LSSU Lakers

[Bill]

They need to get at least 1 more point tonight to keep from losing ground; better yet, a win tonight would be very welcome and much needed.

Haven't heard anything on the recruiting front for some time. Anyone hearing anything along those lines? Last I heard, Jim Roque was out in the SJHL looking at a goalie.

[michiganmidge]

Becareful Midge. You are starting to sound like myself and Bill and a few others...lol
No kiddin' ... :rolleyes: ;)

[sm3pk]

I see they lead the leagues in ties now. Just think if they ever get to where they can score a powerplay again and thats a stretch but miracles do happen,they might beable to turn some ties into wins.They did give up alot of shots but according to the announcers they were for the most part safe shots.You always want to win but it was also nice seeing that they didnt lose.There are only 3 teams in the league who have lost less games then the lakers and thats good.I think if they can play 500 hockey with these last 10 games they should get home ice for the playoffs

[Bill]

...and if no one they're tied with gets hot. Games in hand on a couple of the teams helps, but only if they can translate that into some points. If they don't get at least a split next week at home, there's a good chance they'll be looking up teams they're fighting with for home ice.

[carlsonj]

We have photos of the series at www.uafhockey.com if anyone is interested.

[Laker Hockey]

good photos, Is that a privately funded website or is that part of the schools?

[Lakerblue]

Thoughts on the last two weekends.

1) This was the toughest road stretch for the Lakers this season. They survived with a 0-1-3 record. I hate ties -- and I agree that just ONE M'Fn PP GOAL IS NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK ON A 5-MINUTE MAJOR POWERPLAY -- but as always wearing Laker-Blue colored glasses: they played toe to toe with MSU and UAF on the road. They gathered 3 valuable points and gave few points away. And they are still in the hunt for home-ice in the playoffs with the hardest part of the schedule done, and with two games in hand against most of their rivals.


2) And you have to admit -- this team could have, and possibly should have, collapsed after the UAH debacle. Those were the worst two games I have ever watched the Lakers play, and I had season tickets during the Borek years! Then, after "The Weekend of Shame," the Lakers went into Munn and gave up 8 goals to a team that is in chaos, a State team that can't find the net in warmups. And this board was pretty quiet. People were sick and rightly so. The team was tossing all their hard work and effort and improvement into the toilet, and allowing those big-ten schmucks to flush it away.

BUt a funny thing happened on the way to falling apart: this team stood up and played a phenominal game on Saturday at The Munn Funeral Home. They deserved better than a tie. Then it was off to UAF.

3) At UAF, I honestly expected a Nanook sweep -- my faith badly shaken despite the Sat. night Munn game. Instead, the Lakers came out and put up two 1st period goals. Penalties, a poor PP, and the Nanook crowd all conspired agains the Lakers and that valuable THIRD-GOAL was not to be found.

(Story -- my old coach Bert Templeton at North bay used to say scoring the first two is easy. The third goal -- the backbraker -- can be the toughest goal to find).

Then Saturday, again the Lakers played tough -- by all indications on the radio -- and possibly deserved a worse fate. But Matty V. stepped up and made 3rd-period save after 3rd-period save.

So here they sit, our beloved Lakers, mid-table in the CCHA and gathering up league points every weekend. This weekend is a HUGE series, again.

And you all have to admit, it feels good to have a huge series come to the Norris, er, Abel Arena, doesn't it? OSU is a good team -- solid from top to bottom. The Lakers will need every warm body in the stands to support them. In keeping with my mantra: "I hate the Big Ten and I want the Lakers to beat every Big Ten team badly," I went out this weekend and bought 25 tickets to each Friday and Saturday nights' games' and passed them out to quasi-Laker fans in town this morning before Court. I encourage a few of us here on this board to follow suit, at least in spirit. Lets gets some behinds behind our school and town and team. Lets make home-ice for the playoffs something worth fighting for.

[Laker Hockey Girl2]

VERY WELL SAID! As far as fans this weekend...we should have a decent turn-out of fans on Friday night as Winter Carnival started on campus this weekend...and Friday night is post-game dessert night as well as free admission for students! We are also handing out Laker memorabillia to the first "(X) number" of students in the student section. (foam fingers, etc.) We are really hoping for a good crowd to cheer on our LAKERS to VICTORY!!

Saturday we are having a tailgate before women's basketball @ 12:30 and another one (different food) between the women's and men's @ 2:30. This might (as well) draw some attention to campus and hopefully to the hockey game later that night!

[sm3pk]

Huge weekend coming up against a good team.Read the Alaska team wasnt to happy with the ties this past weekend. It is nice to see this late in the season that the Lakers are still fighting for home ice and even nice seeing that only 3 teams have lost less games in the ccha so far and with Northern having only lost one less.Lets hope the boys play the game they are capable of playing and we might see a split at least...Go Lakers

[thepuck57]

I watched the Ohio State - Michigan game on the TV. They are big and physical. I think the Lakers will have a tough time with the physical play since they don't seem to know how to play that style anymore. I have watched the other leagues play and they don't get called for the physical play like the CCHA does. I think this is bad for the CCHA, and I think this is one of the reasons the CCHA hasn't done well this year in out of conference games.

[Laker Hockey]

Huge weekend coming up against a good team.Read the Alaska team wasnt to happy with the ties this past weekend. It is nice to see this late in the season that the Lakers are still fighting for home ice and even nice seeing that only 3 teams have lost less games in the ccha so far and with Northern having only lost one less.Lets hope the boys play the game they are capable of playing and we might see a split at least...Go Lakers


the bad part of that is that only 3 teams have lost more games than LSSU.

[sm3pk]

In over all play yes but in league play only 3 teams have less losses then the Lakers with Northern having one less loss.So Laker fans,how do you see this weekend shaping up?

[Mogerfan]

Another big weekend for the Lakers. Last year we were a discouraging 0-10 against the teams that finished in the top 4 in the conference. One of my posted "goals" for the team at the begining of the year was to steal some of these games against top of the league opponents. So far this year we are a somewhat respectable 2-4 against the teams currently occupying the 1-4 spots. I think we at least have a chance to steal another win this weekend.

tOSU seems like a tough opponent for the Lakers, as they have size AND talent. Hopefully the guys won't be too tired from the trip up north to play hard, and force Ohio State to play our game. It will get really ugly if we come out sluggish.

It will be good to see a FULL ROSTER this weekend. Somebody needs to give Birkeland a pat on the back for perseverence. Also, I think Gutwald did a pretty good job stepping up when we lost everybody.

GO LAKERS!!!

[busboy]

I watched the Ohio State - Michigan game on the TV. They are big and physical.

OSU has the smallest team they have had in years. They only dress 5 forwards 6 ft. or over on a regular basis. They do play very physical hockey though.

[Bill]

Check out the "Ford Field Frozen Four" thread. The CCHA Front Office has suggested the possibility of having Ford Field host a Frozen Four. Does that want to make you puke, or what?

As far as this weekend goes, the Lakers need to get at least a couple of points to keep from losing ground in the battle for home ice, and that will pretty much be the story each weekend for the rest of the season. This is their first home series after the disastrous games against UAH (last game) and MSU (first game), so it will be interesting to see which Laker team shows up. A split against the Buckeyes would be respectable, getting 3 or more points would be gravy, less than 2 a setback.

[sm3pk]

Is Birkeland back to playing this weekend? Does anyone know how Osman is doing ?

[Mogerfan]

The LSSU website said Birkeland was back in practice and insinuated he would be playing this weekend.

[Proud2baLaker]

Is Birkeland back to playing this weekend? Does anyone know how Osman is doing ?

Birkeland has said he thinks he will be back for this weekend and I think he will be. I would not be suprised however to see Birkeland play limited time to ease back into it since he has been out quite a while, but who knows.

Osman is out for the season as far as I know. I have not heard any talk about him even having a chance to play in any games.

[Laker Hockey]

I saw this in Paula's Column today.

"Birkeland may be making his first appearance in a long, long time this weekend. In addition to having served a suspension, Birkeland injured his wrist early in the season and now may be recovered enough from knee surgery to play against Ohio State this weekend."

My question is: why would you have knee surgery for a wrist injury? Is this another War Memorial screw up?

[Laker Hockey Girl2]

no, he did injure his wrist (before his suspension), was in a cast for quite a while, then he injured his knee, had surgery 2 weeks ago if I remember correctly. Which to me, 2 wks seems like an extremely short recovery period for knee surgery, but apparently long enough. It will be good to see him back out there, I talked to him and he seems pretty excited about it.

LET'S GO LAKERS!!!