Box Score After winning Friday night's game and clinching the Cappo Cup trophy for another season, Lake Superior State Head Coach Damon Whitten pointed out that there was still work left to do for the weekend. Three more league points were on the line Saturday night, even with the trophy secured.

On Saturday, the Lakers (11-19-2, 8-15-1 CCHA) wrestled the remainder of the points into their possession with a 5-2 win over Northern Michigan (3-28-1, 3-20-1 CCHA), giving them a shot to climb the standings in the final week of CCHA play.

"I thought, again, another good job of sticking with things and fighting through them," said Laker Head Coach Damon Whitten postgame.

The Lakers took four penalties, including a major, in the first period. It meant a ton of time on the PK for LSSU early in the second game of a back-to-back series.

Whitten said, The penalty kill had to come up huge with all those minutes and those guys like Conor Milburn and William Ahlrik, Carter Batchelder, Johnny Herrington, Sasha Teleguine on the front end. The defense did a great job, and Rorke [Applebee] is Rorke."

Friday's game saw an absurd seven special teams goals. On Friday, the two teams only scored three. NMU's Peter Cisar struck on the man-advantage early in the first to put the hosts up 1-0.

But the Lakers counterpunched in the mid-to-late second period. Goals from William Ahlrik, a powerplay tally, and assistant captain Mike Brown put LSSU in the lead. The goal was Brown's first as a Laker.

"It was a big moment for us and for Mike Brown. He's such a tremendous captain and leader for us. Obviously his game is often measured by shutting down top opposing players and bringing a physical presence but he's got ability at the offensive blue line as well so it was good for him to show that tonight. I think really some key goals by guys this weekend to kind of get guys in the right frame of mind as the final weekend approaches and playoffs are looming."

While Caiden Gault answered minutes later for the Cats, the Lakers offense had awoken with a fury. Three goals in the third followed, with Branden Piku's powerplay goal at 8:22 standing as the game-winner, John Herrington's pickpocket, breakaway tally providing insurance, and Sasha Teleguine's empty-netter salting the game away for good.

NMU pulled its goalie with nearly eight minutes remaining in regulation. The Lakers defended well against the extra skater, remaining patient and not overextending to try and snatch the empty-netter. The goal came as the result of patient play. Teleguine jumped on a fumbled puck and raced toward the opposing cage before calmly firing the puck in.

"I'm not sure I've ever been part of such an extended empty net situation," Whitten said. "It's a tough scenario to manage."

He continued, "I thought it was a valuable learning experience for a lot of guys, to be in that extra-attacker situation. A lot of guys did a really good job for four or five minutes of that empty net scenario. A good job sticking with it."

LSSU dominated the faceoff circle, winning 44 draws and only losing 24. William Ahlrik won 20-of-25 faceoffs, an incredible number from one of the best at the dots in the nation. He entered the weekend 19th nationally in faceoffs won. Whitten praised him for "a big weekend offensively, and a big weekend in all situations," after the sophomore scored and assisted Saturday. He scored another goal in Friday's game.

Lake State took 11 of 12 possible points from its mid-U.P. rival this season, securing the Cappo Cup in the third of four games. The trophy returns to Sault Ste. Marie for the third straight year and the sixth year out of the last seven.

Next week, the Lakers host Ferris State on Thursday and Friday, both at 7:07 PM. With 29 league points, LSSU trails Bemidji State by three in the standings. BSU faces St. Thomas next week. While the league's entire top five can catch each other, LSSU and Ferris are the only teams in contention for sixth and seventh positions. Ferris State trails LSSU by 11 and cannot catch the Lakers, no matter the results of the upcoming series, locking the Bulldogs into eighth. While Northern Michigan can tie them on points, the Bulldogs won both head-to-head matchups, meaning Ferris State holds the tiebreaker and Northern Michigan was eliminated from playoff contention with Saturday's loss to LSSU.

See the Lakers play the Bulldogs in the final regular season series of the season, Thursday and Friday at Taffy Abel Arena. Buy your tickets online or at the Norris Center box office.