December 6, 2003

Marquette, Mich. â€Ã‚“ For the second night in a row,Craig Kowalski was the man for the â€Ã‚˜Cats as he shutout the Lakers on Saturdaynight at the Berry Events Center by a 3-0 score.  Last night he set the new career mark forshutouts at nine as 24 hours later it is now 10.  Kowalski on the night had 28 saves.  With the win the â€Ã‚˜Cats are back at .500 witha 7-7-0 overall mark and a 6-6-0 CCHA record.  Lake State is now 4-6-4 and 2-6-2in the conference.

This is the second time in his NMU career that he hasregistered back-to-back shutouts as he did it last season with shutouts over Lake Superior State(3-0) and Western Michigan (5-0).  He went a total of 145:18 over four gameswithout giving up a goal last season. Ã¢Ã‚€ÃƒÃ‚‚œThey (the guys) let me see the puck tonight,â€Ã‚ Kowalski said.  â€Ã‚œIt is easy to stop the puck when I can seeit.â€Ã‚

The game-winning goal was scored by NMUâ€Ã‚™s Alan Swanson at 1:24 of the first period.  Swansonâ€Ã‚™s second goal of the season wasassisted by Soo native Alex Sawruk and Kevin Gardner.

The second story of the night was the play of freshman DarinOlver who scored two unassisted goals in the third period.  His first goal of the game and his seventh ofthe season came at 4:04 of theperiod.  His next goal was on the powerplay at 5:09 of the period.  â€Ã‚œI think that we got a couple of bounces thatgave us the extra edge,â€Ã‚ Olver said.  â€Ã‚œMylinemen are setting me up with an open net.â€Ã‚ÃƒÃ‚ƒÃƒ‚‚ Olverâ€Ã‚™s power-play goal was the â€Ã‚˜Cats lone goal on the night with theextra man in three opportunities.  TheLakers had five power-play chances on the night.

Jeff Jakaitis went the distance for the Lakers as heregistered 20 saves.

Next weekend the â€Ã‚˜Cats will stay in the U.P. and faceMichigan Tech for the Ramada Cup.  OnFriday night (Dec. 12) the team will face off in Houghton before playing in Marquetteon Saturday night (Dec. 13).