On Saturday afternoon at the Cisler Center at Lake Superior State, Lake Superior State honored its 2025 Alumni Awards recipients and Class of 2025 Hall of Famers.

Hockey defenseman Kord Cernich, Basketball and Softball player Lee Ann (Huffman) Wise, Wrestling coach Jerry Cheynet, and the 1972-73 Wrestling Team were all inducted into the Hall of Fame on a gorgeous fall day in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. All were honored on the ice of Taffy Abel Arena at the second intermission of that evening's CCHA game against Bowling Green.

While the Lakers (2-4-0, 0-2-0 CCHA) lost 3-2 to the Falcons (2-2-0, 2-0-0 CCHA), Laker head coach Damon Whitten made a point of highlighting past Laker greats during his postgame comments on 99.5 YES FM.

"I just want to congratulate all of our award winners. One of the best days of the year, going in and listening to the amazing stories we heard today of how impactful our alumni have been around the nation, post-graduation. Maybe more so, the impact that our faculty, staff and coaches have had for all of our alumni. I think that's a highlight of the weekend, and we enjoy that. Congratulations Kord Cernich and our other award winners."

Laker scores by Hunter Ramos and Sasha Teleguine put the home team in front 2-1 going into the middle stages of the second period. Ramos collected a pass from Carter Batchelder, deftly lifting the puck past BGSU keeper Jacob Steinman to tie the game at 1-1 late in the first. Then at 6:21 of the second, Teleguine tipped in a shot from Johnny Druskinis, who had a tremendous weekend for the Lakers. Letting a lightning bolt go from the right, Druskinis shot into traffic, and the puck glanced in off Teleguine. Druskinis scored a goal on Friday and had another called back for offside.

While the Lakers took the lead in the middle session, the second period proved taxing, as LSSU took three penalties in the span of eight minutes. The combination of six minutes of PK time with the long change of the second period took its toll on the team's energy.

Whitten said, "We just told the team, the difference, probably, tonight was three penalties, back-to-back-to-back in the second period. Some of your top guys are emptying the tank, killing penalties with the long change. We took three of them within a 10-11 minute span. So we were short the whole middle span of the second period and I thought that burned some gas and lost momentum."

Tyler Hotson scored a powerplay goal at 12:06 of the second to tie the game 2-2. Early in the third, Brayden Crampton scored what stood up as the game-winner. Ben Doran assisted both of those goals.

While Whitten said the loss stings, he felt that his team learned a lot about itself, coming off a disappointing performance Friday night. "There's a lot of things that we can build off of and like better about your game. As much as you hate the result and the result kills you, I thought we got contributions throughout the lineup. I thought our compete level was much better. Our heaviness on pucks, much better."

Two of the Laker freshmen caught the eye. Hunter Ramos, who Whitten said had a "strong weekend," and goaltender Andrew Oke, who made 35 saves. Whitten said he felt the rookie goaltender did a good job in net.

LSSU hits the road for the next two weekends. The Lakers head to upstate New York, where assistant coach DJ Goldstein has deep roots, to play old foes St. Lawrence and Clarkson next weekend. Famously, the Lakers beat St. Lawrence in the 1988 NCAA Division I National Championship game, a contest newly enshrined Hall of Famer Kord Cernich scored twice in. His teammate, Mark Vermette, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime, inducted Cernich into the Hall of Fame prior to Saturday's game. Then, on Saturday, the Lakers play Clarkson. LSSU traveled to those two opponents in the fall of 2023, winning both games.

Then LSSU gets back to business in the CCHA, travelling to Bemidji State the following weekend to play the Beavers. The next series at home sees Minnesota State come to Abel Arena on November 14^th and 15^th. Buy your tickets online or at the Norris Center Box Office.