Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team skated to a tie but earned the extra point after winning the shootout over Holy Cross in their home opener.
How it Happened
Carson Briere happened. The Philadelphia native started his historic night just 5:35 into the opening period as he took a wicked wrister on the power play to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead. Dante Sheriff and Owen Norton picked up their first assists of the night on the play.
With just under nine minutes remaining in the opening period, the Crusaders tied the game at one on their first shot of the contest.
After 20 minutes of play the teams were tied at one and the Lakers were outshooting Holy Cross 8-5.
With the Lakers on the power play Briere scored his second of the game and fourth of the season to give the Lakers the lead just 4:37 into the second frame. Holy Cross cleared the puck and Sheriff went back and retrieved it. He then used his speed to draw the defenders to him. Sheriff dropped the puck to Briere and he toe dragged past the defender and used his wicked wrister to beat the goalie.
About three minutes later, Holy Cross tied the game at two.
Briere wasn't done yet, with 2:42 remaining in the middle frame the sophomore completed the hattrick. Again, the Lakers were on the power play, and Sheriff won the faceoff back to Norton who made a quick pass to Briere who stuffed it in to complete the hattrick and give the Lakers their third power-play goal of the night.
The Lakers entered the third period up 3-2 and outshooting Holy Cross 20-10.
Just over midway through the third period, the Crusaders tied the game at three while on the power play after Steven Ipri was given a five minute major and a game misconduct. Just 47 seconds later, while still on the power play, Holy Cross took the lead.
After killing off another penalty with under three minutes remaining, the Lakers pulled their goalie to give them extra skater. After a scrum in the corner the puck popped out to Austin Heidemann, he took a shot and it deflected to Briere who scored with 40 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
At the end of regulation, the Lakers were outshooting the Crusaders 32-23. After five minutes of 3v3 overtime neither team scored the game ended in tie. However, the two teams still had to fight for the extra point and so they went to a shootout.
Holy Cross shot first and scored. Heidemann scored to keep the shootout tied.
The Crusaders once again scored to put the pressure on the Lakers. Briere jumped over the boards and deked the goalie and scored to keep it even.
In the third round, Holy Cross scored, if the Lakers didn't score Holy Cross would get the extra point. Sheriff scored to keep the game going.
Kyle McClellan stopped the Crusaders in the fourth round and gave the Lakers a chance to earn the extra point. Rylee St. Onge made his way down the middle of the ice and beat the Holy Cross keeper to give them the extra point.
Historic Night
Briere is the first Laker to score four goals in a game since Matt Pierce did on Feb. 7, 2009 in a 6-2 win over AIC. He is also the first Laker to score a hattrick since Joseph Duszak did on Jan. 4, 2019 against Holy Cross.
In 2009, the Lakers had two four goal performances one by Pierce and the other by Steve Cameron. Volunteer Assistant Coach Ryan Zalpolski was a member of the Laker squad at the time.
It Was a BATTLE On Special Teams
The Lakers and Crusaders combined for 14 penalties while they went a combined 6-14 with the advantage. Mercyhurst was 3-9 with 16 shots while Holy Cross was 3-5 with eight shots.
Carson, Austin, What Did You Think?
Up Next
The Lakers and Crusaders close out the weekend series tomorrow at 3:05 at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
