The 2024–25 Lake Superior State Lakers men's ice hockey season was the 59th season of play for the program, the 52nd at the Division I level and the 45th in the CCHA. The Lakers represented Lake Superior State University, played their home games at the Taffy Abel Arena and were coached by Damon Whitten in his 11th season.

Season Lake Superior State had a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde season. Over the first two months, the Lakers put of solid numbers with both the offense and defense working in tandem on most nights. They sat at the top of the conference standings, however, due to their poor marks in non-conference play, the club was still well outside the picture for the NCAA tournament. However, after getting swept by Minnesota State just before the winter break, albeit in two 1-goal decisions, the wins came few and far between.

After averaging nearly 3 goals per game over the first half of the year, the Lakers' scoring dipped to around 2.3 per game after the break. The modest decrease saw the team switch from one that was hovering around .500 to one of the worst in the CCHA. Lake Superior State went 4–11–1 in the back half of the schedule, losing five 1-goal games to sink down to 8th in the standings. While the Lakers were able to make the postseason, they were forced to travel to face Minnesota State for the quarterfinals. After being largely ineffective in the first match, the Lakers fought back and twice gained the lead in the rematch. Unfortunately, they were unable to either and were swept out of postseason play.

While the mounting losses were bad enough for the program, a worse situation was seen in terms of attendance. By season's end, the team reported and aggregate of just over 15,000 for their 15 home games. That averaged out to approximately 1,034 fans per game, which equated to about 30% capacity. These numbers put LSSU 56th out of 64 teams in terms of total attendance but second from the bottom for percent capacity. The only team with worse average attendance for the year was American International who, in part because of their woeful attendance, were playing their final season of Division I hockey this year. To make matters worse, attendance appeared to decline as the season went along with many later games falling well below 1,000 attendees. The situation was so poor that on several occasions the team did not even report the crowd sizes for their home games.

With the financial requirements to operate college athletic increasing, largely due to the new NIL rules, these figures do not bode well for the program. If Lake Superior State wants to operate a competitive team, they will need to reverse their declining attendance before it reaches a cataclysmic level. Fortunately, just after the season the school announced that it had received a recurring annual commitment of $1.5 million from an anonymous benefactor.

Departures Artyom Borshyov Defenseman Graduate transfer to Lindenwood Jeremy Gervais Defenseman Graduation (signed with Huntsville Havoc) William Håkansson Goaltender Signed professional contract Tranås AIF Cam Kungle Defenseman Transferred to Merrimack Ethan Langenegger Goaltender Graduate transfer to Clarkson Benito Posa Forward Graduation (signed with Fort Wayne Komets) Brett Roloson Forward Transferred to Niagara Ross Roloson Defenseman Transferred to Niagara Harrison Roy Forward Graduate transfer to Merrimack Jared Westcott Forward Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) Tyler Williams Forward Graduation (signed with Knoxville Ice Bears)

Recruiting William Ahlrik Forward 21 Tidaholm, SWE Rorke Applebee Goaltender 21 Châteauguay, QC Adam Barone Defenseman 21 Sault Ste. Marie, ON Mike Brown Defenseman 23 Belmont, MA; transfer from Merrimack Tyler Bute Goaltender 20 Winfield, IL; transfer from club team Wilson Dahlheimer Goaltender 20 Monticello, MN Johnny Druskinis Defenseman 22 Plymouth, MI; transfer from Michigan Hadley Hudak Forward 21 Canton, MI Blake Humphrey Forward 22 Syracuse, NY; transfer from Sacred Heart Everett Pietila Forward 21 Howell, MI Grant Riley Goaltender 21 Rochester, NY; transfer from Northeastern

Roster As of August 14, 2024.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics F 28 9 14 23 14 F 34 10 12 22 6 F 32 14 5 19 34 C 36 4 14 18 18 D 34 3 15 18 42 F 33 7 10 17 33 F 34 9 7 16 24 F 34 5 9 14 4 D 33 0 14 14 8 F 24 7 5 12 18 C 35 6 6 12 24 D 36 4 7 11 30 D 28 6 4 10 4 F 28 0 9 9 6 C 30 2 6 8 2 C 26 3 4 7 10 D 36 3 3 6 30 D 32 1 4 5 12 F 25 0 5 5 10 F 20 0 3 3 2 D 30 0 2 2 47 G 6 0 1 1 0 D 17 0 1 1 4 G 1 0 0 0 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 D 6 0 0 0 6 C 7 0 0 0 2 F 8 0 0 0 4 G 31 0 0 0 2 Total 93 160 253 410

Goaltending statistics 32 1840:33 10 19 1 92 898 2 .907 3.00 5 302:23 2 2 1 16 190 0 .922 3.17 2 14:27 0 1 0 1 9 0 .900 4.15 Empty Net - 19:23 - - - 6 - - - - Total 36 2176:46 12 22 2 115 1097 2 .905 3.17

Rankings

PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA HockeyNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.

Awards and honors Rorke Applebee CCHA All-Rookie Team

References