Box Score Three power play goals, four goals in the third period, a 6-0 home win. Thursday night was a good night in Sault Ste. Marie for Lake Superior State in a dominating win over the Maryville Saints.

"A short turnaround with the Thursday game," said Laker Head Coach Damon Whitten. "We didn't get a lot of prep in, so I'm really happy with the way guys played all the way through our lineup. Andrew Oke gives us a solid performance. Didn't have a lot of work but made some quality, timely saves. Charlie Tritt gets in there and gets a little bit of work. You go through our 'D' corps and our forward group, I thought guys contributed throughout the lineup. It was good to see us explode in the third period. We really controlled play territorially, wore them down, then get that separation."

Calem Mangone scored a pair of power play goals for LSSU (2-4-2, 0-2-2 CCHA), while Casper Nässén added another. Whitten pointed out that while Thursday's game officially enters the history books as an exhibition, as Maryville makes the transition from ACHA to NCAA hockey, it's still big for players to get out and produce results in live action. He said bluntly, "Coaches love to prepare. Players love to play hockey games."

He added, "A couple of nice power play goals. We went 3-for-7 on the power play. We really made them pay. Great execution by that group, then Mango gets to good areas and finishes. I think that was a little bit of the story. It won't go into their records, but get Måns Toresson on the score sheet, Doogan Pederson, too. Those guys need that. Build some confidence and adjust to college hockey. Mango's on the other side, only a sophomore but confident. It's nice to see these young guys go out there and get rewarded."

The Lakers racked up a big lead in time of possession, converting that into a 42-14 edge in shots on goal and eventually broke through for the third period rout. If the Saints (6-2) were going to have time with a puck, they were going to have to bring their own. LSSU put 12 pucks on target in the first period, 18 in the second and 12 in the third.

"I thought we broke them down early," said Whitten. "They're fresh and getting some saves. I thought their guy played well in net. I thought we had some great chances early, high quality chances that Bruno Bruveris made some big saves on. But it was a compounding factor."

Hunter Ramos scored and assisted two more, while John Herrington provided two assists.

Nässén's mid-second period power play goal sent the Lakers into the third up 2-0. He deflected a Cooper Foster shot in while parked in the power forward position. Nässén showed his ability to drive hard to the goal, shift defenses and post up low. While he's typically scored with his excellent pro-level wrist shot, Thursday night saw him battling for low position and using his hands and vision to score a deflection.

"I thought that whole power play unit deserves credit with their execution in practice and our pre-scout," Whitten said. "Casper's a big human being, big and strong. He's not afraid to go to the net. We've seen that over and over. It was a great play to stretch that out a bit, get Casper net front. A great shot by Cooper Foster, a seeing-eye shot that Casper's able to tip. It was a big goal to create separation."

The 2-0 lead held into the middle of the third. That's when the floodgates opened wide and goals spilled forth. Mangone scored on the power play at 10:45, Toresson strucked at 12:32, Pederson tallied at 16:00, and Mangone rounded out the scoring at 17:54. A 2-0 game with a heavily tilted table had turned into a deluge with a chasm separating the teams on the scoreboard.

The Lakers and Saints meet again Friday night at 7:07 PM at Taffy Abel Arena. Whitten said he wanted more of the same.

"You want to build on it. Our guys take a lot of pride in being hard to play against. You want to take care of home ice. We did that in a significant way tonight, so how do you back that up? We want to come back out with that same effort, with a great opening 20 tomorrow night and a relentless 60 minutes."

On Friday, Lake Superior State welcomes back Jim Booth and Tom Mitchell, two members of the 1966-67 Lake Superior State Hockey team, which played its first game on November 9th, 1966. Mitchell was the first hockey player recruited to LSSU, while Booth was the first to receive a scholarship to play hockey at Lake Superior State. He was also the first Lake Superior State player selected in the NHL Draft - 1964, Round 2, 8th overall by Boston.

Buy your tickets to see Friday night's showdown online, and download the Lake Superior State Lakers app, available on the App Store or Google Play, for scores, news and updates throughout the season.