Nowick leads Wildcats past rival Lake State

SAULT ST. MARIE, Mich. — After going down 1-0 in the first, the Northern Michigan University hockey team rallied in the second and the third to pick up a 4-2 win over Lake Superior State in the Wildcats Western Collegiate Hockey Association opener Friday.

The Wildcats remained undefeated moving to 3-0-0 with a 1-0-0 WCHA record while Lake Superior State fell to 0-7-0 on the season with a 0-3-0 league mark.

“I thought we had a good effort and I thought Lake Superior State played well. We are going to have to put our hard hats on tomorrow,” said NMU head coach Walt Kyle. “I thought they did a good job forward checking us but I thought we had some good chances and we took advantage of them.”

Goals from junior forward Darren Nowick, sophomore forward Dominik Shine and sophomore forward John Siemer lifted the Wildcats to their league opening win.

LSSU picked up a goal just 3:21 into the first period on the power play when Austin McKay finished a feed from Nathan Harris and Gus Correale.

Nowick scored his first of two goals in the contest when he took a feed from Siemer and senior defenseman Mitch Jones at the 5:24 mark of the second period.

Shine then took a feed from Jones and sophomore defenseman Brock Maschmeyer less than a minute later (6:22) to take the Wildcats first lead of the night 2-1.

Scott Peterson evened the score at 2-2 at the 12:52 mark of the second period on assists from Matt Johnson and Bryce Schmitt.

Nowick then scored his second goal of the night on a feed from sophomore forward Gerard Hanson just 13-seconds in to the third period, putting NMU back on top 3-2.

Siemer scored an empty net goal, his first goal of the season, on an assist from senior captain Jake Baker with 49-seconds remaining in the game to seal the victory.

NMU outshot the lakers 33-29 including an edge of 14-7 in the opening frame. NMU was 1-2 on the power play and 4-5 on the penalty kill. Jones, Siemer and Nowick led the way for the Wildcats with two points each.

Baker and junior defenseman Ryan Trenz led the Wildcats with four shots on goal while Nowick, junior Joseph Manno and freshman Robbie Payne each had three shots for NMU.

Sophomore goalie Mathias Dahlstrom saved 27 of 29 shots faced to remain undefeated on the season for NMU. The win gives the Wildcats a 1-0 advantage in the Cappo Cup series.

NMU continues action on Saturday with a 7:07 p.m. pick drop at Lake Superior State.

(Information Courtesy of NMU Athletics)