Northern Michigan and Lake Superior won at Joe Louis Arena Friday night.
NMU won 8-4 over Clarkson and LSSU beat Anchorage 7-3.
 
[All stats are UNOFFICIAL: I kept them myself.]
 
In the first game, the first period ended tied at 1, but somebody
forgot to close the flood gates in the second. Nine total goals were
scored, including 5 in a row by NMU. CU went up 4-2 at the 8:53 mark
of the 2nd when Scott Thomas completed his hat trick by tipping in a nice
pass from Steve Dubinsky. Then the Wildcat offense, led by Scott Beattie,
took over. Scott got two quickies to tie it at 4 and Joe Frederick's
short-hander gave NMU the lead for good at 12:08. NMU's 6th goal meant
the end of CU goalie Jason Currie (15 saves on 21 shots). Jim Hiller
beat new tender Chris Rogles late in the period to make it 7-4 after
two.
 
Clarkson put 11 shots on Corwin Saurdiff in the final stanza, but they
couldn't beat him. Beattie completed his hat with about 2 minutes to
go in the game.
 
Saurdiff ended up with 27 saves with the pair of Golden Knight goalies
combining for 26.
 
The referee was Cole from Hockey East.
 
 
In the second game, the first period turned out to be the goal scoring
clinic. Lake Superior got two wrap-around goals and Alaska-Anchorage
netted two power play markers. LSSU led 3-2 after 20 minutes.
 
The Lakers got the only 2 scores in the next period, including a great
breakaway goal by Brian Rolston. He skated all of the way across the
crease and waited until Paul Krake went down.
 
Derek Donald banged in his own rebound on the power play 5 minutes into
the third period and it looked like UAA could come back. UAA's offense
was all over LSSU while the defense only gave up 1 shot thru the first
14 minutes of the period. Darrin Madeley made the best save of the night
halfway through the period when he stacked the pads to stop a shot from the
slot, keeping his team ahead by 2. Unfortunately for the Seawolves, Krake
continued his tough night in net when he allowed a soft 4-on-3 goal
between his legs. Vincent Faucher tallied his 2nd at 17:20 to put away
UAA for good.
 
The shots on goal after 2 were 19-16, LSSU leading. The final shots were
about 27-22 UAA--yes, Darrin played well in the third.
 
Gallagher from the ECAC was the ref. Yuk. He called too much for my tastes.
Each team had at least 7 power plays, with UAA getting several 5-on-3s. He
tacked on 2 10-minute misconducts to Laker players for some reason.
 
Both games had a common thread: the winning team got solid goaltending
in the third period to seal the victory.
 
Sunday, LSSU tackles Minnesota and NMU plays Michigan.