert. Gustafsson and Jared Brown had each just missed a shot before they were able to set up Olver for his first goal of the season and the last of the night.

NMU has two weeks to gear up for their next match. The Wildcats face Bemidji State at home on October 23-24. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. both nights.

Photo courtesy Northern Michigan Athletics

Huskies top rival NMU at Showcase

By Andy Bourdeau/Michigan Tech Beat Writer

Michigan Tech opened the season at home against rival Northern Michigan with a 5-3 win tonight at the Superior Showcase.

MTU beat the Wildcats for the first time in the showcase since it was started two years ago.

Northern started the scoring in the seventh minute of the first, when Eric Gustafsson shot one past netminder Josh Robinson. Tech responded quickly when sophomore Brett Olson tipped in a rebound. Northern took two penalties giving Tech a 5-on-3, but then the Huskies were whistled for one, giving themselves a 4-on-3 power play. Brian Stewart stood strong in net for the first half of the power play, but then it was junior Jordan Baker getting his first goal of the season and MTU's first power play goal of the year.

MTU struck one time more when Olson blasted a slap shot over the right shoulder of Stewart for his second of the game. MTU let their guard down with one minute remaining in the first and the Wildcats were able to capitilize on the power play with Gregor Hanson getting the goal.

The second period saw each team with a couple of power play chances, but both goalies stood strong. It was in the third when scoring continued, when MTU took a 4-2 lead on Olson's third of the game. Senior captain Malcolm Gwilliam put the home team up, 5-2, with the third power-play goal of the game for the Huskies. The goal also chased Stewart out of the net.

Northern pulled their goalie with four minutes to go. They were able to get a goal on a 6-on-4 power play when Brian Nugent buried a rebound. That was all that NMU could muster as the Huskies stayed strong and made it to the end with the lead.

Robinson ended with 15 stops, while Stewart made 29 on the night.

NMU head coach Walt Kyle was not pleased with the performance of all Wildcats, stating, "We had a lot of guys who we expect to score for us who didn’t compete very hard tonight."

It was just the opposite in the Huskies' locker room.

"We played a good game, and got good production from our special teams," MTU head coach Jamie Russell said. "I am proud of our kids, they competed hard and we started off on the right foot."

Both teams play the second half of the Superior Showcase on Sunday. NMU travels to Duluth to take on the Bulldogs, while the Lake Superior State Lakers travel to Houghton to play the Huskies.

Lakers falter over weekend

by Mike Burrill/LSSU Beat Writer

The young Lake Superior State Lakers earned some valuable experience in the inaugural Superior Showcase last weekend.

In Friday’s game against Minnesota-Duluth, the Lakers gave up 39 shots on goal, but sophomore goaltender Pat Inglis was up to the task in stopping 37 of them.

Fellow sophomore Nathan Perkovich scored the first Laker goal of the season in the second period with an assist going to freshman Will Acton. Alternate captain Dan Eaves put the Lakers up 2-1 in the third with assists going to sophomore Nik Sellers and freshman Chad Nehring.

LSSU wasn’t able to hold the lead, however, giving up a power-play goal minutes later to settle for the 2-2 tie at the DECC.

The Lakers were 0-for-5 on the power-play, while the home Bulldogs were 1-for-5.

On Sunday evening in Houghton, the Lakers played the Michigan Tech Huskies in their second game of the Showcase.

The young Laker defense struggled early with the Huskies speed and transition game and quickly found themselves down 2-0. They gained some momentum at the end of the period, however, when a rough bounce off a clearing shot by sophomore defenseman Simon Gysbers slid into the net, cutting MTU’s lead in half.

The Lakers took that momentum into the second period, dominating the Huskies and scoring twice in the first 10 minutes. Sellers got his second point of the weekend, banging home a juicy rebound on a shot by Nehring. Eaves earned the other assist.

Perkovich scored his second of the weekend two minutes later with assists going to junior Josh Sim and freshman Rick Schofield.

After the Lakers took the lead, questionable officiating saw a steady stream of Laker Blue going to the penalty box, which gave the hometown Huskies a power-play goal to close the period and all the momentum they needed to cruise to a 4-3 win.

Inglis was in net for the Lakers again and made 21 saves on the night. LSSU was shutout on the power-play, going 0-for-4, while MTU went 2-for-6.

The Lakers host Western Ontario Saturday night at Taffy Abel Arena in exhibition play.

Northern Michigan splits Superior Cup weekend

In a battle for the Superior Cup, the Northern Michigan Wildcats split a pair of weekend games, downing Michigan Tech 3-2 on Friday before falling 4-0 against the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

On Friday, the 'Cats (1-1-0) skated to victory behind goals from Nick Sirota, Jared Brown and captain T.J. Miller.

Brown's goal, which was short-handed, was the first of his collegiate career.

Miller knocked home the game-winner on a power-play just 3:43 into the final period. The NMU defense then muscled up to pull out the win.

Northern's Brian Stewart allowed a pair of goals on 22 shots, while Michael-Lee Teslak gave up three goals on just 19 NMU shots.

Against UMD (1-0-1) on Saturday, the Northern offense failed to pick up a goal, despite firing two more shots than the previous night.

MacGregor Sharp, Jason Garrison, Nick Kemp and Josh Myers all picked up markers for the Bulldogs.

After allowing four goals on 23 shots, Stewart took to the bench in favor of Derek Janzen, who stopped the only four shots that he faced.

For the weekend, NMU was 1-11 on power-play while killing eight of 11 opponent opportunities.

The results from the weekend's Superior Cup

UMD: 1-0-1
MTU: 1-1-0
NMU: 1-1-0
LSSU: 0-1-1

Wildcats win exhibition, name captains

The Northern Michigan University hockey team had a tune-up for the 2007-08 season on Sunday afternoon at the Berry Events Center as the Wildcats defeated the University of Toronto in an exhibition game, 8-0.

NMU scored four times in the first period, three in the second and once in the third.

Mark Olver and Andrew Sarauer scored twice and Tim Hartung, Jared Brown, Billy Smith and Derek May added singles.

Brian Stewart and Derek Janzen both saw time between the pipes. Stewart turned away six shots, while Janzen had 10 saves.

NMU will take to the road for the first weekend of the regular season for the Superior Showcase. Friday night, the team will be at Michigan Tech and the next night at Minnesota-Duluth.

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TJ Miller and Billy Smith have been named co-captains for the 2007-08 Northern Michigan Wildcats.

“In my opinion, these two guys have proven to be emerging leaders on the team,” said NMU head coach Walt Kyle. “They have the respect of the guys in the room and coaching staff. They have what it takes to take the team in the direction we want to go.”

Miller, a sophomore defenseman from Placentia, Calif., had two goals and 12 assists for 14 points last year in 37 games.

Smith is a sophomore forward from Sterling, Alaska, and has yet to skate for the Wildcats. He had to sit out last year after transferring from Alaska-Anchorage. In his only season of action at UAA (2005-06), he had eight points on four goals and four assists in 32 games of action.

Superior Showcase Preview

For the first time, the four Division I schools on Lake Superior will play in an opening season showcase.

Michigan Tech and University of Duluth - Minnesota of the WCHA will host Northern Michigan and Lake Superior State of the CCHA in the inaugural Superior Showcase. Since the WCHA and CCHA schools will not play each other, this showcase will have no winner, but will act as a season kick off for all four schools with plenty of bragging rights up for grabs.


NMU head coach Walt Kyle and MTU bench boss Jamie Russell came up with the idea as a way for the teams to get a chance to play quality oponents in the first week of the season that would not affect their conference schedules. If the turn out is good and all four schools are game, this could turn into an annual event with the four schools remaining constant for the lifetime of the showcase.


The games kick off on Friday night, when Michigan Tech hosts Northern Michigan and Minnesota-Duluth hosts Lake Superior State. Then Saturday, UMD will host NMU and Sunday afternoon, MTU will host LSSU (on ESPNU).