The Cappo Cup stays in Sault Ste. Marie for another year.
Lake Superior State beat the Northern Michigan Wildcats 7-5 on Friday night to clinch the rivalry trophy and take all three CCHA league points. The Lakers (9-18-2, 6-14-1 CCHA) won a wild back-and-forth all-action thriller at the Berry Events Center.
"It's one of the goals you set preseason," said Laker Head Coach
Damon Whitten. "You want to win important games and win rivalry games. The chance to win and retain the Cappo Cup is something you circle on the calendar. We're excited, but we know we have more work to do this weekend."
It goes into the books as one of the strangest games of the year. Two goals were called back by review in the first period alone. The teams combined for five goals in the opening six minutes of the third period. It was thrilling stuff for fans in attendance, but an absolute nightmare for official scorers to keep up with.Â
NMU (3-27-1, 3-19-1 CCHA) scored the first two goals of the game that ended up staying in the scorebook - further evidence that pencil is far preferable to pen with official game sheets.
"We told our guys that we didn't hate our first period," Whitten said. "But you come out trailing 2-0 and you have to chase the game. Very little flow with reviews and overturned calls. It felt like it was a consistently called game, it just didn't have much flow. So you're wondering how it will go. But I liked the way we stuck with it. A great second period flips that game."
The Lakers dominated play in the middle frame, with goals from
Hunter Ramos,
Calem Mangone and
Connor Milburn. LSSU snatched the lead during a penalty-packed second, though Ramos' goal was the only one on the man-advantage.
Then things went nuts in the third. Aidyn Hutchinson took a boarding major late in the second for NMU. Matthew Ward tied the game 19 seconds into the third for the Cats with a shorthanded goal.
Mangone struck back at 2:04 with the Lakers still on the powerplay, putting LSSU up 4-3. 18 seconds later,
Wilson Dahlheimer scored a powerplay goal for LSSU. Then, at 5:43, with a man in the box,
Sasha Teleguine scored a shorthanded goal for the Lakers.
Oh, don't worry. Nobody was done scoring yet. Down 6-3, the Cats got a pair of goals from Joe Schiller and Peter Cisar, with Schiiller's goal also on the powerplay.
William Ahlrik sealed the game for LSSU in the final minute with an empty net goal, mercifully ending the night for the official scribes.
With senior captains Milburn and Teleguine scoring, Whitten had plenty of praise for veteran players and younger guys alike. "Our senior captains both had big, timely goals. You need your top guys to be your top guys. It's good to see them heating up and contributing offensively. You can flip it to the young guys. Two goals and an assist for Mangone for a huge night. Ramos has a goal and two assists. You're getting big contributions from both ends of the experience spectrum."
Matheson Mason debuted for LSSU and tallied an assist on Milburn's second period goal. The freshman missed much of the first half of the season with an injury. Whitten hailed the rookie's resilience.
He said, "What a challenging situation, to miss months recovering and rehabbing from an injury, biding your time to get a chance to play your first college game. It comes in late February. You've got to be ready to play. He steps up and has a nice assist to set up a goal."
The Lakers outshot the Wiildcats 33-27 in the game.
LSSU retains the Cappo Cup, awarded annually to the winner of the regular season series between Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan. Friday's win meant the trophy will spend another trip around the sun in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. Lake State has won the Cup three straight times and six of the last seven years.
The two teams tangle again on Saturday at 6:07 PM. The Lakers head home next week for a Thursday night and Friday night series with Ferris State. LSSU will honor its seniors prior to the Friday night game, Buy your tickets online or at the Norris Center box office.
