MARQUETTE, Mich, - The Lake Superior State University hockey program (6-21-2, 5-15-1 CCHA) earned a 4-2 victory after scoring three unanswered goals in the third period against the Northern Michigan Wildcats (12-15-0, 8-11-0 CCHA) on Friday, keeping the Lakers' hopes for the Cappo Cup alive.
Both teams would battle through a scoreless opening period, but it was the heroics of senior goaltender Seth Eisele (Lake Elmo, Minn.) that proved to be the difference going into the intermission after stopping all 14 of the Wildcats' shot on goal during the opening period while the Lakers were only to test Northern Michigan netminder Beni Halaz once.
The Lakers wanted to make an effort to get more pucks on the net in the second period, and that is exactly what they did, testing Halaz 15 unanswered times, including a strike from Dawson Tritt (Spokane, Wash.) at the 4:08 mark to give his team the lead with assists from Harrison Roy (Lakeville, Mass.) and Timo Bakos (Augsburg, Germany) with the latter extending his career-high active point streak to five games.
The Wildcats responded early in the third period of action, taking advantage of a Laker penalty as Joey Larson leveled the score at 1-1 on the power play. Kristoff Papp would then give Northern Michigan the lead, but Tyler Williams (South Lyon, Mich.) was able to find a loose puck and push it ahead to Jake Willets (Monroe, Mich.) who pulled the score even at 2-2 on the breakaway at the 11:38 mark. Then, at the 17:24 mark of the third, Artyom Borshyov (Vitebsk, Belarus) found the back of the net to give his team the lead, notching the first goal of his Laker career after 73 total games after assists from Jack Jeffers (Oakville, Ont.) and Grant Hindman (Oakland, Mich.), and Roy would tack on his second goal of the game with just over a minute remaining to add on the insurance as the Lakers secure the 4-2 victory over the Northern Michigan Wildcats, keeping the Cappo Cup in play going into the final game of the regular season series.
Eisele picked up his second win of the season between the pipes after recording 30 saves while Jared Kucharek (Royal Oak, Mich.) and Hindman helped to take pressure off of him by blocking four shots each to lead all players.
The Lakers return to action on Saturday, Feb. 4 for the second game of the series against Northern Michigan with puck drop scheduled for 6:07 p.m. and the Cappo Cup on the line.