Tough playoff road for Lake State
They have a goalie with one of the best save percentages in the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association but the seventh-place Lake Superior State Lakers have drawn a very-tough opponent in the second-place Minnesota State Mavericks for the first round of the playoffs.
The youthful Lakers are at Minnesota State for the full best-of-three series this weekend.
Game 1 is slated for Friday, Game 2 for Saturday and if a Game 3 is needed, it will be played on Sunday.
All games can be heard on Sault Ste. Marie radio station 99.5 Yes-FM with Bill Crawford calling the play-by-play.
Underclassmen have played a major role for second-year head coach Damon Whitten and the Lakers over the course of the 2015-2016 season.
Of the Lakers top seven scorers, five are freshmen, including 1997 birth-year defenseman Owen Headrick.
Headrick, who is from Garden River First Nation, starred with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League for two seasons prior to heading to Lake Superior State last fall.
Heading into the playoffs, sophomore forward J.T. Henke leads the Lakers in scoring with 9 goals, 11 assists, 20 points.
Following Henke are freshman forward Gage Torrel at 8-11-19, freshman forward Mitch Hults at 8-10-18, freshman forward Anthony Nellis at 4-12-16, junior forward Gus Correale at 5-8-13, freshman forward Diego Cuglietta at 6-5-11 and Headrick at 4-7-11.
As the youngest player in the entire WCHA, Headrick played in 36 of the Lakers 38 games over the course of the regular season.
Meantime, sophomore goalie Gordon Defiel has been a standout between the pipes for the Lakers with an overall record of 10-12-4 to go with a 2.44 goals against average and .924 save percentage.
Defiel’s save percentage is the third-best of any WCHA goalie in overall games played this season.
The Lakers have had only two players suit up for all 38 games thus far — the aforementioned Nellis and sophomore defenseman Aidan Wright.
Wright, who was born in Wawa, played a lot of his minor hockey on the Canadian side of the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie. In playing in all 38 games for the Lakers thus far, Wright has one goal, three assists, four points.
As the Lakers finished the regular season with a record of 10-13-5 within the WCHA, they have an overall mark of 13-20-5 in 38 games.
To be sure, the Lakers have a tall order in store as they head to Minnesota State to take on a Mavericks team that had a regular-season record of 16-5-7 within the WCHA. The Lakers lost both of their games with Minnesota State during the regular season, coming up on the short end of 8-0 and 5-1 scores.
ELSEWHERE IN THE WCHA
Other first-round playoff match ups in the WCHA this weekend include first-place Michigan Tech Huskies home to eighth-place Alaska Nanooks, sixth-place Bemidji State Beavers at third-place Bowling Green Falcons and fourth-place Ferris State Bulldogs home to fifth-place Northern Michigan Wildcats.
The Ferris State-Northern Michigan series features three forwards who played junior hockey with the Soo Eagles.
They are Ferris State junior Jared VanWormer and sophomore Robbie Payne and freshman Denver Pierce of Northern Michigan.
PHOTO: Sophomore goalie Gordon Defiel has been a standout for the Lakers.