In what appears to be an upward swing in momentum, the Lakers came away from last weekend’s games with Ferris State with three points: a Friday night win, and a Saturday night tie.  As a result, the Lakers are enjoying their first three-game unbeaten streak all season.  And while only three games may sound unsubstantial, they could in fact give the Lakers the confidence they need going into next weekend’s games against Western Michigan.

Friday’s game was won by the sort of balanced game that has been sorely missed all season.  The Lakers found a mixture of offense, defense, and goal tending that led to a game winning goal from MacVoy in the second period.  With the one goal lead, the Lakers held Ferris goalless.  In fact, the Bulldogs were held scoreless for the final 46 minutes of the game.  Friday night’s effort gave the Lakers a much needed win, and handed Ferris their third loss in the last four games.

While the Lakers are in no position to complain about the circumstances under which they obtain points, they had to work a little too hard to keep the game tied.  On Saturday, the Lakers were given a great opportunity to win the game, when in overtime they were a man up.  However, the Lakers couldn’t seem to get the puck into the core of the Bulldog’s zone, and instead played the perimeter to a tie.

Overtime may not have been as required, had it not been for the night’s biggest problem: faceoffs. The Lakers lost forty-one faceoffs in that one game.  In fact Schwab was on an eleven faceoff losing streak at one point in the game.  When asked about the night’s faceoffs Coach Roque wasn’t positive: “Terrible, just terrible, you can print that.”  

Overall, however, last weekend was positive.  Coach Roque seemed please with the outcome of the weekend, and the fans seemed to leave the building satisfied with a good weekend’s worth of blue collar hockey.

This should give the Lakers much needed confidence to compete with Western Michigan University down in Kalamazoo. Western finds themselves in a position similar to the Lakers, buried deep in the CCHA standings.  However, both could move up with a two win weekend.  It is expected that Inglis and Mahoney-Wilson will once again split the weekend’s net minding duties.  If the Lakers can keep up their momentum, we may see their standings rise, and once again find the Lakers in a respectable position within the CCHA.

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