Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team hits the road for their second road Atlantic Hockey series of the season. The Lakers make the trip to Holy Cross to take on the Crusaders.
The Match Up
This will be the third and fourth times the two teams will match up this season. The Lakers are 38-17-10 against Holy Cross all-time. In their series at Mercyhurst on Oct. 15 and 16th, Mercyhurst took five of six possible points with the Lakers winning the shootout in the first game and then winning 5-2 the next day.
In the first game, Carson Briere scored four times while Owen Norton and Dante Sheriff each had three assists. Both the Lakers and Crusaders scored three power-play goals in the game.
In game two, the Lakers scored five times and five different Lakers netted goals.
Last Time Out
The Lakers picked up two points last weekend as they faced the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Both games were played to 3-3- ties with Sacred Heart winning each shootout.
In the first game of the weekend, Sacred Heart scored the first two goals of the game. The Lakers went one to score three straight goals as Steven Ipri, Briere, and Jonathan Bendorf scored to give the Lakers a 3-2 lead. Sacred Heart tied it with 3:30 left in the third. Neither team scored in overtime and the Pioneers took the extra point winning the shootout 1-0.
Game two consisted of goals from Austin Heidemann, Marko Reifenberger, and Rylee St. Onge while Josh McDougall added two assists. Kyle McClellan made a career high 41 saves as he picked up his second tie of the season. The shootout went 11 rounds which is the longest shootout in Mercyhurst history, four Lakers scored for Mercyhurst as they fell 5-4 in the shootout.
Where They Rank
Briere still leads the AHA in both goals and points despite playing just eight games this year. He is also second in the NCAA in goals with eight and seventh in points per game (1.50). He is also eighth in the nation in power-play goals and tied for the AHA lead with three.
Sheriff is tied for 24th in the nation for assists per game (.88) he is also tied for fifth in overall assists. He ranks sixth in the AHA in points per game and is tied for third in points with fellow line mate Austin Heidemann.
Heidemann has four goals and five assists this season while Bendorf has two goal and six assists which ranks him eighth in the AHA.
Battle on Special Teams
The Lakers are fourth in the nation as they have scored 13 times on their 41 attempts. Holy Cross is currently 11th in the nation as they have scored seven times on 24 opportunities.
Holy Cross is 30th in the nation in penalty killing with a 81.6 penalty kill percentage. Mercyhurst is killing penalties 64.3% of the time.
Scouting Holy Cross
The Crusaders are 1-7-1 this season with their lone win coming against Bentley on Oct. 23. Last weekend, Holy Cross was swept by No. 17 Notre Dame and were outscored 9-3. Ryan Leibold leads the Crusaders with seven points (2G, 5A) while Tyler Ghirardosi and Grayson Constable lead the team with three goals. Nine different players have netted a goal while 14 have recorded points. Three goalies have played in net with Thomas Gale playing the most minutes, he has a 3.28 goals against average and .905 save percentage.
Up Next
After this weekend the Lakers start a home and home series with Canisius with the Golden Griffins visiting Erie before Mercyhurst heads to Buffalo for the second game of the weekend.
