Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Junior goaltender Jimmy Sarjeant fittingly stopped 32-of-33 Army shots as Mercyhurst strengthened its hold atop the Atlantic Hockey Association standings with a 3-1 win at Tate Rink on Friday night. The Lakers improved to 10-9-2 overall and 8-1-1 in the AHA standings. The Black Knights fell to 3-13-0 overall and 3-9-0 in conference play.

Coupled with a Bentley tie at home against Niagara on Friday night, Mercyhurst now has a one-point lead on the Falcons in the AHA standings and still has a game in-hand on Bentley (7-2-2).

Mercyhurst picked up its 30th win all-time against the Black Knights (30-9-4), but is just 8-8-2 at Tate Rink. Sarjeant, who had allowed 11 goals in his last two starts, was brilliant, stopping 32-of-33 shots as Army outshot the Lakers 33-25 for the contest. He remained unbeaten in conference play this season (8-0-1) and improved to 10-4-2 overall with his performance. It was his first-ever start against Army.

Junior Chris Bodo gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead at the 17:31 mark of the opening period with his sixth goal of the season. With Mercyhurst on the power play, junior defenseman Tyler Shiplo worked a pass between the circles to junior Ryan Misiak who then found Bodo stationed at the side of the goal. Bodo floated a one-timer past Army goaltender Rob Tadazak for his first power play goal of the year.

Last season, Bodo scored 18 goals with a team-leading ten of those coming on the power play.

Shots actually favored Army in the opening twenty minutes by an 11-9 margin.

Junior forward Matthew Zay gave the Lakers a 2-0 lead at the 11:07 mark with his 12th goal of the season. Originally given to senior Daniel O'Donoghue, Zay's centering pass appeared to have gone off of O'Donoghue, but actually went across the goal line off of Tadazak's pads and into the back of the net. Redshirt junior Kyle Just and senior Nick Jones had the assists on the power play tally.

Army took a timeout just moments later and the plan would pay off for the Black Knights. Andrew O'Leary finally solved Mercyhurst goaltender Jimmy Sarjeant, beating him with a snapshot from between the circles over the glove hand of the Laker netminder. Ryan Nick had the assist on the goal at 12:52.

With Army inching closer and closer to tying the contest, Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin took a timeout with 1:42 left in the second, and, like Army, it paid off. With 17 seconds left in the frame, O'Donoghue would not be denied this time, one-timing a centering pass from junior Grant Gettinger beating Tadazak for the two-goal lead. Zay, who poke-checked it away from Tadazak behind the goal, set up the opportunity and picked up the otherassist of the night.

Again, however, it was Army outshooting Mercyhurst by a 13-8 margin in the second.

Army pulled Tadazak with 1:22 left in regulation and continued peppering Sarjeant and the Laker defense with huge pressure. However, a penalty against O'Leary with 30 seconds left nullified any thoughts at an Army comeback.

Tadazak turned aside 22-of-25 Mercyhurst shots in dropping to 3-12-0 on the season. Special teams were significant as Mercyhurst went 2-for-5 on the power play and held Army off the scoreboard in five chances.

The same two teams will conclude the weekend series on Saturday night from West Point. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.