Lakers go four-for-four against Broncos

The 19th-ranked Lake Superior State hockey team jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period Saturday and held on to beat Western Michigan 4-0 on Saturday and complete a four-game sweep of the Broncos.

Lake Superior State improved to 12-6-4 overall and 8-6-2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, while WMU dropped to 4-13-3 overall and 4-8-2 in the CCHA. With the win, the Lakers moved ahead of Michigan into second place in the CCHA standings. They also posted their first four-game sweep of an opponent since the 1996-97 season.

The Lakers led 3-0 after two periods and went into a defensive mode to protect junior goaltender Jeff Jakaitis' fourth shutout of the season and seventh of his career.

Jakaitis became the first Laker goaltender to post four shutouts in a season since Blaine Lacher, who had six during the 1993-94 season. He stopped all 30 shots to improve to 11-6-4.

Laker Colin Nicholson opened the scoring with a goal at 6:27 of the first period. Jason Miller and Kory Scoran drew the assists.

Trent Campbell made it 2-0 at 11:00, and Nathan Ward had the only assist.

During a penalty-ridden second period, Ward put the Lakers up 3-0 with a power-play goal at 3:59. Troy Schwab and Dominic Osman drew the assists.

WMU out-shot LSSU 12-6 in the third period, but failed to ruin Jakaitis' shutout. The Broncos had a power play at 17:54 and pulled goaltender Daniel Bellissimo in favor of an extra attacker. Less than 40 seconds into the power play, Scoran back-handed a clearing pass from his own zone and scored an empty-net shorthanded goal.

Bellissimo stopped 20 of 24 shots. LSSU finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while WMU was 0-for-5.

The Lakers have a bye week coming up, then travel to Ferris State Jan. 20-21.

*** FRIDAY:

Six different players scored goals for the 19th-ranked Lake Superior State hockey team, which beat Western Michigan 6-1 on Friday in its first Central Collegiate Hockey Association game of 2006.

LSSU also enjoyed its highest goal output in a CCHA home game since posting a 6-2 victory over Alaska Fairbanks on Nov. 12, 2004.

Senior Mike Adamek broke a 1-1 tie with a short-handed unassisted goal at 11:38 of the second period and ignited a Laker surge. A Bronco player deflected Laker defenseman Kory Scoran's clearing pass from the corner to Adamek, who took off on a 2-on-1 break-away with Josh Sim. Adamek faced the pass and beat WMU starting goaltender Daniel Bellissimo.

Derek R. Smith scored 2:13 later to make it 3-1, and Troy Schwab, Dan Eves and Dominic Osman added goals in the third period.

LSSU led 1-0 on a power-play goal by Trent Campbell at 15:24 of a close first period. The Broncos out-shot the Lakers 12-11 in the opening period, and tied it 1-1 on a Mike Lesperance goal at 1:20 of the second period.

The Lakers went on to out-shoot WMU 30-22 and finish 3-for-6 on the power play. Schwab and Eves also had power-play markers.

LSSU goaltender Jeff Jakaitis stopped 21 of 22 Bronco shots, and the Laker defense held WMU scoreless on four power-play chances.

Drawing assists for LSSU were Nathan Ward with two, and Derek R. Smith, Derek A. Smith, Schwab, Jeff Rainville, Eves, Osman and Campbell with one each.

Bellissimo gave up five goals and totaled 21 saves through 42:32. He was replaced by Eric Marvin, who stopped three of four shots on goal.

(Courtesy of the LSSU Sports Information Department)