Lakers ring the victory bell
Lake Superior State Lakers halted a six-game losing skid tonight with a morale-boosting 3-0 home-ice win over the Bemidji State Beavers.
The win-and-goal-starved Lakers — who had dented the twine only four times in their previous six outings — snapped a scoreless tie with three goals in the final seven minutes of tonight’s match to improve their Western Collegiate Hockey Association record to 7-11-4 with six games to play in the regular season.
JT Henke scored his seventh goal of the season to break the 0-0 standstill and Aidan Wright and Gage Torrel added empty-net tallies in the final minute to allow the Lakers to ring the victory bell and solidify their hold on seventh place in the 10-team WCHA.
Henke’s goal also ended the Lakers month-long power-play drought which had extended to 0-23 with the extra man before the sophomore forward found the back of the net.
Gordon Defiel turned aside 30 shots to pitch the shutout for the Lakers.
According to Lake Superior State sports information director Eddie Bishop, Defiel’s second whitewash of the season and sixth of his career ties him with legendary Laker goaltenders Bruce Hoffort and Duffy Lewis for sixth all-time on the career shutout list.
PHOTO: Sophomore defenseman Aidan Wright scored his first goal of the season as Lake Superior State blanked Bemidji State by a 3-0 margin. (Photo by Ali Pearson.)
Big win for the Lakers. They need to get some points at Alaska Anchorage next weekend also. Some tough decisions for Damon Whitten to make on who to take on that trip.