Lake Superior State suffered a 7-4 loss to Lindenwood on Saturday night at Taffy Abel Arena, with Adam Raesler scoring twice for the visitors. 

"We've got to get our 'D' side of the puck in order and sort that out," said Laker head coach Damon Whitten postgame. "You have no chance to outscore those mistakes at this level and you're not going to win many by doing that. We've got to have a good week of practice and preparation starting Monday afternoon."

The Lakers (2-2, 0-0 CCHA) allowed 12 goals on the weekend to the Lions (2-2), including three straight third period goals in Friday's game. Saturday's contest had a strange pace to it, with three powerplay goals and two shorthanded goals split between the two teams. Ten goals scored through 40 minutes of play, and strangely just one in the final 20. Bounces, deflections, rolling pucks, goals bouncing in off sticks, off backsides. Gravity, physics... none of it seemed to really add up as the game played out. But as Whitten has said for years, "You earn your bounces."

"I've talked about how you earn your puck luck in our game, and I don't think we had enough guys earning it by playing a heavy, competitive, tenacious game. I thought we got outcompeted in some areas and that's what happens when you get outcompeted at this level."

The Lakers got off to a scorching start, with goals by Sasha Teleguine and Branden Piku in the opening ten minutes. Piku's goal, unassisted, came from a steal. Taking the puck away in the neutral zone, he quickly pounced and notched his second goal of the weekend.

"I think he deserves a ton of credit," said Whitten after the game. "He's a guy that we spent some time on this week because we didn't love his opening weekend. We have high expectations of Branden. He's been around and is coming off of a good sophomore year. I loved to see his response. It's not with his mouth, it's not with his body language. It's with getting to work, being heavy on pucks and dangerous offensively, winning net fronts. I thought he got everything he earned and deserved. It was a great response and something he's going to build on to be an offensive catalyst for us."

But the Lions answered with an Adam Raesler shorthanded goal, a Jaeden Mercier powerplay goal, and a Raesler even strength goal to steal the lead away at the end of 20 minutes. Piku struck back early in the second on the man-advantage to knot the game at 3-3.

That's when the Lions unleashed their third three-goal run off the weekend. Giovanni Morneau, Louis-Philippe Fontaine on the powerplay, and Michael Bevilacqua at even strength put the Lions ahead for good late in the second. The Lakers got one back through Johnny Herrington, who also scored on Friday night. Just like that Friday goal, Saturday's came shorthanded.

Strangely, the only goal of the third period came with the Lakers net empty at 19:39. Morneau hit the empty cage for his second of the contest.

Adam Barone notched two assists to continue his sizzling start for Lake Superior State. The sophomore from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario drew rave reviews from his head coach.

"A great start to the season," Whitten said. "Arguably our most impactful guy in the first couple of weeks here. His confidence is up right now. He's strong, he wins puck battles. He's got great skating ability and poise with the puck as well. There's no question that Adam has been one of our top impact players in the first couple of games."

Next up, the Lakers face the USNTDP in Plymouth, Michigan on Friday, October 17^th. They'll play Simon Fraser at USA Hockey Arena the next night. Both of those contests are exhibitions. Then it's back to Taffy Abel Arena for Great Lake State Weekend against Bowling Green, the Lakers first contests against CCHA opposition. Buy your tickets online now, or get them through the Norris Center box office.