Lake Superior State looking to prove doubters wrong in 2015-16
By Matt Mackinder –
Getting picked to finish in the basement of the WCHA standings this year by both the coaches and media, Lake Superior State hopes to harness that motivation to make some noise in the league this season.
The Lakers, under first-year coach Damon Whitten, went 8-28-2 in 2014-15, losing their first nine games and never really got untracked.
Whitten is looking to a better start in 2015-16 and much of the team’s success will start in net.
“We’re looking to climb the ladder and make our way a little bit,” said Whitten. “A lot of success we have this year will be determined from the back end out and with our goaltender, Gordie Defiel, he’ll have a large part in doing that. He’s come back in great shape, ready to roll, and we’re excited to see where Gordie’s at. It’s a real credit to Gordie the year he had last year and what he’s building on.”
Freshman Nick Kossoff will come in and Whitten hopes will push Defiel for playing time.
“We don’t know if that will happen from Day 1 or later on as he adjusts, but we’re excited about Nick and what he brings to our program,” Whitten said. “He’ll see time in net over the course of the season and really, will take some of the pressure off Gordie. It was a tough situation last year where I think Gordie felt that if we gave up one goal that it was going to be a tough night for us and didn’t really have guys behind him that could take the pressure off, but he’ll be better off this year when that pressure can be relieved at times.”
On defense, LSSU returns every blueliner from last year, including five sophomores that saw extensive playing time as freshmen.
“That was a little bit of a tough situation (last year) with a freshman goaltender and a freshman ‘D’ core, but they’re all back and they’ll be led by our senior, Eric Drapluk. He’s played a ton of college hockey here at Lake State, is very experienced and is ready for this next challenge. He’ll be a big piece of our leadership group on this whole team, especially on our ‘D’ core. We’ll have five sophomores and two freshmen, so we’re still pretty young back there.”
Having a slew of youth at one position may seem to some to potentially be a disaster, but Whitten sees the other, more positive side of the equation.
“It’s a competitive situation,” he said. “The two freshmen we bring in (Owen Headrick and Matt McArdle) are both guys that we think should play a lot of hockey for us this year, so that should make a very competitive situation for who’s in every night. We have some depth and defense was an area we needed to improve and address and we think we’ve done a decent job. It’ll make for competitive practices to see who plays on the weekend.”
When it comes to scoring from the Lakers’ forwards, Whitten sees that group scoring by committee.
“There’s no question that we’ve been challenged offensively the last few years and we need some guys to step up and emerge,” said Whitten. “Bryce Schmitt will be one of those guys, along with Austin McKay. We think that some of the guys we’re returning will have a chance to upgrade our offense, along with our freshmen, but with those guys, you never know if it’s from Day 1 or Christmastime or a year from now.
“We’ll be a team with about 18 freshmen and sophomores, so it’ll be a young team, but there is a lot of excitement with that.”