MANKATO, Minn. - The Lake Superior State (LSSU) hockey team (8-8-1, 6-3-0 CCHA) narrowly fell on the road to the league-leading, No. 12 Minnesota State Mavericks (13-4-2, 8-1-2 CCHA) by a final score of 2-1 on Friday.

Both teams found themselves in a defensive battle early on, but Luc Wilson was able to open up the scoring for the Mavericks at the 12:12 mark. The Lakers kept fighting, and with just under two minutes to play in the opening period, Everett Pietila (Howell, Mich.) disrupted the puck before Johnny Druskinis (Plymouth, Mich) tossed it ahead to William Ahlrik (Tidaholm, Sweden) who fired in his fifth goal of the season to knot up the score at 1-1. Then, after a lengthy review, Minnesota State was assessed a major penalty, forcing them to finish out the period down a man. 

The Mavericks managed to dig in and kill off all five minutes of major penalty time between the end of the first period and the first few minutes of the second as neither team was able to find the back of the net in the second frame. 

However, at the 7:21 mark of the third period, Wilson drove in to score his second of the game to put the Mavericks back in front, and Minnesota State was able to hold on to take the game by a score of 2-1. 

The Lakers will be looking to split the series in game two on Saturday, Dec. 14 with puck drop scheduled for 6:07 p.m. Central Time.