Columbus, OH—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team held on to defeat No. 17 Ohio State on the road by a score of 5-4.
How it Happened
The Lakers killed off an early Buckeye power play after Steven Ipri went to the box for a tripping penalty.
With shots on goal all square at five, Ohio State opened the scoring to make it 1-0 at the 12:31 mark of the opening frame.
Mercyhurst went into the locker room down one while Hank Johnson made 13 saves.
Early in the second period, Cade Townend was sent to the box for a slashing penalty. Less then 30 seconds into the Buckeye power play, Ohio State took a penalty to make it four on four.
Just as the Laker penalty ended, Jake Beaune took a pass from Mickey Burns and took a shot that left a juicy rebound. Noah Kane was at the doorstep to tap it in to give tie the game at one.
With the Lakers on the power play, the Lakers took the 2-1 lead at the 13:17 mark of the middle frame Burns tipped in a point shot from Josh McDougall to give the Lakers the lead. Rylee St. Onge picked up the secondary assist on the Lakers second power-play goal of the night and their fifth in the last two games.
After two periods, the Lakers were up 2-1 despite being outshot 29-20 by the Buckeyes.
The final frame consisted of four goals in the first eight minutes. It started with a Kane goal to build the lead to 3-1. Kane deflected it off a Beaune shot from the point, Kyler Head also picked up an assist on the play.
Ohio State got one back at the 4:37 mark to make it 3-2.
It was just two minutes later that Austin Heidemann gave the Lakers the two-goal lead once again. Pierce Crawford won the faceoff directly to Heidemann who ripped it into the top right corner of the net for his sixth goal of the lead.
Just 30 seconds later Rylee St. Onge scored the fifth Laker goal as he rushed down the right side and collected his own rebound to put it passed the goalie.
With under seven minutes remaining in the third, Ohio State scored to make it a two goal lead.
The Buckeyes scored once again with 3:50 left with their goalie pulled.
Mercyhurst killed off the final 3:50 which included the final 55 seconds with the extra skater.
Johnson made 41 saves in the win while eight different Lakers picked up points along with four Lakers having multi point games.
Battle of Special Teams
The Lakers were two for two on the power play while generating just three shots on the power play. Mercyhurst limited the Buckeyes to just two shots on two power plays.
Upset Alert
The Buckeyes came into the weekend ranked 17th in the country. The last time the Lakers beat a ranked opponent was last season was against Robert Morris who were also ranked 17th in the nation. The Lakers beat the Colonials 3-2 on January 19th, 2021.
Mercyhurst last beat a ranked non-conference opponent on October 5th, 2019 in a season opening upset of Arizona State who was 20th in the country.
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Coaches Corner
Up Next
The Lakers close out the two game non-conference series with Ohio State tomorrow with puck drop slated for 5:00 PM.
