MARQUETTE – Lake Superior State fell to Upper Peninsula rival Northern Michigan in the first game of a two-game home-and-home tilt on Friday night, 6-3 at the Berry Events Center. The Lakers and Wildcats, began play in a nonconference matchup for the first time since both teams joined the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Lakers (0-3-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) opened the game with a few ill-advised plays that the Wildcats quickly took advantage.
An errant pass by Eric Drapluk resulted in an early break-away chance for the Wildcats before James Roll had to drag the streaking forward to the ice to prevent a high quality scoring chance. Roll was charged for tripping and NMU went on the game's first power-play opportunity early in the game.
On the ensuing power play, the Wildcats capitalized with a seeing-eye goal by Brock Maschmeyer from the blue line. Maschmeyer's tally was aided by Sami Salminen, a 6-4, 222-pound forward, applying the screen in front of Lakers' goaltender Gordon Defiel (0-3-0). Shane Sooth and Gerard Hanson picked up the assists on the opening goal.
The Wildcats (1-0-2, 0-0-0 WCHA) raced out to a two goal lead with 8:31 remaining in the openeing period with a short-handed marker by Darren Nowick. Gerard Hanson intercepted the puck, flew through the neutral zone and flipped a perfect lead pass to Nowick, who tucked the puck just under Defiel's glove to widen the gap.
NMU took the 2-0 lead into the locker room after outshooting the Lakers 10-7 in the opening frame.
At 15:57 of the second period, a frightening moment in front of the Lakers's bench caused a lengthy stoppage and a shocked silence among the 2,259 fans in attendance. Sophomore defenseman Aidan Wright took a hard hit from behind and went crashing head-first into the boards. Anthony Paskaruk was called for a two-minute boarding call but the Lakers lost their always-reliable blueliner Wright, who was carried off on a stretcher by paramedics.
After seeing their teammate carried away, the Lakers responded quickly thereafter on the power play with a goal by freshman Mitch Hults(3-0--3). Hults displayed great patience while taking his time to ensure he had the proper handle of the loose puck and flipped it over the sprawling Mathias Dahlstrom (1-0-0). Alex Globke (0-1--1) and Diego Cuglietta (0-2--2) added the assists on the Lakers' opening goal.
Hults quickly tied the game with another power-play tally, just 43 seconds after scoring his first. This time, Hults shot the puck through the legs of Globke, who assisted on the first goal, and through the legs Dahlstrom. Anthony Nellis (0-1--1) and Cuglietta notched the assistst on the second goal. Both Nellis and Cuglietta were able to capture their first collegiate points while running an effective power play, which created many quality opportunities for the Lakers.
The Wildcats reclaimed the lead and extended their advantage with a pair of goals top close out the second period ahead 4-2. Barrett Kaib scored a power-play goal and Robbie Payne scored the game's first even-strength goal of the night.
Payne extended the lead to 5-2 and picked up his second goal of the night 6:08 into the final period. Payne's second goal went unassisted.
Freshman forward Josh Nenadal (1-0--1) added his first collegiate goal with a wrist shot that he fired past the ear of NMU's backup goaltender Atte Tolvanen. Tolvanen replaced the goalie of record, Dahlstrom, to open the final period and made 11 saves.
Matt Johnson (0-2--2) made a strong play behind the net to get the puck to Gus Correale (0-2--2), who was able to shuffle the puck out to Nenadal in the slot. Once the puck was on his stick, the freshman knew what to do with it and lit the lamp with one of the hardest shots of the night.
The Wildcats added another late goal in the game to claim the 6-3 victory after Robbie Payne added his hat-trick goal with 42 seconds remaining.
The Lakers finished 2-7 on their power-play opportunities, while the Wildcats went 2-3.
Defiel played all 60 minutes between the pipes for the Lakers and made 19 saves in the effort.
The Lakers and Wildcats will meet again Saturday night at Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie during the annual Great Lake State Weekend at LSSU. Game time is set for 7:07 p.m. ET.