After being upset by Division III Hope College last weekend, the Grand Valley State University Division II club hockey team gained momentum with a 3-2 victory over Ferris State University in overtime.

Having previously defeated Ferris State, 5-2, earlier this month, the Lakers (27-5-1) entered their season finale confident, but prepared their “A” game anyway to avoid falling into the same mistakes that cost them their last game.

“Ferris did a lot of things that they did last time we played them,” said junior goalie Scott Tiefenthal, who sat out the game to give senior Josh Lavigne time in the net. “They block a lot of shots and it’s somewhat frustrating to play against them because it’s hard to get behind them and get and play offensively. We got off to a slow start but we
really put on the pressure in the third period.”

The Lakers jumped out to an early lead with a first period goal from senior forward Brad Keough, but Ferris State soon followed suit with a goal of its own.

After a scoreless second period, junior forward Tim Marney scored from a swiftly executed pass from Chad Wilhelm to put the Lakers up 2-1, but Ferris State retaliated again in the last two minutes to stay in the game and bring the teams into overtime. Undaunted, the Lakers maintained their strong offense and Keough capitalized on a giveaway goal from Ferris State in their own zone to score the game-winning goal.

“We came out and played hard,” Keough said. “We weren’t very aggressive earlier on in the game, but we made up for it later. It was almost too late at that point, but we played better than we have for a while.”

For junior forward Wilhelm, who recently rejoined the Lakers after sitting out for several weeks due to a shoulder injury, the game was an opportunity to get back into the rhythm and competition of hockey.

“It felt great contributing again and seeing the team battle and not giving up when we had to kill off penalties and had some controversy with the referees,” he said.

With this win, the Lakers close out their regular season and enter a two week break, after which the Lakers will host the Great Midwest Hockey League Tournament at the Georgetown Ice Arena in March. However, the Lakers are far from done and plan to use the break as an opportunity to improve, rather than a vacation.

“We have next weekend off from games but we are adding practices on a couple Fridays to prepare for GMHL and tournament play,” Wilhelm said. “Practices are going to have to be more intense and we are going to have to bring the intensity
that we would have in a game to practice in order to stay sharp.”