Lakers prepping for 2016 portion
The holiday break will end for the Lake Superior State Lakers early next week as they head to Vermont for a pair of non-conference games as part of the Catamount Cup tournament.
It was back in 2001 when the Lakers won the Catamount Cup as champions of the annual four-team event.
When that is over and they begin to focus on the second half of the 2015-2016 season, the upstart Lakers will face a heavy Western Collegiate Hockey Association schedule that features 16 games — eight at home and eight on the road.
The Lakers will head into conference play in 2016 with a 4-4-4 record from 12 games (they have an overall mark of 6-10-4) which has them tied for sixth place in the 10-team WCHA with 12 points.
Tied with Alaska-Anchorage for sixth spot, the Lakers are within two points of fifth place Northern Michigan and have two games in hand on the Wildcats
Lake Superior State will be out to try to take advantage of the home ice of Taffy Abel Arena when the WCHA schedule resumes in the New Year. The Lakers will begin 2016 with four straight games at home — January 8-9 against second-place Bowling Green and January 16-17 against aforementioned Alaska-Anchorage.
As the Lakers ice the youngest team — by far — in the WCHA, head coach Damon Whitten said he is “okay” with the team’s record thus far this 2015-2016 season.
“I like the effort we have been getting and we are definitely improving and doing better than expected for a team that was picked to finish last in the WCHA this season but we have a lot of games to play in the second half and we can’t afford to let up,” said Whitten, while guesting on the Laker Hockey Show, which airs on Sault Ste. Marie radio station ESPN 1400.
To be sure, the Lakers have been getting a lot out of their younger players.
Of the Lakers top 10 scorers, six are freshmen, two are sophomores and two are juniors. And of the two goalies who share the workload for the Lakers, one is a freshman and the other is a sophomore.
Sophomore J.T. Henke leads the Lakers in scoring with 6 goals, 6 assists, 12 points.
Then it’s junior forward Gus Correale and freshman forward Mitch Hults both at 4-5-9, freshman forward Gage Torrel at 3-6-9, freshman forward Anthony Nellis at 2-6-8, freshman defenseman Owen Headrick at 3-4-7, junior forward Alex Globke at 4-2-6, freshman forward Diego Cuglietta at 2-4-6, sophomore defenseman James Roll at 1-5-6 and freshman forward Jake Hand rounding out the top 10 scorers at 0-5-5.
Freshman goalie Nick Kossoff has a 2-3-1 record to go with a 1.99 goals against average and .920 save percentage while sophomore tender Gordon Defiel has 4-7-3, 2.78 and .916 numbers.