ERIE, Pa. -- Freshmen Carson Briere and Austin Heidemann each scored in the shootout to help the Mercyhurst men's hockey team claim the extra point in the Atlantic Hockey standings after a 3-3 tie with visiting Niagara in the Lakers' conference opener Wednesday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
The Lakers held a 3-2 lead, but the Purple Eagles scored with the goalie pulled at the 18:31 mark to knot the game up. After trading chance in overtime, the game advanced to a shootout for the extra point in the AHA standings.
Niagara's Ryan Cox scored on the first shootout attempt of the night, but Hank Johnson shut down the next two shooters to give Briere the chance to tie it. Briere came in with a slow approach, opened up Chad Veltri and went five hole to tie the shootout at 1-1. After a Hank Johnson save, Austin Heidemann finished the contest ripping a shot high-blocker on Veltri.
Mercyhurst jumped out early when Briere took a cross-crease pass from Dante Sheriff and put the puck into the yawning net at the 6:58 mark of the first.
Jonathan Bendorf extended the lead with a tally with 17:12 elapsed in the first. Bendorf took an area pass from Geoff Kitt and carried down the right wing and patiently waited out Veltri pulling the puck back to his forehand and snapped a shot home to make the score 2-0.
Matt Cameron scored the only goal of the second period at 3:17 to trim the Laker lead to 2-1 heading to the final period.
The Lakers pushed the lead to 3-1 when a Quinn Wichers shot clipped Gueorgui Feduolov and pinballed in off a Niagara defender at the 7:49 mark of the third. Ludwig Stenlund pulled the Purple Eagles to within one with his tally on a big rebound with 9:11 to play.
The Lakers had a courageous showing in the defensive end blocking 25 Niagara shots led by four blocks from Michael Bevilacqua. Johnson made 38 saves on the night not including two stops in the shootout.
The Laker offense was balanced once again with nine players picking up a point.
Meryhurst and Niagara will face off again on Friday at 7 p.m. at Dwyer Arena.
