WATERTOWN, Mass. – The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team stretched its early-season winning streak to three and completed a weekend sweep of Atlantic Hockey Conference rival Bentley University with a 3-2 victory over the Falcons on Saturday night at the John A. Ryan Skating Arena. The Lakers improved to 3-1 overall and to 2-0 in the conference. The Falcons, starting their season with a pair of conference tilts, dropped to 0-2 and 0-2.
Coupled with a 3-1 victory over the Falcons on Friday night, Mercyhurst swept Bentley for the first time in Massachusetts since recording 5-2 and 5-2 victories on February 10 and 11, 2006.
Bentley scored first on Saturday night when Andrew McDonald collected his second goal of the season – and the weekend - at 4:35 of the first. But Lakers' freshman forward
Taylor Best connected about six minutes later and the teams went to intermission tied at 1-1. Best's fourth goal of the season – and third in the weekend set – was helped by sophomore linemate
Jack Riley.
Mercyhurst outshot Bentley 11-8 in the first twenty minutes.
The two teams traded second period scores as McDonald, the Falcons' lone goal-scorer in the two games, beat Mercyhurst sophomore netminder
Brandon Wildung (3-1, 2-0) at 1:03. But the Falcons were whistled for a holding penalty 24 seconds later and the Lakers converted when freshman defenseman
Lester Lancaster found the back of the net for the first time in his collegiate career at 2:28. Sophomore defenseman
Patrick Piacentini assisted – his first collegiate point.
Bentley doubled the Lakers in second period shots, 12-6.
Cue freshman forward
Josh Lammon and sophomore winger
Bryan Sienerth. Lammon banged home his second goal of the year, and first game-winner – with help from Sienerth – at 12:30 of the third. The Falcons pulled goaltender Gabe Antoni (0-1) down the stretch but the Mercyhurst defense, backstopped by Wildung, kept Bentley at bay.
Bentley outshot Mercyhurst 9-5 in the third and 29-22 for the 60 minutes. Both teams took four penalties and had four power play chances with Lancaster recording the only extra-man goal. Mercyhurst finished 1-of-10 on the power play over the weekend while the Falcons wound up 1-for-9.
Wildung stopped a combined 54-of-57 Bentley shots in the weekend sweep.
Mercyhurst head coach
Rick Gotkin now has 496 career wins in this, his 28th season at the helm.
The Lakers will step out of conference next weekend when they travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a pair of games against the 13th-ranked Michigan Wolverines. The games will be played on Friday, October 16 at 7:35 and Sunday, October 18 at 5:05 at the Yost Ice Arena - taking a day off in between due to Michigan's Homecoming. Friday's game will mark the first meeting between the teams since the Lakers and Wolverines played to a 4-4 overtime draw October 2, 2010, in Ann Arbor. Mercyhurst went on to win the contest in a shootout but the game only counted as a tie.
