Included in the bumper crop of freshmen were goaltender Bruce Hoffort and New Jersey Devils draft pick Jim Dowd.
Mark Vermette, who scored only a single goal in his freshman season, exploded out of the gate and helped Lake Superior build an early lead in the conference standings.
The Lakers won only their second CCHA title (the first in 14 years) and were ranked so highly that it was possible for them to make the NCAA tournament bases solely on their regular season.
[3] Despite the loss, Lake Superior had won 30 games by that point, a new program record, and were given the #2 western seed, allowing them to bypass the first round of the tournament and await their opponent at home.
Fortunately for lake Superior, at the time the tournament format had the first two rounds being two-game total-goal series and they could get away with a poor effort in one game.
While Mane came in with the top offense in the country, Lake Superior was able to win the majority of puck battles and double up the vaunted easterners 6–3.
For their first championship appearance, Lake Superior faced an equally unlikely opponent in St. Lawrence who had outlasted western powerhouse Minnesota the night after.
Bruce Hoffort's 49-saves in the title game helped him earn the tournament MOP and was joined by Kord Cernich and Mike DeCarle on the All-Tournament team.
His goal-scoring frenzy made him a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award but that year it would go to Minnesota's Robb Stauber, Pete's brother.