Dec. 3, 2005

Box Score

Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst scored six times in a wild first period, four on the power play, and went on from there to turn back Bentley 10-5 Saturday night before over a thousand fans at the Ice Center. The Lakers, who recaptured first place in Atlantic Hockey with a 7-4 win over the Falcons Friday night, improved to 9-6-0 overall and to 8-2-0 in the conference. Bentley dropped to 5-7-2 and 3-3-2 respectively.

Senior forward Dave Borrelli started and ended the first period scoring with power play goals at 2:55 and 16:13, his 7th and 8th markers of the season. The Lakers also generated extra-man goals from freshman forward Chris Trafford at 5:53, his 6th, and junior winger Scott Champagne at 10:49, his 10th, and an even-strength lamplighter from senior Erik Johnson at 9:20, his 3rd. Bentley's lone goal in the period came from the stick of freshman forward Anthony Canzoneri at 7:07 to trim the early deficit to 2-1. Four of the goals came against Falcons' freshman Jason Kearney, who was replaced by Friday's starter, junior Ray Jean, after Champagne's score made it 4-1. Bentley, surprisingly, outshot the Lakers 15-14 in the period.

After an early second period goal by Bentley's freshman forward Dain Prewitt drew the Falcons within four at 6-2, the Lakers scored a pair of even strength goals within 14 seconds of each other as both junior Kyle Gourgon and sophomore Matt Warren recorded their 7th and 2nd goals of the season. Bentley scored the final two goals of the period at 10:35 and 17:34 as freshman forward Jeff Gumaer and junior winger John Hooks beat Mercyhurst junior goaltender Mike Ella.

Mercyhurst scored both a power play and a shorthanded goal in the finale courtesy of Trafford and Borrelli respectively. Borrelli completed his hat trick, all on special teams, at 12:12 with the Lakers' playing a man down. The Falcons' goal, also a power play, was scored by Gumaer midway in the period.

Mercyhurst dropped five more power play goals on the Falcons and finished the weekend pair with 10 extra-man goals in 20 chances. The game was chippy throughout with both teams combining for 76 minutes in the third period, including five misconducts. Bentley was whistled 18 times in the contest for 68 minutes while the Lakers picked up 15 penalties for 46 minutes. The Falcons used a 19-6 advantage in the final period to outshoot the Lakers 43-27. With the two wins, the Lakers now lead the all-time series against Bentley 18-4-2.

Thirteen Mercyhurst players had at least one point in the game led by Borrelli's five. Junior defenseman Jamie Hunt recorded four assists and sophomore Ben Cottreau had three helpers. Although he allowed nine goals over the weekend, Ella improved to 5-3-1 on the year while Jean took the Bentley loss for the second night in a row.

Mercyhurst will rest until next Friday when Canisius visits for the first of a home-and-home series that will conclude Saturday night in Buffalo. Those games will bring down the curtain on the 2005 portion of the campaign. The Golden Griffins are coached by former Lakers' assistant, Dave Smith.