The Northern Michigan University hockey program defeated the Lake Superior State University Lakers, 4-3, in an overtime nail biter Sunday evening.

Wildcat sophomore AJ Vanderbeck highlighted the night for the Wildcats as he net three goals in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association victory, including the overtime winner.

For the second consecutive night, the Wildcats struck first with a power play tally from Andre Ghantous at 1:53 of the first period. 

The Lakers would tie things up at 10:19 of the opening period, sneaking one past DiMatteo for the game-tying goal. 

NMU continued to pepper the Laker net with shots, including a close call with less than a second remaining in the period, but were unable to break the LSSU goaltender and the two teams would head to the locker rooms tied at one after one.

Partway through the second period, the Lakers held the edge in shots on net, 14-9, with Rico DiMatteo making a handful of huge saves to keep the puck out of the Wildcat net.

With three minutes to play in the second period, Michael Van Unen pokechecked the puck away from a Laker attacker to stifle a three-on-one chance. The Lakers managed to hold possession in the Wildcats' zone but DiMatteo made four straight stops without a whistle to keep it a 1-1 game as the clock showed 120 seconds left in the frame.

Vanderbeck broke the stalemate just 60 seconds into the third period with a rocket from the far dot to give his team the 2-1 lead. 

The sophomore forward, Vanderbeck, scored his second of the evening on a breakaway to make iot 3-1 Wildcats at 13:27 of the final period.

LSSU scored twice in the final 61 seconds of regulation to force an overtime session for the second straight night.

The Wildcats thought they had scored, celebrating on the ice at the 1:25 mark of overtime but after a lengthy review the goal was waved off and play continued. 

In his first appearance between the pipes, DiMatteo made a few key saves following the disallowed goal to keep play rolling and give his teammates another chance at the other end of the ice. 

The Lakers used their timeout at 3:40 of the overtime session following a big save from DiMatteo but momentum continued in favor of the Wildcats when Joseph Nardi won the draw.

 netminder and right back onto his stick for him to send it home and get the Wildcats their first overtime win of 2021.

SATURDAY'S GAME RECAP---LSSU STORY
 

The Lake Superior State hockey team recorded a thrilling 5-4 overtime win against the Northern Michigan Wildcats in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) game on Saturday, Feb. 6 at the Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Ashton Calder scored the game winning goal for the Lakers with 3.2 seconds left in overtime for the LSSU victory. 

The two Upper Peninsula rivals played to a 1-1 score in the first period. Wildcat forward Joseph Nardi opened the game's scoring with a goal at 4:06 after a rush through the neutral zone into the offensive zone. Nardi fired a quick wrist shot that beat Laker goaltender Seth Eisele on his glove side for a 1-0 NMU lead. 

At 6:27 of the first period, junior forward Ashton Calder, the Lakers leading scorer, would even the game at one with his sixth goal of the season. Miroslav Mucha carried the puck through the neutral zone before banking a pass off the boards to freshman defenseman Jacob Bengtsson, who was skating on the wing. Bengtsson sent the puck towards Northern goaltender Nolan Kent, and Calder who was driving to the net on the play, tapped the puck across the goal line to tie the game at one. 

The second period featured five goals in the first ten minutes of play with the Wildcats scoring three goals and the Lakers adding a pair. 

Nardi added his second goal of the game after capitalizing on a two-on-one with Andre Ghantous only forty seconds into the second period to regain the lead. 

With his first collegiate goal, freshman Benito Posa tied the game at two for the Lakers at the 4:53 mark of the second period. Posa and his linemates, Chase Gamelin and Alex Ambrosio, were hard on the forecheck in the Wildcat zone, and after winning the battle for the puck along the boards, Posa gained possession. Posa skated into the circle from the boards and sent a shot that would change direction on its way towards the NMU net, beating Kent to tie the game at two. Gamelin and Ambrosio each notched their first assists of the season on the goal. 

Later in the second period, Northern Michigan would add two goals in just over a minute as Alex Frye added a power play goal and Griffin Loughran put the Wildcats ahead 4-2 with a goal at the 8:46 mark. 

Mitchell Oliver brought the Lakers back within a goal of the Wildcats as he scored a power play goal for the Lakers at 9:16 of the second. Oliver, who has scored both his goals this season on the power play, was playing the point on the man advantage with forward Jack Jeffers. Jeffers received a pass from Yuki Miura and would then trade passes with Oliver along the blue line. Oliver's shot from the point would make its way through traffic and beat Kent to cut the Wildcat lead to 4-3. 

Sophomore Brandon Puricelli would tie the game with a power play goal for the Lakers at 9:31 of the third. After Jacob Nordqvist regained possession of the puck after the Wildcats tried to clear the zone, the junior defenseman would send a cross ice pass to Puricelli, who was stationed in the circle to the right of Kent. Puricelli would fire a puck on net that made its way through the screen to even the game at 4-4. 

With under five minutes left in the third period, the Lakers had a flurry of quality chances with Puricelli, Calder and Oliver each recording a shot on goal. After the puck left the Wildcat zone, Miroslav Mucha prevented the Wildcats from an odd man rush as he dove to keep the puck away from the Northern skater. 

After the first sixty minutes ended tied at four, the Lakers and Wildcats played a five minute three-on-three overtime period. In the closing seconds of overtime, Ashton Calder scored following an individual end-to-end rush up the ice, beating Kent with 3.2 seconds left in the game. Calder's goal, which was unassisted, came off a wrist shot from the slot to give the Lakers the victory. 

Eisele earned the win for the Lakers making 33 saves in the game while Kent finished the game with 28 shots from the Lakers in the game. Special teams played a role in the game with each team recording at least one power play goal and the Lakers recording two power play goals in the game. 

He sent the puck up to Van Unen who found an open Vanderbeck at the blue line. Carrying it in, Vanderbeck's first shot bounced off the pads of the LSSU.

SATURDAY'S GAME RECAP---NMU STORY

A last second offensive rush for the home team sealed the fate for Northern Michigan University's hockey team Saturday night as they fell to Lake Superior State University in overtime, 5-4. The Wildcats and Lakers met in their first of two Western Collegiate Hockey Association matchups Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, with the Lakers claiming victory with just 3.2 seconds remaining in the extra period of hockey.

It didn't take long for NMU to light the lamp as the senior captain Joseph Nardi fired a wrist shot past the Laker netminder at 4:06 of the opening period for the 1-0 lead. 

Just over two minutes later, the Lakers answered back with a goal of their own to knot the game at 1-1 with 13:33 to play in the first frame.

The Wildcats had a few more chances on net but were unable to break the LSSU goaltender as both teams skated to the locker rooms after one period tied at one. 

Nardi net his second of the game with just 40 seconds elapsed in the second period to give the Wildcats the 2-1 lead. 

LSSU would tie things up off a lucky bounce out front of Nolan Kent at 4:53 of the period to make it a 2-2 game. 

With just moments remaining on the man-advantage, Alex Frye capitalized on the power play, sending a sniper over the blocker of LSSU's Eisele for the go-ahead tally. It didn't take long for the Wildcats to strike again as Griffin Loughran danced around out front of the Laker net, sending the puck home just 1:11 after Frye's goal for the 4-2 lead. 

The Lakers would record a power play goal of their own later in the period as a Wildcat was sent off for two minutes. Just five seconds into the man-advantage, LSSU would capitalize, winning the draw and sending a quick shot on net, past Kent between the pipes as the Wildcats clung to a 4-3 lead.  

After two periods of play, the Wildcats boasted a 24-16 shots on goal margin with Kent picking up 13 saves through 40 minutes of play.

With 10:29 to play in the third period, the Lakers found the back of the net to tie things up again, 4-4. A rocket from the far circle made its way through traffic and past Kent for the power play tally.

Kent made a flurry of huge saves with five minutes to play in regulation to keep it a tie game.

As the clock ticked under a minute to play in regulation the Wildcats fired two huge shots on net that somehow managed to stay out and the teams would head to the three-on-three overtime period.

Throughout the first 60 minutes of play, the Wildcats held the edge in shots on goal, 33-26.

With 3.2 seconds left in the overtime frame, the Lakers fired a rocket past Kent and into the back of the net to take game one of the conference series.