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ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team returns home on Friday and Saturday, January 11 and 12, to take on the Crusaders of Holy Cross in a critical Atlantic Hockey Association series. Faceoffs both nights are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. from the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

The Lakers and the Crusaders enter the weekend series tied for third place in the Atlantic Hockey standings with 14 points. Army is second with 16 points, while everyone is trying to chase the Purple Eagles of Niagara, who are undefeated in the conference and have 21 points.

Mercyhurst is 26-11-5 lifetime against Holy Cross, including a 3-1-1 record against the Crusaders last season. The last time these two teams met was last March, when Mercyhurst outlasted Holy Cross two games to one in the best of three AHA Quarterfinals at the Ice Center. The Lakers are 10-6-4 at home against Holy Cross.

The Lakers (9-7-1, 7-3-0 AHA) are coming off of a weekend split at the University of Maine last weekend. Mercyhurst dropped the first game by a 2-1 final, despite 35 saves from junior Jordan Tibbett. On Saturday, the Lakers defeated the Black Bears 5-2, marking the first time in program history that Mercyhurst has defeated Maine. It was also the first time that the Lakers knocked off a team from Hockey East in the program's history. Junior forward Daniel O'Donoghue recorded his first career hat trick as part of a career-high five points, while senior Max Strang stopped a season-high 43 shots.

O'Donoghue was named the Atlantic Hockey Association Player of the Week, this past Monday, for his efforts.

Holy Cross (10-6-2, 6-3-2 AHA) dropped a pair of games at #7 North Dakota last weekend, losing by the scores of 5-2 and 3-2 respectively. The Crusaders' 10-6-2 record is their best after the first 18 games since the 2005-2006 season when they were 12-5-1. The Crusaders' 60 goals scored are their most after the first 18 games since they netted 61 in the 2002-2003 season.

Sophomore Matt Ginn is already second all-time on the school's Division I career victories list with 26. His 1,108 career saves are fifth. Senior Kyle Fletcher leads the team this season with 17 points. Junior Adam Schmidt leads the team with nine goals, while senior Evan Zych is ranked first on team with 13 assists.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

THE SERIES
Mercyhurst leads the all-time series with Holy Cross 26-11-5. The last time these two teams met was last March in a best two-of-three quarterfinal series at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The Lakers won the series two games to one and advanced to the Atlantic Hockey Semifinals in Rochester, N.Y. Mercyhurst went 3-1-1 last season against Holy Cross and is now 7-1-1 in the last nine meetings with the Crusaders. The Lakers are 10-6-4 against Holy Cross at the Ice Center.

THE COACHES
Rick Gotkin is in his 25th season with Mercyhurst and has posted a career record of 443-313-61. He is the only coach in NCAA history to take the same program to the NCAA Division III, Division II, and Division I national tournament. Gotkin is also the all-time winningest coach for any Mercyhurst program in school history. He took over for Fred Lane, who coached Mercyhurst's inaugural season in 1987-88. Gotkin is 26th all-time, among all coaches, with 443 career victories and needs seven wins to become the 26th coach in history to reach 450 career victories. He is 11th among active coaches with 817 career games coached. 

Paul Pearl is in his 18th season at Holy Cross and has compiled a career record of 273-263-65 with the Crusaders. He has been the man behind the bench in eight of the 10 most successful seasons in Holy Cross history, while he has had four teams post 20-plus win seasons. Pearl led the Crusaders to their first two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2003-04 and 2005-06, while he coached the Crusaders to their first ever NCAA Tournament win with a 4-3 overtime victory over Minnesota in Grand Forks, N.D., on March 24, 2006.

ABOUT MERCYHURST
The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team earned a weekend split at Maine to open the 2013 portion of the regular season. The Lakers dropped a 2-1 decision to the Black Bears on Friday night before taking game two of the series by a 5-2 final on Saturday. Saturday night marked the first-ever win by the Lakers over Maine. Mercyhurst is now 1-5-1 lifetime against the Black Bears with all seven games being played in the state of Maine. It was the second time this season that Mercyhurst has recorded a first-ever win against an opponent. On December 15, Mercyhurst also earned its first-ever win at Clarkson with a 3-1 victory over the Golden Knights. Mercyhurst is now 9-7-1 overall on the season and finished its non-conference schedule with a 2-4-1 mark. The Lakers went 0-1-1 at Ferris State, 0-2-0 at Rensselaer, 1-0-0 at Clarkson, and 1-1-0 at Maine. Saturday's victory was the 443rd of head coach Rick Gotkin's career, as he now needs just seven victories to become the 26th coach ever, in any division, to reach 450 career wins. On Friday, senior Paul Chiasson scored Mercyhurst's only goal - a power play goal at the 3:02 mark of the opening period. It was Chiasson's third goal of the season and his first since scoring a goal at Rensselaer on November 16 - a span of eight games. Junior netminder Jordan Tibbett dropped to 3-4-0 on the season, stopping 35-of-37 Maine shots. On Saturday, it was the Daniel O'Donoghue and Max Strang show. O'Donoghue recorded his first career hat-trick as part of a career-high five-point night in Mercyhurst's 5-2 victory at Maine on Saturday night. After being held scoreless in the Lakers' 2-1 loss to the Black Bears on Friday, O'Donoghue had a hand in all five Mercyhurst goals on Saturday, recording the most points by a Laker in a game since Scott Pitt and Steve Cameron had six points each in an 11-1 victory over AIC on December 6, 2008. O'Donoghue scored his first goal of the game in the second period to give the Lakers a 2-1 lead heading to the third period. He would complete the hat trick with a pair of shorthanded empty-net goals at 18:25 and 19:38 respectively. The two shorthanded goals by O'Donoghue were the most in a game by a Laker since Mike Gurtler scored three shorthanded goals in a 5-1 victory over Holy Cross on November 20, 2009. Meanwhile, Strang stopped a season-high 43 shots on Saturday. The 43 saves by Strang were his most since he stopped a career-high 50-of-51 shots in a 2-1 victory at Air Force on February 18, 2012. He stopped 15-of-16 shots in the first period, all nine shots in the second, and 19-of-20 shots in the third period - including six in the final 90 seconds of regulation. Strang also added his third assist of the season on O'Donoghue's second shorthanded empty net goal at the 19:38 mark of the third period. Chiasson added a goal and an assist in the win - his first multiple point game since scoring a goal and an assist at Ferris State on October 20. All four of Chiasson's goals this season have come against non-conference opponents. With his three point weekend, Chiasson is now just eight points shy of reaching the century mark for his career. Overshadowed by the performances from O'Donoghue and Strang, sophomore Chris Bodo scored the eventual game-winning goal at the 10:39 mark of the third period. It was Bodo's ninth goal of the season, which gives him the team lead, and was also his seventh power play goal of the season, which ties him for the nation's lead with Minnesota State's Eriah Hayes. The seven power play goals by Bodo are the most since Matt Pierce and Phil Ginand each scored nine during the 2008-09 season. Sophomore Ryan Misiak continues to lead the team in scoring with four goals and 11 assists for 15 points. Mercyhurst now has seven players with at least 10 points this season - Misiak (15), sophomore Matthew Zay (13), Bodo (12), sophomore Daniel Bahntge (12), O'Donoghue (12), Chiasson (10), and senior Grant Blakey (10) - and another four players have scored at least seven points - junior Kyle Just (9), junior Nick Jones (8), sophomore Nardo Nagtzaam (8), and sophomore Tyler Shiplo (7). Mercyhurst went 2-for-6 on the power play over the weekend and is now tied for sixth in the country in power play percentage at 23.9% (17-of-71).

ABOUT HOLY CROSS
The Crusaders' 10-6-2 record is their best after 18 games since the 2005-2006 season when they were 12-5-1. The Crusaders' 60 goals scored are their most after the first 18 games since they netted 61 in the 2002-2003 season.  Sophomore Matt Ginn (Lindsay, Ontario) is already second all-time on the school's Division I career victories list with 26. His 1,108 career saves are fifth.  Senior Kyle Fletcher (Kanata, Ontario) leads the team this season with 17 points. Junior Adam Schmidt (Warrington, Pa.) leads the team with nine goals. Senior Evan Zych (Kilbride, Ontario) is ranked first on team with 13 assists.  For the second straight season, every time the Holy Cross men's hockey team scores a power play goal in the Hart Center, money pledged will benefit PINK Revolution. PINK Revolution is an alliance of dedicated individuals with a unified commitment to those touched by breast cancer. Its mission is to support early detection and prevention strategies, fund clinical research advancements and promote survivorship programs in Central Mass. through its affiliation with the UMass Memorial Comprehensive Breast Center. The Crusaders' annual Pink the Rink game will be on Feb. 16 versus UConn.  The Crusaders are 5-2-2 at home this season with wins versus UConn, Bentley, RIT, two wins versus Penn State, ties versus RIT and Robert Morris and losses versus Army and Robert Morris. The Crusaders are 4-4-0 on the road so far this season with wins versus AIC, Clarkson, Air Force and Sacred Heart, while they also lost to Air Force, Brown and two to No. 7 North Dakota. The Crusaders are 1-0-0 in neutral site games with the win versus No. 15 Yale.