FOR STARTERS                                                                                                            

•The Lakers will travel for the second weekend in a row as the team heads to South Bend, Ind. for a non-conference series against the No. 4/5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 26 at the Compton Family Ice Arena. 

• Friday's game is set for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop and will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network while Saturday's match is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and will be aired live on the NHL Network, NBC Sports Chicago and SNY. 

● It will be the first time that the Lakers will play in a nationally televised game since Feb. 5, 2016 when LSSU played Michigan Tech in the annual Winter Carnival series that was aired on the American Sports Network.

• Through the first three weekends of the 2019-20 season, the Lakers are 2-4-0 after sweeping Merrimack during opening weekend and losing a pair of games to No. 2 ranked Denver at home during Great Lake State Weekend. Last weekend, the Lakers fell to Michigan by scores of 4-0 and 4-3 in Ann Arbor.

• Lake Superior is coming off of the program's best season in 23 years, posting a 23-12-2 record and finishing fourth in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

• Lakers Head Coach Damon Whitten enters his sixth season behind the bench in Sault Ste. Marie. Whitten has led the team to a 68-107-20 record, including 23 wins in 2018-19.

LAST WEEKEND RECAP                                                                                                            

• The Lakers played their first set of road games last weekend against the Michigan Wolverines at the Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. LSSU lost both games including a 4-0 loss on Friday and a 4-3 loss on Saturday.

• Lake Superior State was held scoreless for the first time this season in a 4-0 loss to Michigan on Friday, Oct. 18. Lakers goalie Mareks Mitens stopped 24 shots in the loss.

• In Saturday night's game against the Wolverines, the Lakers fell behind 3-0 in the first period. LSSU responded with a pair of goals in the second period but the team's rally would fall short as they dropped the game by a final score of 4-3.

• Mitens made 22 saves in the effort, bringing his season total to 149, which tops all WCHA netminders and is the fourth most among all NCAA goalies.

• Junior Hampus Eriksson got the Lakers on the board during Saturday's game with his second goal of the season. The Swedish forward's six points is tied for the team-lead (2G, 4A).

• Freshman Louis Boudon's goal against the Wolverines was the first of his collegiate career and his second career point. Boudon is one of four players to record their first career point this season.

• Max Humitz's assist in Saturday's game was his team-leading sixth point and ranks first among all current Lakers in career points with 82 (45G, 37A).

• The Laker offense has been evenly distributed with 16 players recording a point, 13 players registering two or more points, and seven players with three or more points. Two players have notched five points (Ashton Calder, Yuki Miura) and two players have posted six points (Hampus Eriksson, Max Humitz).

• Lake State's defense has been active with five d-men recording at least two points through the first six games of the season. Will Riedell and Collin Saccoman are tied for the team lead among defensemen with three points each.

• Lukas Kaelble notched his first two points of the season in a multi-point game against Michigan on Saturday. The German born defender notched a goal and an assist in the game.

• Yuki Miura also had a multi-point game in Saturday's game against the Wolverines. Miura has surpassed his previous year's point totals and has already notched two multi-point games in 2019-20.

LAKER LEGEND - JEFF JACKSON                                                                                                       

• The series will be highlighted by the coaching connection between the two teams as Notre Dame Head Coach Jeff Jackson would leave his mark on the Lakers program as he guided the team to two NCAA National Championships in three seasons (1992 & 1994) during his six season (1990-96) tenure as head coach at Lake Superior State.

● Jackson, the head coach at Notre Dame since 2005, spent ten seasons as a member of the Lakers coaching staff from 1986-96. Jackson was an assistant coach for the Lakers for 1988 NCAA Championship team as he served under Frank Anzalone.

● In his six seasons as head coach from 1990-96, Jackson led the team to a 182-52-25 overall record and a 120–38–23 record in conference play (CCHA). 

● The legendary coach led the team to six consecutive NCAA appearances, including three straight trips to the finals from 1992–1994.

● Current Laker Assistant Coach Zack Cisek was a member of Jackson's staff at Notre Dame during the 2017-18 season.

LAKERS VS. NOTRE DAME                                                                                          

• The Lakers and Notre Dame will meet for the 70th and 71st time in their all-time series this weekend. 

• The Fighting Irish hold the advantage in the all-time series against the Lakers, with a 36-26-7 record.

•The Lakers played the Irish four times in the calendar year of 2014 - including twice during the 2013-14 season and three times during the 2014-15 season. LSSU won the last meeting between the two teams, a 2-1 win in the Florida Classic on Dec. 29. 2014.

• The Lakers will look to record their first win in the Compton Family Ice Arena this weekens as the Fighting Irish are currently a perfect 6-0-0 in games against the Lakers at the team's home arena since the 2011-12 season. 

•No one on the current Lakers roster has played in a game against Notre Dame.

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH                                                                                  

•Notre Dame is led by Jeff Jackson, who is in his 15th season  as the head coach of the Fighting Irish. 

•Notre Dame, which was off last weekend, swept its season-opening series against Air Force (Oct. 11 & 14), coming back to defeat the Falcons 4-3 in game one and then winning game two by a score of 6-1.

• Freshman goaltender Ryan Bischel made both starts for the Irish against Air Froce, and posted a 2.00 goals against average and a .932 save percentage in the weekend series.

• Senior Mike O'Leary leads the team in points with five points (0-5-5), while Colin Theisen (3-1-4) and Cal Burke (2-2-4) each have four points.

•The Irish penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5 in the series, while Notre Dame finished 2-for-7 on the power play.

• Notre Dame is coming off a program-best fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA

tournament in 2018-19 and advanced to a regional final for the third consecutive

season (won regional final games in 2017 and 2018 to advance to the Frozen Four).

LAKER FIRSTS                                                                                                        

• The Lakers have had four players make their collegiate debuts this season (Boudon, Mitchell Oliver, Arvid Henrikson, Dustin Manz).

• Sophomore defenseman Mitchell Oliver and freshmen forwards Louis Boudon and Dustin Manz would all put on the Laker jersey for the first time in the season opener against Merrimack on Oct. 5, 2019.

• Freshman defenseman Arvid Henrikson made his collegiate debut on Oct. 12 against Denver. 

• Oliver and Mucha each notched their first career point in the Oct. 5 game vs. Merrimack. Both had multi-point nights. 

• Boudon registered his first career point, an assist, against Denver on Oct. 12 and his first career goal on Oct. 19 against the Wolverines.

• Manz netted his first career goal, which was his first  collegiate point, to tie the Lakers game at three against Denver on Oct. 12.

BALANCED ATTACK                                                                                 

• The Laker offense has been evenly distributed with 16 players recording a point, 13 players registering two or more points, and seven players with three or more points. Two players have notched five points (Ashton Calder, Yuki Miura) and two players have posted six points (Hampus Eriksson, Max Humitz).

• 13 different players have scored a goal for Lake Superior this season.

•13 Lakers notched at least one point against Merrimack, 10 players had two or more points, four players had three points and one had five points. 

•Last season the Lakers had 13 players record 10 or more points with nine of those players returning this season.

•Eight players registered at least 22 points and five of them are returning members of the 2019-20 squad. 

• The Lakers also return one of three 30-plus point scorers from 2018-19 in Max Humitz (33 points). 

• 13 different players netted the game winning goal for the Lakers in 2018-19 - with 10 of those players returning to the lineup this year. 

NON-CONFERENCE OCTOBER                                                                                                      

• The Lakers will wrap up their four non-conference series to open the season this weekend. LSSU opened the season with the home set of games against Merrimack, followed by the home series against No. 2 Denver on Great Lake State Weekend on Friday, Oct. 11 and Saturday, Oct. 12. 

• The Lakers swept the series against Merrimack at Taffy Abel Arena but dropped a pair of very hard fought games against No. 2 Denver on Great Lake State Weekend (Oct. 11- 12).

• Lake State played its first road series of the season last weekend against Michigan, where the Lakers were swept by the Wolverines in the sereis. 

CONFERENCE PLAY AHEAD                                                                                                    

• Following this weekend's series, the Lakers will open Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) play with a series against Ferris State at home.

• The remainder of November will see the Lakers alternate between home and away series with the team traveling to Bemidji State, hosting Michigan Tech, traveling to Bowling Green and closing out the month with a home series against Bemidji State. 

NEW VS. OLD                                                                                                                       

• The Lakers will face-off against two previous Lake State head coaches in the month of October - Scott Borek & Jeff Jackson. 

• Borek, the second year head coach of the Merrimack Warriors, served as the Lakers head coach from 1996-01. Borek complied a 76–94–15 overall record during his time in Sault Ste. Marie.

• Jackson, the head coach at Notre Dame since 2005, spent ten seasons as a member of the Lakers coaching staff from 1986-96 and guided the team to a pair of NCAA National Championships (1992 & 1994). 

IN THE POLLS                                                                                               

• The Lakers did not receive any votes in either of the polls this week. 

• In the first three USCHO Polls of the 2019-20 season, Lake Superior State was not ranked but did receive votes. 

•The Lakers were ranked in the USCHO Poll's Top 20 for ten consecutive weeks during the 2018-19 season. 

• In the WCHA Preseason Polls,  Lake Superior State was picked to finish in the sixth spot in both polls, receiving 58 total points in the 2019-20 Mankato Free Press WCHA Preseason Coaches Poll and 57 total points in the 2019-20 WCHA Preseason Media Poll.

TOP-FIVE MATCHUPS:                                                                                                         

• The Lakers will face-off against a team ranked in the top-five of the USCHO Division I Men's Hockey Poll for the second time this month as they take on the No. 4/5 Fighting Irish. 

• Lake Superior previously played No. 2 ranked Denver at home earlier this month.  

 

 

CROSSING THE BORDER                                                                       

• On Sept. 23, the Lakers announced that a regular season conference game against the University of Alabama-Huntsville will be played in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario at the GFL Memorial Gardens. The game, which will take place on Feb. 15, 2020, is the first regular season WCHA game that the Lakers will play in Canada and the first NCAA game to be played in Canada since 2012.

NATIONAL AUDIENCE                                                                           

• The Lake Superior State men's hockey game against the No. 7 University of Notre Dame on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m. ET will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network while Saturday's game at 6:00 p.m. ET will be aired live on the NHL Network. 

• It will be the first time that the Lakers will play in a nationally televised game since Feb. 5, 2016 when LSSU played Michigan Tech in the annual Winter Carnival series that was aired on the American Sports Network. 

 

OTHER INFORMATION                                                                                                                                    .

• The month of November will see the Lakers with a few special promotional nights recognizing important community members and organizations. The game on Saturday, Nov. 2 will be "Thank You Mayor Tony" Night to celebrate the 18-year tenure of Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Tony Bosbous. On Nov. 15, the United Way of the EUP will hold the annual "Light the Lamp" game. More information on these events can be found on lssulakers.com. 

• Every week Bill Crawford along with head coach Damon Whitten, the assistant coaches and players take a look at the Laker Hockey program.  A review of past games, a look ahead to future action and more information and insight on the team and players.  The show is live from the Antlers restaurant on East Portage Avenue every Tuesday night starting at 6 p.m. and can be heard on WKNW ESPN Radio 1400.

• Every home game and all road games against conference opponents will be available via live stream hosted by FloSports on WCHA.tv or at Buffalo Wild Wings in Sault Ste. Marie. Radio PxP from the voice of the Lakers, Bill Crawford, will be heard every game on 99.5 YES FM. 

• Laker Athletics will announce designated games that will include viewing parties at Buffalo Wild Wings. The first of the watch parties will be held on Friday, Oct. 18 when the Lakers are in Ann Arbor playing Michigan at 7:30. There will be special deals for any Lake State students that attend the watch party. 

• This season, Laker Hockey introduces Soo Brewing as the official pregame and The Wicked Sister as the official postgame spots.

• Follow Laker Hockey on social media all season long for news, updates and behind-the-scenes action. 

Twitter: @HockeyLSSU

Instagram: @LSSUHockey

Facebook: @lssuhockeyfans