Lakers Chosen For All-NCT Team and MCRHL All-star Honors
5/18//09

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS
Three Lakers earned spots on the the National Championship All-Star 1st and 2nd Teams for Division II. Senior captain Nick Boyle (#10) earned a spot on the All-Tournament 1st Team along with freshman Chris Schaefer (#7). Their performances in the championship game no doubt had a heavy impact on their 1st team selection. In the final game, both players contributed three goals, while Boyle added 2 assists to his total, leading the Lakers to a 9-7 victory. Boyle had 4 goals and 11 assists (15 points) and Schaefer had 12 goals and 1 assist (13 points) over the course of the weekend. Sophomore Kyle Chambers (#10) was selected for the All-Tournament 2nd Team with a total of 11 goals and 8 assists over the course of the seven game weekend.

Nick Boyle was also given the playmaker award for the tournament.

Not Chosen for either team but in the running for the all-tournament team selections were freshman goaltender Kieth Chapman (#35) and junior Ryan Gendron (#16). In what could be considered the biggest mistake of the all-tournament selctions, Chapman who backstopped the Lakers to a 6-1 record and a national championship was not selected for either team. Two goaltenders with records of 2-2 and 4-1 were selected for the all-tournament teams while the most valuable goalie went to the goaltender with a 2-2 record. Gendron finshed the weekend with 11 goals and 7 assists, one point behind Chambers for the team point lead over the weekend but was not selected for either team.

MCRHL ALL-STARS
Two Lakers were chosen to represent the MCRHL as members of an all-star team that will participate in a tournament against other NCRHA regional all-star teams. Nick Boyle and Ryan Gendron will be playing July 15th-17th in Mississauga, Ontario at the NARCh finals along with other MCRHL all-star team selections. The Team:

Danny Bara	F	Central Michigan University
Nick Boyle	D	Grand Valley State University
Ryan Gendron	D	Grand Valley State University
Dave Holingshead	D	Ohio State University
Seth Rogers	F	University of Michigan
Anthony Rusing	F	Western Michigan
Nick Smolinski	F	Macomb Community College
Kyle Stambersky	F	Eastern Michigan University
Chris Weiss	D	University of Cincinatti
Jason Yokubison	F	Central Michigan University
Matt Smith	G	Ohio State University
Adam Goldberg	G	University of Michigan

Congratulations to the four Lakers chosen for these great honors!

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GVSU DII NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!
Tournament Game Recap
4/11//09

GAME 1
The opening game of the National Championship Tournament brought along both disappointment and some encouragement for the DII Laker team. Facing off against arguably the top team in the country, the defending national champions Neumann College, the Lakers had a lot to prove. After a slow start and a first period plagued by penalties, the Lakers found themselves down 4-0. It was looking like it would turn into a blowout before a mistake by the Neumann goalie gave junior Ryan Gendron (#16) an open net to slide the puck in while on the penalty kill. The Lakers added two more goals in the second from freshman Chris Schaefer (#7) and sophomore Kyle Chambers(#8) to bring the score to 3-5. Neumann came out quick in the third to bring their lead back to 3 goals but the Lakers responded with two power play goals to bring the score to 5-6 which is how the game would end as the Lakers could not tally the tying goal.  

Although disappointed, the loss proved to the team that they were just as good if not better than any team at the tournament. The Lakers would use this game to fuel the rest of the weekend, as they knew they should have come out on top.

GAME 2
This game would start out very differently for the Lakers, as they were matched against the University of Tampa Spartans. Coming out strong, the Lakers tallied 5 goals in the first period to put themselves up 5-0. It was easy to see that Tampa was getting frustrated as they took a total of 8 penalties in the first two periods. In the second period, Kyle Chambers (#8) tallied his third goal of the day to complete his hat-trick. Tampa found themselves short-handed for most of the third period as they took 7 penalties, bringing their game total to 15 penalties. The Lakers added 3 more goals to add to their total and finished the game on top 12-3. Kyle Chambers finished the game with 4 goals, accompanied by senior captain Nick Boyle's (#10) 4 assists.

GAME 3 and GAME 4
The Lakers found themselves in a battle with the University of Southern California Trojans in the last game of pool play. After two periods, the Lakers could not pull ahead even after putting a total of 34 shots on goal. With the game tied at 4 goals apiece heading into the third, the Lakers again pelted the USC goalie with 17 shots, and were able to pull out a 7-5 victory behind a game winning goal from sophomore Kyle Gelow (#23).

Kyle Chambers and senior Tony Switkowski (#2) led the charge for the Lakers in the first game of the single game elimination playoffs against the University of Northern Colorado. After two periods the score was tied at three, but the Lakers broke out as Chambers added both of his goals in the third and Switkowski added his only goal of the contest to rally the team to an 8-3 victory. Freshman goalie Keith Chapman did not have any action as the Lakers' defense did not allow a single shot on goal in the third period in the process of keeping UNC off of the scoreboard.

QUARTERFINALS
This game could very well be described as the most exciting game of the tournament. The Lakers faced off against a very strong West Chester Golden Rams team which entered the game with a record of 26-2-3 over the course of the year. The Lakers fell behind only one minute into the game after a quick goal. However, only 32 seconds later junior Ryan Gendron (#16) tied the game with a shot that somehow found its way through a cluster of players in front of the net. The score remained even until 2 minutes remaining in the first period when David Trahan (#13) buried a rebound off of a shot by Gendron on the power play. For the remainder of the game, the Lakers did not relinquish the lead. Trahan added another goal and freshman Chris Schaefer (#7) tallied two including the eventual game winner to give the Lakers a total of 5 goals. The end of the game however brought along with it a little bit of drama... With 2:01 remaining in the game, freshman Mitch Sledz was called for a weak (at best) interference penalty in front of the West Chester goal. Leading 5-4, the Lakers would have to prevent the Rams from scoring in order to preserve the win, but they would have to do so shorthanded. With 5 seconds remaining in the game, after killing off most of the Mitch Sledz penalty, Nick Boyle took a tripping penalty putting the team short two men. The ensuing face off was won by the Rams and as the puck was passed in front of the net, Chris Schaefer attempted to deflect the puck and in doing so, let go of his stick. The puck went into the corner and with no time remaining on the clock, Ryan Gendron took a roughing penalty as he went into the corner hard with a West Chester player. After a lengthy discussion, the referees awarded West Chester a penalty shot for the thrown stick on the play. If West Chester was to score on the penalty shot, the game would go to overtime with the Lakers shorthanded two men. Tim Saraceni, West Chester's leading scorer came down on the penalty shot on the left side and after a quick deke, came across the net. With about a foot of open net to shoot at, he slid the puck towards the net however his momentum going towards the right side of the net caused the puck to hit the outside of the post and go wide. A huge celebration followed for the Lakers as the game ended with the Lakers on top 5-4.

SEMIFINALS
The Lakers would face off against the Missouri State University Bears. The two teams met earlier in the season when the Lakers traveled to Missouri. This previous game with Missouri State ended in a 3-2 loss for the Lakers as they were not able to stay out of the penalty box... This semifinal game would be completely different as the Lakers would controll the play from the first drop of the puck. Two minutes into the first period, Ryan Gendron (#16) started the scoring with the first of his three goals of the game. In the next four minutes, the Lakers added three more goals, the last of which was Gendron's second of the game, scored on the power play off of a pass from Kyle Chambers. Missouri State finally got on the board one minute into the second period, only to be answered by goals from Chambers and Gendron respectively at the end of the second. The third period was uneventful as the Lakers added a quick goal from Chambers and coasted to a 7-2 victory.

FINALS!!!
As if it was destiny, the Lakers met their MCRHL rivals Central Michigan University in the national championship game. A rematch of the regional championship game, the Lakers looked to avenge their regional championship loss. Knowing that Central Michigan would play hard the entire game, the Lakers knew they would have to get ahead early and stay ahead for the whole game if they were to win. Coming into the Game, The Lakers record against CMU was 2-1-1 including a 5-2 win, 4-4 tie, 4-3 win, and a 5-7 loss (regional championship).

The pace of the game was very quick from the beginning. Central Michigan got out to a quick start with a goal in the first two minutes. The lakers responded halfway through the first with a goal by Nick Boyle, his first of three in the game. Central continued with pressure and scored 27 seconds later. Following the same theme, the Lakers added two quick goals to their total, the first by Kyle Chambers, 19 seconds after the CMU goal. Ryan Gendron followed suit by adding his only goal of the game 22 seconds after Chamber's goal. Chris Schaefer added the next two goals for the Lakers and the end of the first period came with the Lakers up 5-3.

The start of the second period again brought a quick Central goal, however the Lakers would respond with goals from Boyle, his second of the game, and Schaefer, his third of the game. Heading into the third period with a 7-4 lead, the championship was in their Lakers' sights.

The Lakers struck first in the third to extend their lead to 8-4 when Mitch Sledz scored his first goal of the game and second goal of the tournament on a deflection off of a shot from Nick Boyle. The game appeared to be in the Lakers' control as they were up 8-4, however, Central would mount a comeback, scoring three goals in 1:18 to bring the score to 8-7. In a way that couldn't be more fitting to end a career, senior captain Nick Boyle put the lakers up by two goals with his third goal of the game with only four minutes left to play. Central pulled their goalie but would be unable to mount any sufficient pressure and the game would end at 9-7 as the Grand Valley State University DII Roller Hockey Team would win their first National Championship in only the club's fourth year of existence and third participating at the DII level.

DII CHAMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

National Championship Tournament Notes
4/11//09

Freshman goaltender Keith Chapman played an excellent tournament. Making saves that kept the momentum on the Lakers side every single game. As a freshman he really stood up to the challenge of playing at the national level.

In the tournament, the Lakers were lead by Kyle Chambers (11 Goals, 8 assists - 19pts), Ryan Gendron (11 goals, 7 assists - 18 pts), Nick Boyle (4 goals, 11 assists - 15 pts), and Chris Schaefer (12 goals, 1 assist - 13 pts).

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