Box Score

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Junior Daniel Bahntge scored a natural hat trick in the second period, his third career three-goal game, lifting the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team to a 6-3 victory over American International College at the Olympia Ice Center on Friday night. The Lakers improved to 6-7-1 overall and 4-1-0 in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings. Mercyhurst has won five of its last seven games. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets dropped their third straight and moved to 3-6-0 overall and 3-3-0 in conference play.

Bahntge entered Friday's contest with just one goal and three assists in the first 13 games of the season. He was also had a team-worst -8 plus/minus rating entering the game. But, the junior from Westlake, Ohio finished the night with his third career hat trick, two of which have come against AIC, and was a +5 to break out of, arguably, the worst slump of his career.

The junior forward now has six goals and three assists in five career games against the Yellow Jackets. He scored at the 2:36, 9:46, and 14:42 marks of the second period, helping the Lakers take a 3-1 advantage to the locker room after forty minutes.

Both netminders – Mercyhurst junior Jimmy Sarjeant and American International freshman Ty Reichenbach – played extremely well in a scoreless first period as both teams had a number of excellent scoring chances in the opening stanza. Reichenbach got a little help as well when redshirt junior Kyle Just rang a shot off of the post, shorthanded, midway through the period.
Shots favored the Lakers by a 13-9 margin in the opening twenty minutes.

That's when Bahntge took over. His first goal, at the 2:36 mark of the second, began when junior Matthew Zay took a shot from just inside the AIC zone that went over top of the Yellow Jacket goal. The puck, however, took a hard carom off of the end glass and ended up right in front of the goal. Bahntge was there to jam it home for the first goal of the game. Zay picked up the primary assist, extending his point-scoring streak to 11 consecutive games. Sophomore Anthony Mastrodicasa had the other assist.

Not long after AIC killed off an abbreviated 5-on-3 power play, the Lakers struck again thanks to Bahntge and junior Chris Bodo. Bodo, robbed by Reichenbach just seconds earlier, received a pass from junior Ryan Misiak after a botched clearing attempt inside the AIC zone and fired a shot from just inside the right point. Reichenbach made the stop but Bahntge was parked right on the doorstep to bury his second goal of the period.

AIC cut the Laker lead in half at the 14:05 mark of the second when Alexander MacMillan tallied a power play goal for his sixth goal of the year. Jon Puskar and David Norris had the assists.

Bahntge and the Lakers responded just 37 seconds later. A defensive breakdown inside of the AIC zone allowed Zay to come up with a steal and then to connect with a wide open Bahntge in front of the Yellow Jacket net. Bahntge went to the backhand and beat Reichenbach for his third goal of the night and fourth goal of the season, giving Mercyhurst a 3-1 lead after forty minutes. Senior Daniel O'Donoghue had the other helper.

Shots in a wide-open second period saw Mercyhurst take 27 shots on goal to American International's 13.

The Lakers extended the lead to 4-1 at the 2:36 mark of the third when junior Nardo Nagtzaam beat Reichenbach with a slapshot from the right wing circle for his third goal of the season. Junior Grant Gettinger and sophomore Kyle Cook had the assists.

However, at 6:08, the Yellow Jackets cut the Laker lead in half at 4-2 when the hosts converted a 2-on-0 breakway opportunity. A defensive breakdown in the neutral zone by Mercyhurst allowed Puskar and Blake Peake to come into the Mercyhurst zone on a 2-on-0 break against Sarjeant. Peake was the recipient of a last-second centering feed by Puskar to beat Sarjeant to the right side of the goal.

Just over a minute later, however, Mercyhurst regained a three-goal lead at the 7:27 mark. Zay wristed a shot from between the circles with Bahntge screening the AIC goaltender, that beat Reichenbach for his seventh goal of the season. O'Donoghue and Mastrodicasa had the assists.

The last few minutes proved to be interesting as O'Donoghue was given an early shower for contact to the head and a game misconduct, giving AIC a power play to finish out the contest. The Yellow Jackets struck early, cutting the Mercyhurst lead to 5-3, when Chris Porter beat Sarjeant after a beautiful centering pass from Carson Grolla. But, the Lakers iced it thanks to their national-leading fifth shorthanded goal of the season with 1.3 seconds left. Reichenbach was pulled for an extra attacker and, after a flurry of shots were stopped by Sarjeant, Misiak came up with the loose puck just outside of the Mercyhurst zone and buried it into the empty net for the final margin.

Thanks to 27 shots in the second period, Mercyhurst finished the night with a season-high 50 shots on goal, outshooting AIC 50-29. Sarjeant improved to 6-3-1 overall and 4-0-0 in conference play with 26 saves. Reichenbach stopped 44 shots in defeat, dropping to 2-3-0 on the season.

AIC was 2-for-8 on the power play while Mercyhurst was 0-for-3 with the man advantage.

The Lakers and Yellow Jackets will conclude the weekend series on Saturday afternoon beginning at 3:05 p.m.