Despite facing a flurry of shots in the third period, Lake Superior held on to break a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over visiting Notre Dame Friday night at the Taffy Abel Arena.
LSSU netminder Jayme Platt came five minutes from a shutout, settling for a one-goal performance in a victory that the Lakers desperately needed after losing three straight games last week. That streak included a 5-0 shutout by Michigan State on Nov. 21 and two road losses to Miami, Nov. 24 and 25.
“The [Aaron] Davis-[Ryan] Vince line played dominating in the first two periods. They really controlled the pace of the game when they were on the ice,” said Lake Superior State coach Scott Borek of the line which gave the Lakers an early 2-0 lead. “The third period they opened it up a little bit, but they came back at the end of the game to finish strong.”
“We need to shoot the puck more tomorrow night and score some goals,” said Notre Dame coach Dave Poulin. “We have had a great reluctance to shoot the puck; when you shoot the puck, things happen.”
The Lakers played solidly in the first two periods, outshooting the Irish 11-4 in the first and 11-7 in the second.
Davis put Lake Superior State on the board with one second remaining in the first period. Davis’ goal, a power-play marker, was his sixth of the season. Vince and Ryan Knox added assists.
The Lakers struck again early in the second period to take a 2-0 lead. Knox scored the Lakers’ second goal, his fourth of the season, on a pass from Vince.
Dan Carlson finally scored to put Notre Dame within a goal at the 15:20 mark of the third period, and with 1:12 left to play the Irish pulled goaltender Jeremiah Kimento in favor of the extra attacker, but despite some good chances could not push the game into overtime.
Knox recorded three shots on goal in his third game back after missing five games because of a leg injury. He finished the game with a +1 rating.
“The game was extremely physical both ways,” said Borek. “I thought we responded okay, but in the third period we obviously got a couple of bad penalties and it was disappointing that we put ourselves in a position to allow the referee to call those.”
With the win, Lake Superior improved to 7-10-0 overall and 4-8-0 in the CCHA. Notre Dame dropped to 3-8-3 overall and 1-4-2 in the CCHA.
