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Lake Superior stuns Wolverines, sweeps 2-game series

SAULT STE. MARIE -- A week ago, the Michigan hockey team looked like a world-beater after pasting first-place Michigan State, 8-1.

This weekend, the Wolverines looked like the world had beaten them.

Lake Superior State handed Michigan its first pair of weekend setbacks this season with a thrilling 5-4 overtime win Friday and a 7-3 blowout the following night.

Keith Aldridge's overtime score at the 2:16 mark gave Lake Superior a 5-4 come-from-behind victory Friday night. The emotion from the win undoubtedly spilled over to Saturday's game. The Lakers were fired up to play their final home game of the regular season and dominated a lifeless crop of Wolverines.

With the losses, the Wolverines all but cost themselves a shot at the CCHA regular-season title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"We're not as worried about first place as we are about how we play down the stretch," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "If we don't finish in first place, it won't be our season. But we have to rebound and see what kind of team we can be."

The Wolverines now find themselves in a second-place tie with Lake State with 42 points and two games remaining. However, the Lakers get the edge in the event of a tie in the standings because they took two of the three games against Michigan. Michigan State, idle this weekend, paces the conference with 45 points and also has two games to play, including one against the Wolverines.

The dark horse of the conference may prove to be Western Michigan, which has three games left at conference patsy Alaska-Fairbanks this week. The Broncos have 41 points.

But for the moment, the Wolverines are still probably in shock from Friday's heartbreaking defeat.

The Lakers played catch-up with Michigan for basically the whole night as the teams staged a skating exhibition. The Wolverines staked themselves to a 2-0 lead early in the second when Bill Muckalt popped home his 21st goal of the season.

Lake Superior retaliated with power play goals from Matt Alvey and Gerald Tallaire and the game went into the second intermission tied at 2.

That's when the fun began.

Matt Herr continued his hot play with his 17th of the season at the 2:14 mark to put the Wolverines ahead. But Sean Tallaire brought the Lakers right back less than 90 seconds later off a

When Herr scored again seven minutes later making it 4-3, the Laker crowd went silent.

But good for them, their heroes weren't.

With just over a minute remaining, Lake State coach Jeff Jackson called a timeout and pulled goaltender John Grahame for an extra skater.

Thirty seconds later, off a mad scramble in front of the Michigan net, Brian Felsner reminded the Wolverines of what his older brother Denny used to do so many times for Michigan.

Sitting "back door," as Michigan netminder Marty Turco described it, he batted the puck out of the air past Turco and stripping the Wolverines of any kind of momentum that they might have had.

During the two-minute break before overtime, Berenson uncharacteristically took his team back to the lockerroom, hoping to motivate his players.

Aldridge took it upon himself to kill any of that motivation.

After receiving the puck at the right point, Aldridge was left unguarded. He simply skated down the right wing and flipped the puck up of the crossbar and behind Turco.

After the game, the feeling in the Michigan lockerroom was that the game shouldn't have gone into the extra session in the first place.

"We let them back in the game a few times," Berenson said, "and when we got the lead, we couldn't keep them."

Saturday, Michigan had to worry very little about letting the Lakers back into the game, since the Wolverines had control of the game for maybe half a period.

Following Harold Schock's goal, seven minutes in, Lake State scored five straight goals, capped by Jason Trzcinski's shorthanded tally at the 12:54 mark of the second.

Michigan's glimmer of hope came after Greg Crozier scored two minutes later, making it a three-goal game, and more importantly, seemed to inject some life into the Wolverines.

But that life was taken shortly thereafter when Herr was hit with a four-minute penalty. Trzcinski scored his third goal of the evening and put a virtual lock on the game.