ERIE, Pa. -- The fourth-seeded Mercyhurst men's ice hockey team will host five-seed Rochester Institute of Technology in an Atlantic Hockey Tournament best-of-three quarterfinal, which takes place Friday through Sunday at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
The Lakers are coming into the postseason with a seven-game unbeaten streak, including wins in their last three games. They have an overall record of 17-13-4 and a conference record of 15-9-4.
Leading the Lakers in scoring is freshman
Derek Barach with 10 goals and 21 assists for 31 points, followed by fellow freshman defenseman
Lester Lancaster with nine goals and 20 assists for 29 points. Both were recently named to the Atlantic Hockey All-Rookie Team
Between the pipes, the Lakers have freshman goaltender
Adam Carlson and sophomore
Brandon Wildung splitting time. Carlson has a record of 7-6-3 with a 2.90 goals against average and a .918 save percentage. Wildung is 10-7-1 with a 3.04 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. Wildung was recognized as the Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week following his performance on Feb. 20, in which he stopped 35 pucks in net to claim a 3-1 victory over Army West Point.
The Lakers ended the regular season on Feb. 26-27 by sweeping the Tigers in a home-and-home weekend series. Going into the final weekend of the year, the Lakers had 30 points and were sitting in fifth place and the Tigers had 33 points and were sitting in fourth. The Lakers had no other option than to sweep the weekend if they wanted the home-ice advantage for the quarterfinals. They came out on top and received four huge points.
Mercyhurst and RIT have seen each other four times this season, both winning two games each, in weekend sweeps. Back on Jan. 2-3, the Tigers swept the weekend, 4-2 and 7-3, and picked up four points. The Lakers returned the favor two weeks ago with a pair of 4-3 and 3-2 wins to earn their four points.
The Tigers are coming into the postseason with a 14-14-6 overall record and a 14-9-5 conference record.
RIT senior Josh Mitchell is leading the Tigers in points with 32. Close behind is sophomore Myles Powell with 27 points and freshman Gabe Valenzulea with 25. The Tigers' leading goaltender is freshman goaltender Christian Short. He is 8-6-3 with a 2.76 goals against average and a .899 save percentage.
RIT leads the all-time series, 35-20-6.
