Box Score

ERIE, Pa. - Senior Daniel O'Donoghue earned three assists to become the 16th player in the Division I era at Mercyhurst to record 100 career points, helping the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team come-from-behind for a 5-5 overtime tie against Robert Morris on Saturday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The stalemate gave the Lakers a 9-7-2 overall mark and a 7-1-1 in conference play as they enter a two-week break for the holidays. The Colonials moved to 2-10-2 overall and 2-5-2 in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings.

The senior from Port Jefferson Station, New York picked up an assist in each period on Saturday night, including a helper on the game-tying goal by junior Matthew Zay at the 6:47 mark of the third period. O'Donoghue has eight goals and 16 assists for 24 points this season giving him 38 goals and 62 assists for an even 100 points in his career. The last Laker to reach the milestone was Paul Chiasson, who recorded his 100th career point with the game-winning goal against Canisius on January 29, 2013.

Current Mercyhurst women's hockey assistant coach Louis Goulet is the program's all-time leading scorer in the Division I era, finishing his career with 61 goals and 96 assists for 157 points.

Sophomore Kyle Cook gave the hosts a 1-0 lead at the 7:14 mark of the opening period with his third goal of the season. Zay and O'Donoghue provided the forechecking inside of the Robert Morris zone and Zay found Cook sprinting down the slot after coming off of the Mercyhurst bench. Cook one-timed the pass past Robert Morris goaltender Terry Shafer, giving the Lakers an early lead. Zay, with the assist, extended his point-scoring streak to 15 consecutive games.

Robert Morris responded with a power play goal at the 9:54 mark to knot the contest at 1-1. Zac Lynch, who later was ejected from the game for a major penalty and game misconduct, buried his seventh goal of the season past Laker netminder Jimmy Sarjeant. Cody Wydo and Colin South had the assists.

Freshman Kyle Dutra regained the one-goal lead for Mercyhurst with his fourth goal of the season at the 13:04 mark. Dutra received a drop pass from junior Zac Frischmon and then sniped a slapshot over the glove hand of Shafer. Junior Ryan Misiak had the other assist.

But, the Colonials scored the next three goals to take a 4-2 lead near the midway mark of the second period. Just 1:42 after Dutra scored, Scott Jacklin tied the game at 2-2 with his third goal of the season. Jeff Jones and Matt Cope had the assists. Then, with Mercyhurst whistled for a pair of minor penalties at the 19:45 mark of the opening period, Robert Morris capitalized on the 5-on-3 just 1:13 into the middle stanza when South picked up his second goal of the season. Lynch and Chase Golightly had the helpers.

Robert Morris was not done, taking a 4-2 advantage at the 7:10 mark of the second period when Wydo scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season. Andrew Blazek and Jay Llewelyn had the assists.

Senior Nick Jones stopped the bleeding with a power play goal at 9:33, bringing the Lakers to within 4-3. Robert Morris' Tyson Wilson was whistled for a minor penalty just 16 seconds before Jones ripped a slapshot from the point, and through a screen, past Shafer for his fifth goal of the year. O'Donoghue and junior Kyle Just.

Lynch was given an early shower with just 24 seconds left in the second period and Mercyhurst took advantage to start the third. Frischmon buried his fifth goal of the season, and first on the power play, just 59 seconds into the final twenty minutes to tie the contest at 4-4. Junior Tyler Shiplo took the initial shot from the point that Shafer stopped. But, Frischmon, standing at the side of the goal, tapped it home. Dutra had the other assist.

In the waning seconds of Lynch's five-minute major, sloppy passing inside the Colonial end led to a shorthanded goal by Greg Gibson at 4:07, giving the visitors a 5-4 lead. Brandon Denham intercepted a pass just inside the blue line and tapped it ahead to Gibson who made a deke on Sarjeant and deposited the puck into the back of the net for his third goal of the year.

But, Zay, the Lakers' leading scorer, proved to be the hero again for Mercyhurst. After receiving a centering feed from junior Daniel Bahntge, Zay was left wide open on the doorstep. His first shot was stopped on a miraculous stick save by Shafer, but the junior stuck with it, and flipped the rebound over the fallen Colonial netminder to tie the game at 5-5. O'Donoghue picked up the other assist, giving him his milestone.

Zay now has ten goals and 16 assists for 26 points prior to Christmas. He has scored at least one point in the last 15 games, with the only game he has played and not scored being the season-opener at Minnesota when the Lakers were shutout. His 26 points prior to the holiday are the most by a Laker since Steve Cameron had 26 points prior to Christmas in the 2008-09 season.

Neither goaltender had their best stuff on Saturday but both did just enough to salvage a point in the standings. Sarjeant turned aside 31-of-36 Robert Morris shots to suffer his first blemish in conference play (7-0-1). He moved to 9-3-2 on the season. Shafer stopped 38-of-43 Mercyhurst shots to move to 2-8-2 on the season. Both teams were excellent on the power play - Robert Morris was 2-for-3 and Mercyhurst was 2-for-5.

The Lakers will play their final non-conference games of the regular season on Saturday, December 28 and Sunday, December 29 when they travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Faceoffs both nights are scheduled for 8:05 p.m. from the Value City Arena.