SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - The Lake Superior State hockey team closed out the weekend with a 7-1 win over the St. Lawrence Saints in a nonconference game on Saturday, Oct. 30 at the Taffy Abel Arena. With the victory, the Lakers improve to 6-3-1 this season and wrapped up nonconference play with a 4-3-1 record.
Junior forward Louis Boudon led the Lakers to the victory with his first career hat trick while Dawson Tritt, Josh Nixon, Dustin Manz, and Mitchell Oliver netted the other four Laker goals against the Saints. Laker goaltender Seth Eisele made 23 saves in the win.
The Lakers took a 1-0 lead in the first period for the second night in a row against the Saints. Freshman forward Dawson Tritt continued the strong start to his collegiate career with his fourth goal of the season at 3:24 of the period. The play began when sophomore defenseman Jacob Bengtsson connected a pass with Harrison Roy, who was stationed along the goal line to the left of Saints goaltender. Roy took a sharp angle shot on goal that ricocheted out to the slot, where Tritt got off a quick wrist shot that beat Adams for the lead.
At 5:20 of the second period, St. Lawrence tied the game at one when Reilly Moran netted his first goal of the season. Defenseman Philippe Chapleau carried the puck into the offensive zone, setting up Moran for the goal. The Saints forward sent a low shot on goal that beat Eisele.
The Lakers broke the 1-1 tie at 13:51 of the period when Mitchell Oliver scored a power play goal to give the Lakers the lead. With the Laker power play unit set up in the offensive zone, senior forward Miroslav Mucha extended his point streak to a career-best five games as he notched the secondary assist. Mucha passed the puck from along the boards to Jacob Bengtsson, who was at the blue line. Bengtsson set up Oliver for a slapshot that redirected off the Saints defender in front of Adams and into the back of the net.
Laker captain Louis Boudon gave the team a 3-1 lead at 3:03 of the second period as he dove to tap a loose puck in past Adams. Sophomore defenseman Jeremy Gervais, who tallied the second assist on the goal, sent the puck along the blue line to Mucha. Mucha fired the puck towards the St. Lawrence goal and Boudon was able to capitalize on the loose puck for his fourth goal of the season.
Boudon scored his second goal of the game at 17:42 of the second period. The junior forward's power play goal came off a perfect deflection just outside Adams' crease. Bengtsson recorded his second assist of the game as he took the low shot from the blue line that was redirected by Boudon. Tritt also added his second point of the game as he set up Bengtsson for the pass to notch the second assist on the goal.
Freshman forward Josh Nixon scored an empty net goal at 18:48 of the third period to give the Lakers a 5-1 lead. Harrison Roy tallied his second assist of the game on the goal while Dustin Manz recorded his first multi-point game of the season with the second assist.
At 19:37 of the third period, Louis Boudon tallied his first career hat trick with his third goal of the game to make it a 6-1 score in favor of the Lakers. The goal began after Cole Craft had a great scoring chance and then followed with a play to get the puck back to Jeremy Gervais at the point. Gervais took a wrist shot that was stopped by Adams, but the rebound jetted out to Boudon. Boudon stayed with the play to get the puck past Adams for the three-goal effort.
The Lakers capped off the 7-1 win with Manz's second goal of the game with five seconds left to play. Gervais started the play behind the Lakers own goal as he cleared the puck to the neutral zone and connected a pass to Logan Jenuwine in the neutral zone. Jenuwine dropped a pass to Manz in the neutral zone and skated into the offensive zone. Manz fired off a wrist shot from between the circles that trickled behind Adams to seal the Lakers 7-1 win.
Eisele made 23 saves of 24 shots in his fourth win of the season while Adams finished with nine saves in the game for the Saints.
The Lakers won 42 of 77 faceoffs in the game, which included solid performances from Manz, who went 14-for-21, and Boudon, who won 19-of-26 faceoffs.
Lake Superior State's special teams scored two power play goals on six opportunities and went five-for-five on the penalty kill.
The Lakers three-week homestand comes to a close next weekend as the Lakers take on Michigan Tech in a road series in Houghton, Mich. The two-game CCHA series will open on Friday, Nov. 5 at 7:07 p.m. and conclude on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 6:07 p.m. Both meetings will be held in the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The game will be available to stream on FloHockey. Fans can tune in to listen to Bill Crawford and Matt Pocket on the radio call on 99.5 YES FM.
For more information, visit lssulakers.com.
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