2008 Woodie Awards
Team nets biggest win of season
By: Tim Ottusch
Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: Sports
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No. 5 Central came back from a four-goal deficit Saturday to win 6-5 in overtime against No. 3 Michigan State.
"We know we could hang with some of the top teams in the region, but tonight we proved it," said senior captain Craig Lipar.
After a fast-paced, up and down extra period, Jordan Jakubik won the game for Central with just 11 seconds remaining on a top-shelf wrist shot over MSU goalie Justin Sand's glove. Sophomore Mike Lesnau and sophomore Ian Carlson had the assists.
"It's always a good feeling scoring a game winning goal," Jakubik said.
CMU (11-10 overall) came into Saturday's game riding a season-high seven-game losing streak and had just lost the previous night to No. 7 Michigan, a team CMU had beaten earlier in the season, 5-3.
Coach Chris LaPan said the team showed character throughout the game despite coming into the game on a losing streak.
"When one thing goes wrong another thing goes wrong and everybody's blaming everybody," LaPan said. "Tonight, totally different mind set, we got down 4-0 right away, stayed positive the whole game and came back and won."
Michigan State started the game in control of the play, scoring the first four goals of the game. The bright spot in the first period for Central was senior goaltender Mike Jakubik's penalty shot save just 1 minute, 57 seconds into the game.
Central got back into the game at the start of the second period. Junior Tim Marttila scored 3:55 into the period and then sophomore Jordan Jakubik scored, cutting the deficit to two.
"It was really big (getting those two goals)," Lipar said. "Coming out of the locker room between the first and second periods we set a goal for ourselves to at least cut the deficit to two."
But just as Central got itself back into the game, Michigan State responded with 7:28 remaining in the second to go up by three. Junior Marty Lipar then answered on the power play, jamming home a lose puck in the crease. Lesnau and Jordan Jakubik got the assists.
"That was huge - we answered the bell," LaPan said. "(To) make it 5-3 going into the third, that's just big."
CMU began the third period with a fresh mindset and it showed. Lesnau slapped in a goal 10 seconds into the period on an assist from Marty Lipar, and 11 seconds later, Jordan Jakubik scored on a point-blank shot from Marty Lipar to tie up the game.
Central plays a home and home series against No. 1 Grand Valley State next weekend.
sports@cm-life.com
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