Cooper Foster, Joey Potter and Måns Toresson scored third period goals, while Anders Miller made 35 saves as Lake Superior State beat Windsor 5-2 to wrap a weekend exhibition series. Toresson scored a pair of shorthanded goals in the game, delivering the victory Saturday afternoon at the Essex Centre Sports Complex in Essex, ON, CAN.

"Mans had a good weekend," said Laker Head Coach Damon Whitten. "It's his first real action in North America. He's a heck of a hockey player. We went with a pretty young lineup, and as you're killing all those penalties you're looking around, and you're calling freshman after freshman on a lot of those kills. I thought they did a really good job overall and obviously a really huge effort on the shorthanded goal by Toresson really swung that game. Great play by Mans."

The Lakers (0-0, 0-0 CCHA) took a 1-0 lead in the first on a goal by second-year forward Hunter Ramos. But a penalty-filled second period changed the pace of the game, as the Lakers took six minor penalties in a row. The Lancers (0-0, 0-0 OUA) tied the game early in the second, before the penalty deluge, on a goal by Sal Collora. The Lakers took their first penalty, but Toresson struck moments later to restore a one goal Laker lead. The Gothenburg, SWE native came up with a key play, scoring his goal unassisted at 4:53 of the second frame.

Late in the second, with the Lakers killing a lengthy 5-on-3, Matt Jovanovic scored for the Lancers, tying the game back up at 2-2. Lake State had just taken four minor penalties in less than a minute but escaped with only the one tally allowed, thanks to excellent defending and fantastic goalkeeping by first-year netminder Anders Miller, the WHL champion with Everett last season.

Whitten said, "Very consistent, very trustworthy and reliable. The guys around him know what they're going to get with him, including his ability to play the puck. He did a really good job helping us with our zone exits, getting some goalie touches to set up some zone exits, and now you're defending less. I really liked his game."

Then came the third period, when the penalty parade turned into a goalfest. Cooper Foster scored 30 seconds in for the game-winner, assisted by Ramos and Nolan Seed. Joey Potter hammered in his first minutes later at 3:36 of the third, with assists from Assistant Captains Calem Mangone and Nolan Seed. Toresson put his name back on the score sheet late, scoring his second unassisted shorthanded goal at 19:12 of the third.

Whitten was very pleased with the combination of Mangone, Foster and Ramos, who looked a problem for the Lancers defense throughout the weekend.

"I thought that line, even last night, was very dangerous," he said. "They weren't able to score on their best chances last night. But they generated a ton. They're a handful to defend. They're intelligent, they're crafty, they seemed to have really good chemistry early on. Tonight, they continued to play that way. I'm not sure that they scored on their best chances, but it's a great play by Ramos to break that game open and change the momentum."

The 13th year Head Coach - now the longest-tenured head coach in program history - has talked about his excitement at the level of skill that 18 new players bring to the program. But he stressed after Saturday's win that while the years go by, the path to winning games hasn't changed much. Grit and determination win hockey games, and he approved of the team's approach in the weekend's second clash with the Lancers. He singled out the additions of Hadley Hudak and Pierson Sobush, two of the Lakers' 11 returning skaters, into the lineup. They played with tenacity, grit and jam on Saturday.

"I think the game's still the game," he said. "If you don't go out and win 50-50 battles and outcompete other teams, it's going to be hard. We talked about it this morning – Ken Hitchcock in Dallas' Stanley Cup years talked about the NHL being a second-effort league. It's about second and third efforts. You can have as much skill as you want, but if it's not in hard areas with second and third effort, you're not going to be successful. I thought they brought that in spades."

Neither result, nor any of the accumulated stats throughout the weekend, count officially for either the Lakers or the Lancers. Next weekend, LSSU hits the road to face Lindenwood in Maryland Heights, MO. The Lions split with Arizona State this weekend, losing a 5-0 shutout, then turning around and beating ASU 9-6 on Saturday.

"The guys are sick of going against each other," Whitten said. "We've talked about it in various media and on the Laker Hockey Show, but they're sick of each other. They're getting chippy. They're getting to a point where they're ready for an opponent. Maybe it didn't show as much as we wanted on Friday night, but it's important to play games and build that game stamina and timing. It'll be a big ramp up to NCAA games next weekend."

The Lakers head to Lindenwood, then travel to Alaska Anchorage before returning home for Great Lake State Week on October 23rd and 24th. This season, Lake Superior State celebrates 60 years of Laker Hockey as the team prepares to return to Taffy Abel Arena, which has undergone an extension renovation during the summer months. Buy your tickets online now, or at the Norris Center Box Office.

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