The Soo Indians invited #9 ranked Lake Forest Academy to Sault Ste Marie this past weekend for a three game non-conference series hoping to test their improved skills against a nationally ranked powerhouse team. 

Lake Forest Academy is located just north of Chicagoand is coached by Darrin Madeley who is well known in the hockey circles of Sault Ste Marie.  He was a two-time All American goaltender with the Lakers and led them to a NCAA National title with a win over Wisconsin to cap off the 91-92 season.  He went on to play NHL hockey for the Ottawa Senators for a couple seasons and spent time overseas in the European leagues.  He is also the Asst Athletic Director for Lake Forest.

Game one of the series took place at the Taffy Abel Arena on Friday night.  The result was just the opposite one would expect when the 78^th ranked team played the 9^th ranked team.  The Soo’s Ryan Marker led the scoring with 3 goals and two assists enroute to a 6-1 Indians victory.  Denver Pierce, Kyle TenEyck and Eric Tien added the other three goals for the Indians while Steve Dombrosky continued his all-star play in net for the victory.

Saturday afternoon’s game was at the Big Bear Arena.  After a slow first period with no scoring, Dustan Nichols put the Soo on the board with a feed from Alex Gregorich.  Just a few minutes later, Ryan took a pass from Denver Pierce and Eric Tien, slid the puck through a Lake Forest defenseman, did a tic-tac-toe move that left the LFA goaltender spread eagle and defenseless in the paint and easily lifted the puck over the pads for the eventual game winning goal. Lake Forest fought back in the third and earned a powerplay goal late in the game, but it was too little too late and the Indians have won two games of the series.

Goaltender David Bryant started in goal Sunday morning and played a very solid game. Lake Forest won the game by a 3-2 score.  Eric Tien (Nick Tassone, Denver Pierce) scored for the Soo while Tyler Jones scored short-handed from Eric Hillock.

“What a good weekend for us,” says Rick Corbiere, Head Coach for the Soo.  “I always expect the kids to come back soft after the long holiday break, but they worked hard and came back stronger.”

“I have a great deal of respect for the Lake Forest program and their coach.  They are always tough to play.  Our game is really coming together now and we’re showing we can play with the best teams in the country…and win!”

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