Mercyhurst Game Notes

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BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team will put its six-game unbeaten streak on the line in a rare Thursday night contest against longtime rival Canisius College at the Buffalo State Sports Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

The teams will finish off the home-and-home series on Saturday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center, which is also slated to begin at 7:05 p.m.

Thursday's contest will be the 76th meeting between the two programs dating back to the Division III ECAC West days in the early 90s. While the Lakers hold a 39-27-9 advantage in the all-time series, it has been Canisius who has won the last two meetings including a 4-3 win on November 9 in Buffalo - the Lakers' only conference loss to date. Mercyhurst's season ended on a sour note against the Golden Griffins last season when Canisius knocked off the Lakers in the Atlantic Hockey Association Championship in Rochester, New York.

Mercyhurst (13-9-4, 11-1-3 AHA) remained in first place in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings despite playing to back-to-back draws last weekend at home against Connecticut. It was the first time since the last regular season weekend a year ago that the Lakers played to a pair of ties against the same opponent in the same weekend (Robert Morris - March 1 and 2, 2013). With the ties, Mercyhurst moved its unbeaten streak to six games overall - fourth-longest in Division I hockey - and moved its unbeaten streak to 12 consecutive games in the conference.

The 11-1-3 start by Mercyhurst is tied for the program's second-best beginning to conference play since joining the Division I ranks in 1999-2000 but is the best since joining the AHA in 2003. The 2001-02 Lakers, playing in the MAAC Hockey League went 13-0-2 through the first 15 games of the season. The 1999-2000 and 2000-01 versions were both 12-2-1 to start their respective campaigns.

Last weekend, senior defenseman Nick Jones snapped a four-game point scoring drought with a goal and two assists to lead the Laker offense. On Saturday, Jones scored his first goal since December 14 and had his first multiple-point game since December 7. He, along with redshirt junior Kyle Just, eclipsed the 20-point mark for the season last weekend to give Mercyhurst five players with at least 20 points this year. No other team in Division I college hockey can boast that stat.

Junior Matthew Zay leads Mercyhurst with 14 goals and 19 assists for 33 points. Senior Daniel O'Donoghue has 10 goals and 20 assists for 30 points and junior Ryan Misiak has eight goals and 19 assists for 27 points this season.

In goal, junior Jimmy Sarjeant remained unbeaten in conference play last weekend by stopping 71-of-76 Connecticut shots in the weekend series. He has allowed nine goals on 227 shots (.960 save percentage) in January and moved to 11-0-3 in conference play and 13-4-4 overall. Sarjeant is 12th in the country in both overall winning percentage (.714) and save percentage (.930).

Canisius (8-12-2, 7-6-2 AHA) enters the home-and-home series in fifth place in the conference standings with 16 points - three points behind fourth-place Connecticut. Last weekend, the Golden Griffins lost three of four points against visiting Bentley. The Falcons are two points behind Mercyhurst in the standings.

Senior Kyle Gibbons leads the Golden Griffins with nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points. Sophomore Ralph Cuddemi is next with seven goals and eight assists for 15 points.

Sophomore Keegan Asmundson and senior Tony Capobianco have split time in goal this season with Asmundson posting the better numbers. The sophomore is 4-6-0 but has a 2.43 goals against average and a .932 save percentage. Meanwhile, Capobianco is 4-6-2 with a 3.21 goals against average and a .906 save percentage.