Feb. 11, 2006

Box Score

Watertown, Mass. - Mercyhurst moved to within a point of first-place Holy Cross Saturday night with another 5-2 win at Bentley. Holy Cross, meanwhile, bowed at home to Canisius 3-1, which sets up a collision between Atlantic Hockey's (AH) top two teams next Friday and Saturday at the Ice Center. The Crusaders, 20-7-1 overall, are 16-5-1 in the conference with 33 points. The Lakers are 18-10-0 and 16-6-0 respectively, and have 32 points in AH.

Mercyhurst got production from 10 players Saturday and another superb effort by freshman goalie Tyler Small, who turned aside 46 Falcons' shots. The Lakers scored first when sophomore forward Kyle Gourgon parked his 11th of the year behind Bentley netminder Geordan Murphy with just 132 seconds elapsed in the game. Bentley's Jeff Gumaer scored on a power play about six minutes later to complete the first period scoring. The Falcons enjoyed a 20-9 advantage in shots in the opening 20 minutes.

Mercyhurst sophomore forward Ben Cottreau tallied his third goal of the series and 13th of the season eight minutes into the middle period for a 2-1 lead. But Bentley defenseman Brendan McCartin got the Falcons all even at 12:58 with his 6th lamplighter of the year. With less than a minute left in the period, freshman Brett Robinson put the Lakers ahead to stay with his 3rd of the year and his first career game-winner. The Falcons had a 18-11 advantage in shots in the middle period.

Senior forward Dave Borrelli capped the scoring with his 21st and 22nd goals of the year in the third period. Both came with the Lakers up a man, the first at 3:06 and the last at 13:00. Borrelli finished the series with four goals and an assist and joined linemates Cottreau and Scott Champagne for a combined seven goals, eight assists, and 24 shots in the weekend set.

Bentley outshot Mercyhurst 48-39 although the Lakers enjoyed a 19-10 advantage in the final frame. The Lakers cashed 2 of 6 power plays while the Falcons finished 1 of 4. Small stopped a combined 84 of 88 shots over the weekend (.955) as he improved his career mark to 10-3-0 and his conference record to 8-3-0. The Lakers now lead the all-time series against the Falcons 20-4-2.

Mercyhurst and Holy Cross, the teams expected to lead Atlantic Hockey in a preseason coaches' poll, split a pair of meetings last November in Worcester, Mass. The Crusaders won the lop-sided opener 10-3 while the Lakers squeaked out a 4-3 win the next night. Mercyhurst has a 14-6-1 advantage in the all-time series.