Mercyhurst Game Notes
Air Force Game Notes

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Fresh off of a big home weekend series against Bentley in which the first-place Mercyhurst University men's hockey team took three of four points against the second-place Falcons, the Lakers will be looking to avoid a letdown against another set of Falcons this weekend - the Air Force Academy.

Mercyhurst (15-10-5, 13-2-4 AHA) made the trek to Colorado to square off with fourth-place Air Force (15-9-4, 10-6-3 AHA) for a pair of faceoffs on Friday and Saturday, February 7 and 8. The games are scheduled for 9:05 p.m. ET both nights.

The teams have played 25 games in the all-time series and the results have been dead even at 11-11-3. The Lakers were able to even the series back on November 2 when Mercyhurst handed the Falcons an 8-2 loss at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. In that contest, senior Daniel O'Donoghue and junior Ryan Misiak each had a pair of goals while juniors Matthew Zay and Tyler Shiplo had a goal and two assists each.

Of the 25 contests played between the two teams, 10 have been played at the Cadet Ice Arena where the Lakers hold a 7-2-1 advantage over Air Force.

Mercyhurst extended its lead in the AHA standings last weekend to four points over second-place Bentley by taking three of four points last weekend. On Friday, Mercyhurst and Bentley skated to a 2-2 overtime tie before the Lakers knocked off the visitors on Saturday by a 4-1 final. The Lakers have a "magic number" of one point to clinch home ice in their first round of the AHA postseason.

Their magic number to clinch a first-round bye is 10 points.

Redshirt junior Jordan Tibbett made both starts last weekend in place of injured Jimmy Sarjeant and stopped 69-of-72 shots in the series to earn Co-Goaltender of the Week honors from the AHA. His victory on Saturday snapped an eight-game winless streak and was his first victory since the AHA Semifinals last March. Meanwhile, the line of sophomore Kyle Cook, freshman Kyle Dutra, and junior Nardo Nagtzaam combined for four goals and seven assists in the series.

Zay continues to lead the Lakers, and the league, in overall scoring with 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points. O'Donoghue is second on the squad with 34 points. Mercyhurst, in fact, is the only team in all of Division I hockey to have six players with at least 20 points this season - Zay, O'Donoghue, Misiak, senior Nick Jones, junior Daniel Bahntge, and redshirt junior Kyle Just.

Last weekend, Air Force split a weekend series with Connecticut at the Cadet Ice Arena. The Huskies took game one by a 5-3 final before Air Force returned the favor with a 3-1 decision last Saturday.

Chad Demers leads Air Force with 33 points (11 goals and 22 assists). Cole Gunner is right behind with a team-leading 12 goals and 20 assists for 32 points. Chris Truehl is expected to play both games in goal after taking over for injured Jason Torf. Truehl is 6-2-0 with a 2.01 goals against average for the Falcons.