By RYAN STIEG

Journal Sports Writer

MARQUETTE — A night earlier, Northern Michigan University senior captain Denver Pierce was left frustrated after missing on a penalty shot.

The Sault Ste. Marie native redeemed himself Saturday evening as he scored two goals in the third period to lift Northern to a 5-3 victory and sweep of No. 18 Lake Superior State. Fellow senior forward Troy Loggins also tallied two goals for NMU (17-14-2, 16-8-2 WCHA).

The Wildcats’ win also lifted them over the Lakers (20-10-2, 15-9-2) in the WCHA standings and they now hold sole possession of third place, two points behind second-place Bowling Green State.

“I’m pretty jacked up right now, to be honest,” Pierce said. “Honestly, I didn’t care who scored the goals. I just wanted to win that game so bad. I just told myself that I needed to step up because it’s been a while and I’ve been a little bit snake-bitten lately putting the puck in the net. It was a good time to let loose a little bit and have a couple go in.”

With the game tied 3-3, Pierce gave the Wildcats the lead just two minutes into the third period as his shot deflected over LSSU goalie Mareks Mitens’ blocker. Six minutes later with NMU on the power play after forward Griffin Loughran got the Lakers’ Steven Ruggiero to commit a holding call, Pierce’s shot went off Mitens’ skate and into the back of the net to put Northern up two.

“I couldn’t be happier for him or prouder of him,” Wildcats head coach Grant Potulny said. “We’ve had an up-and-down type of season to get to this point and he’s kind of been the glue guy to keep us together.

“Going into the weekend, the one thing I think I have a unique perspective on is going back and playing a team from your hometown. When I was in college, I always thought my teammates really played well in that game for me.

“We really wanted to play well for Denver tonight and we did. And then Denver helped us. At the biggest moment, he scores two goals in the third period to ice the game. What a great guy and a great person. For him to be able to lift that Cappo Cup is a memory I’m sure that he’ll keep forever.”

It appeared that Lake State got a goal back with 3:35 left, but after a lengthy review, it was waved off and NMU remained ahead by two the rest of the way.

On Friday, the second period was NMU’s best period and it started off that way again Saturday. Up by a goal at the start, the Wildcats extended their lead to two on a nice attentive play by Garrett Klee. After Mitens made a good save on Darien Craighead’s shot, he left a juicy rebound in the crease and Klee reached around a LSSU defenseman and tapped it into the open net to put Northern up 3-1.

That lead didn’t last, though. After Ashton Calder rang a shot off the pipe that would’ve beaten NMU goalie Atte Tolvanen with 15 minutes left in the second period, Calder and Brayden Gelsinger worked together to trim NMU’s lead. With a little more than seven minutes left, Gelsinger sent the puck up to Calder, whose shot was stopped by Tolvanen, but Gelsinger backhanded the rebound through the senior’s five-hole to pull the Lakers within one.

Two minutes later, Calder tied the game himself as he deked his way around Tolvanen and tucked the puck just inside the near post to make it 3-3.

The second period has been a difficult one for the Wildcats for the majority of this season, but on Friday, that was their best period. On Saturday, it was more of an up-and-down one, but Potulny felt positive about how it went overall.

“To be honest, I think we played a pretty good period,” he said. “The two goals they got were just kind of breakdowns. There’s been second periods where I kind of felt that we kind of got our ears pinned back. I thought we were playing on our toes. The first time they went in to review the lineup card, it kind of took the juice out of us a little bit, but we came out of it. It had the feel all game that we were going to find a way to win.”

NMU didn’t get off to a great start as the Lakers pressured Tolvanen early. He stopped a one-timer from Tyler Anderson and a shot in the slot from Brendan McKay, but the Lakers used a break to solve the senior netminder as Gage Torrel’s attempt was deflected in over Tolvanen’s shoulder. Torrel also came up big later when he blocked two shots by Loggins on NMU’s first power play.

LSSU couldn’t stop Loggins for long. With less than four minutes remaining before the first intermission and NMU on a power play, Adam Rockwood passed the puck to Loggins in the slot and he flung it over Mitens’ blocker to tie it.

Loggins struck again on NMU’s next power play. After Loughran drew an interference call on LSSU’s Jacob Nordqvist, Loggins got a pass from Phil Beaulieu at the point and sent the puck over Mitens’ shoulder with less than a minute left to give the Wildcats a 2-1 advantage.

When asked what the atmosphere is like in the Wildcats’ locker room, Loggins said it is good and that they feel that they’ve got some momentum heading into the big rivalry series with Michigan Tech next week.

“I think this is big for us,” he said. “A lot of the guys had really big weekends and I think we got our confidence back up. We’re feeling really good about ourselves and our team. I think going into the Tech weekend, you can’t have a better weekend before that.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.