Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team is coming off a weekend split with then No. 17 Ohio State on the road. The Lakers are back in Atlantic Hockey play this weekend as they take on the Bentley Falcons.
The Matchup
The Lakers and Falcons have played 60 times dating back to 1998-99, the Falcons took back-to-back 6-5 overtime wins to start the all-time series. Mercyhurst is 35-19-6 all-time against Bentley, the Falcons have won the last three matchups, before that the Lakers won four straight games. The teams last played in Erie in 2020 with the Falcons taking a 7-4 win and a 4-3 win
Last Weekend Was Fun
Mercyhurst split the weekend No. 17 Ohio State after beating the Buckeyes on Friday by a score of 5-4. Noah Kane scored twice in the win, Mickey Burns, Austin Heidemann, and Rylee St. Onge also scored in the win. Hank Johnson picked up his third win of the season as he made 41 saves which included 15 saves in the middle frame
Saturday night the Lakers received goals from Burns and Heidemann while St. Onge and Kyle McClellan picked up assists. McClellan made 40 saves in the loss, it was his second 40+ save game of the season and fifth 35+ save game.
The Netminders
Both Johnson and McClellan have played seven games in net for the Lakers. Johnson has a 3.62 GAA and a save percentage of .887 with a record of 3-2-2 McClellan has made seven starts this season, he has a 3.49 GAA and a save percentage of .908
The Laker netminders have had a combined 12 games in which they needed to make 30 or more saves and eight with 35 or more saves. Mercyhurst goalies have made the most the saves in the AHA as they are averaging 33.79 saves per game.
Battle on Special Teams
The Lakers have the fifth best power-play in the nation and have scored 15 times on the man-advantage.
Bentley is ranked 34th in power play in the country as they have 10 power-play goals on 57 attempts. Carson Briere and Burns are tied for the team lead in power-play goals with three while Dante Sheriff, Jonathan Bendorf and Heideman have each scored twice on the power play
Mercyhurst has killed off 42-57 power plays this season while Bentley's penalty kill has successfully killed off 84.3% of penalties.
Three Or More
The Lakers have scored three or more goals in 11 games this season and are 4-3-4 in games in which they score three or more goals. Two of the losses came to then No. 4 Minnesota and the other was an overtime loss to Holy Cross.
The First To Do It
Head Coach Rick Gotkin has the most wins in the history of Atlantic Hockey, currently he has 298 wins. Mercyhurst's road win over Ohio State on Nov. 26 was the 298th for the program and Gotkin since the Lakers joined Atlantic Hockey in the league's inaugural season of 2003-04. Gotkin is now just two wins away from becoming the first coach in AHA history to reach 300 career wins as an AHA bench boss. Gotkin's overall career record at Mercyhurst stands at 576-466-100 in 34 seasons at the school.
Scouting Bentley
The Falcons enter the weekend with a three game winning streak, all against AHA opponents. They have an 8-7 record overall and a 6-4 conference record. Bentley earned two non-conference wins against Ohio State and Boston College. They also have conference wins against Holy Cross, Canisius, Air Force, AIC and two against Army.
Drew Bavaro leads the Falcons in points while being tied with Matt Gosiewski for the team lead in goals. 15 different players have scored this season for Bentley while 13 of the 15 have multiple goals. Three different goalies have played in net for Bentley with all three making appearances in at least five games. Nicholas Grabko played majority of the minutes to start and has a 3-5-0 record and a .902 save percentage. Evan DeBrouwer has played five games making four starts and has been the hot goalie during the three game winning streak. He has a 3-1-0 record with a 1.56 goals against average and a .947 save percentage.
Up Next
The Lakers will play one more non-conference game against Miami (OH) on Dec. 12 before the holiday break. Mercyhurst is then back in action for the Ledyard Classic when they take on Boston College in the first game on Dec. 30 at Dartmouth.
