Spirit of the LSSU Lakers
There will sometime soon be a significant Memorial Cup presence at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Forward Calem Mangone and goalie Andrew Oke from the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League will take their considerable experience — that includes being key components on the 2024 Canadian Hockey League national championship team — to the LSSU Lakers effective the 2025-2026 Central Collegiate Hockey Association season.
Whew. Wow.
To be sure, this looms as a major coup for the Lakers of Lake Superior State and head coach Damon Whitten as Mangone — a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario product — and Oke are both in their fourth full season as high performance OHL mainstays with Saginaw.
A 5 foot 9, 165 pound pepper pot who overcame the odds to become an OHL standout as a 2021 supplemental draft pick, Mangone is approaching 270 career games — regular season, playoffs and Memorial Cup tournament included — with Saginaw with totals that now exceed 225 points. A poster boy for the often underwhelming OHL supplemental draft, Mangone embodies everything that is good about how to play the game the right way while overcoming the doubters and naysayers.
As far as Oke the goalie goes, he is poised to become the winningest net minder in Saginaw’s OHL history — which dates back to 2002 — surpassing Jake Paterson, formerly of the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.
Like Mangone, Oke has become a national champion and with that, an OHL icon in Saginaw. A fifth round pick by the Spirit from Detroit Honeybaked at the 2020 OHL priority selections draft, the 6 foot 2, 190 pound Oke is certainly not one of the more accomplished goalies in the league when it comes to save percentage.
However, Oke will forever carry the honour of being a Memorial Cup, national championship goalie as a time tested member of the Spirit of Saginaw with tonnes of regular season and playoff experience in the OHL that includes games won in critical and crucial situations.
Mangone and Oke. Their time in Saginaw is far from being over with plenty of hockey still to be played this season. Meanwhile, their Division 1, National Collegiate Athletic Association years at Lake Superior State are still ahead.
This is exciting for the Lakers to see some strong OHL talent coming in. Perhaps Whitten is beginning to turn the recruiting ship around?