Vikings rally for wild 8-6 win over Northland

ASHLAND, Wis. — The Lawrence University hockey team won a wild 8-6 Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association shootout with Northland College on Saturday at the Bay Area Civic Center.

Lawrence (2-2-0, 2-2-0 MCHA) trailed 3-0 early, rallied for a 6-3 lead and then needed a penalty shot and empty-net goal to seal the victory over the Lumberjacks (0-4-0, 0-4-0).

Erik Soderlund scored a pair of goals for the Vikings, and Logan Lemirande and Rudi Pino both had three points. Senior goaltender Michael Baldino came on in relief and made 16 saves to pick up the victory for Lawrence.

Lawrence trailed 3-0 until Lemirande scored on the power play at the 17:44 mark of the first period. That started a run of six consecutive goals by the Vikings as Soderlund scored twice and Gustav Lindgren, Phil Bushbacher and Brandon Boelter all added goals to give Lawrence a 6-3 lead with 6:22 left in the second period.

The Lumberjacks came back and scored a power-play goal to cut the lead to 6-4 after two periods. Northland was 2-for-6 on the power play and Lawrence was 3-for-4.

Kraig Wright and Louis Labbe both scored for Northland in the first 6:32 of the third period to tie the score at 6-6.

Lawrence then got a penalty shot goal from freshman Matt Moore at the 12:24 mark to grab a 7-6 edge. It was the first penalty shot goal for the Vikings since Jon Bellotti scored at Adrian College on Jan. 23, 2010.

The Lumberbacks pulled goaltender Vincent DiCarlo late, and Brad Scurfield scored an empty-netter with 13 seconds left to seal the victory. DiCarlo made 35 saves as the Vikings piled up a 43-33 advantage in shots.

Lawrence swept the weekend road series, winning Friday’s night’s game 10-1.

Box score