Lakers await Walt & the Wildcats
Winners of five of their last six games, Northern Michigan Wildcats are headed to the Soo for a pair of matches with the Lake Superior State Lakers this weekend.
Seemingly peaking at the right time of the season, Northern Michigan’s winning ways of late have pushed coach Walt Kyle’s Wildcats into a fourth-place tie with the Ferris State Bulldogs in the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
Both Northern Michigan and Ferris State have 28 points from identical records of 12-8-4.
As for Lake Superior State, the Lakers return home to the Soo after splitting a pair on the road against the Alaska Nanooks last weekend.
The Lakers are in current possession of seventh place in the WCHA with 20 points from a record of 8-12-4.
Eight teams make the playoffs in the WCHA.
All teams in the WCHA play a 28-game conference schedule and all 10 clubs have four contests remaining in the regular season.
Northern Michigan heads to the Soo this weekend for Friday (7:37 p.m.) and Saturday (7:07 p.m.) games riding the hot goaltending of Mathias Dahlstrom who recently reclaimed the starting job and has an overall record this season of 7-0 with a 1.98 goals against average and .922 save percentage.
The Wildcats can also put the puck in the net at a high rate and are all led by the twine-denting trio of Dominik Shine, Darren Nowick and Robbie Payne, who have combined for 36 goals this season.
Of note, Payne, who is a sophomore, and freshman Denver Pierce are two Wildcats forwards who played junior hockey with the Soo Eagles. Payne has 11 goals this season and Pierce has five.
Lake Superior State, which controls its playoff destiny, is led by sophomore forward J.T. Henke, who has three goals in his last three games and nine on the season.
As Henke has been lighting it up offensively, the Lakers figure to be without solid defenseman Matt McArdle this weekend. McArdle suffered a lower-body injury up in Alaska last weekend.
Struggling in the goal-scoring department this season, Lakers head coach Damon Whitten likes the fact that his young team has been creating more scoring opportunities of late.
“We are getting more grade A scoring chances and that is a good sign,” Whitten told host Bill Crawford on Monday’s Laker Hockey Show, which airs on Sault Ste. Marie radio station ESPN 1400.
Whitten also told Crawford that the Lakers are eagerly anticipating the games with Northern Michigan this weekend.
“We match up with them rather well,” said Whitten, while noting that the Kyle-coached Wildcats have a history of turning it up at this time of the season.
“Walt Kyle is a tremendous coach who has his team playing very well,” Whitten said of the hard-nosed, 59-year old veteran bench boss. “We are looking forward to the challenge.”
Meanwhile, the Lakers are expected to ride sophomore goalie Gordon Defiel for the rest of the season.
Whitten said that after consultation with Lakers goalie coach Terry Barbeau, it was decided to name a clear-cut starter heading into the final two weekends of the regular season and prior to the playoffs.
Defiel and freshman goalie Nick Kossoff had been rotating for most of the season.
Both Laker games against Northern Michigan this weekend will be broadcast on radio station 99.5 Yes-FM with the aforementioned Crawford calling the play-by-play.