ERIE, Pa. -- The Mercyhurst men's hockey team will play host to Atlantic Hockey foe Canisius Tuesday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. Puck drop is schedule for 7 p.m.

THE SERIES
The Lakers are 7-8-1, 6-5-1 against Atlantic Hockey opponents after splitting a weekend series with RIT. 

Mercyhurst holds a 44-38-3 advantage in the all-time series but the Golden Griffins are 2-0 against the Lakers this season.

Canisius enters the contest are 3-2-0 overall with the same record against Atlatnic Hockey opponents. The Griffins have played once since a two-game series with the Lakers on Jan. 2 & 3.

LAST TIME OUT
The Lakers split a pair of contests with RIT with each team earning a win on home ice.

In the opener, Brendan Schneider scored for the Lakers in a 2-1 loss in Rochester.

The Lakers found their offense in the second half of the home-and-home scoring six times. Five Lakers tallied mutliple points led by three points each from Geoff Kitt and Josh McDougall.

HONOR ROLL
Three Lakers were honored on Jan. 26 after the Lakers swept a pair of games from then No. 17 Robert Morris.

Austin Heidemann earned his first AHA Player of the Week award after netting four points on a goal and three assists.

Joseph Maziarz became the second Laker to win Atlantic Hockey Defensive Player of the Week honor. He tallied a goal and three assists and now leads the Mercyhurst blue line with nine points on a goal and eight assists.

Carson Briere added a second AHA Rookie of the Week honor. He posted three points in the Lakers' sweep of Robert Morris. He scored five points against Niagara on Dec. 16 & 18 to claim AHA Rookie of the Week honors the first time. He was also selected as the AHA Rookie of the Month for December.

For his effort against Niagara, junior defenseman Michael Bevilacqua was selected as the Defensive Player of the Week blocking seven shots and scoring a goal.

Freshman Dante Sheriff picked up Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week honors after recording three points on two goals and one assist against Clarkson Dec. 12 & 13.

Goalie Hank Johnson was named the Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week after stopping 86-of-90 shots against No. 16 Bowling Green on Dec. 5 & 6.

LAKERS FOR HOBEY
Three Lakers have landed among the Hobey Baker Memorial Award nominees.

Jonathan Bendorf has a team-high 10 goals including six in his last four games. He adds five helpers for 15 points.

Carson Briere is the Lakers leading scorer with 17 points on four goals and a team-leading 13 helpers.

Joseph Maziarz is the blue lines top scorer picking up a point in five straight games with 12 points on a goal and 11 assists and is a +11 on the season.

JOHNSON ON THE RICHTER WATCHLIST
Senior goalie Hank Johnson has been named to the Mike Richter Watchlist.

The award has been given to the top goalie in Division I men's hockey since 2014

Johnson has backstopped the Lakers in six of seven wins with a .903 save percentage and a 3.34 goals against average. 

Johnson has made 40+ saves in a game three times this season with the Lakers going 2-1 in those games.

BACK IN THE POLLS
The Lakers returned to the USCHO Poll with a pair of votes.

Mercyhurst is in the USCHO Poll for the sixth week this season.

The Lakers are one of three Atlantic Hockey programs in the poll with AIC at 15 and Robert Morris ranks 19. 

SPECIAL TEAMS
Mercyhurst has been strong in both halves of the special teams battle this season.

The Lakers got back on the  board on the power play scoring a power play goal for the first time in four games. The extra man unit is now converting at a .204 clip.

On the PK, Mercyhurst has killed off 50-of-62 penalties a rate of .806.

Austin Heidemann has been high impact on the power play scoring four of his six goals with the man advantage including a pair against Air Force.

FIRSTS ARE FUN
Brendan Schneider was the seventh Laker to record his first career goal this season in the 2-1 loss to RIT.

Keanan Stewart scored the opener in the Lakers 7-5 victory over Robert Morris on Jan. 23..

Rylee St. Onge scored 17 points a season ago at Alaska Anchorage, but recorded his first career points as a Laker on Saturday night with a pair of assists against Air Force.

Also in the Saturday game with Air Force Kyle McClellan made his first collegiate start and win stopping 28 shots.

The list of firsts grew on Dec. 18, but for the first time this season the list added an upperclassman. Junior defenseman Devon Daniels scored his first collegiate goal, the eventual game-winner, in the Lakers 7-4 comeback victory over Niagara.

Austin Heidemann was the first newcomer to get on the board with his assist on the first goal of the Laker season. He added his first goal of the season on Dec. 12 against Clarkson

Noah Kane tallied the first goal of his collegiate career on Dec. 6 against Bowling Green.

Dante Sheriff didn't waste time getting on the board picking up a two point night, one goal and one assist, against Clarkson on Dec. 12.

Carson Briere tallied his first collegiate points with a pair of assists on Dec. 12 against Clarkson. He found the back of the net for the first time as a Laker on Dec. 16 vs Niagara.

Also picking up his first point on Dec. 12 was Marko Reifenberger getting a helper on the Noah Kane tally.

SHOT BLOCKING
The Lakers defensive effort has included a focus on blocking shots.

They have blocked 244 shots on the season averaging 15.3 per game.

Michael Bevilacqua and Cade Townend have each blocked 29 shots to pace the Lakers. Quinn Wichers has added 28 blocks while Owen Norton has recorded 22. Five other Lakers have reached double-digit blocks.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
The Lakers have seen a real youth movement in the forward group. The Lakers have iced a group consisting almost exclusively of freshman and sophomores.

The Lakers have two freshmen in the top-10 of freshaman scoring. 

Carson Briere ranks fourth among first year players with 1.06 points per game.

Dante Sheriff ranks eighth with 0.93 points per contest.

Austin Heidemann ranks just outside the top 10 at No. 14 with a points per game total of 0.85.

NATIONAL STAT RANKINGS
Carson Briere ranks 11th in the nation in assists per game with .81. He also ranks 34th in points per game at 1.06. 

Jonathan Bendorf has ented the top 10 in goal per game with 0.62 good for ninth nationally. 

Joseph Maziarz ranks 14th among defensemen in points per game at 0.88. Maziarz also ranks in the top 30 in assists per game ranking 29th with 0.73

The Laker offense ranks 14th in goals per game with 3.44 per contest.

PLAYOFF STRETCH
With just six regular season games remaining the push to the postseason has begun. In a year with so many changes, Atlantic Hockey has based the standings on point percentage instead of total points.

The  teams will be seeded within their pods with Air Force joining the pod with the third seed with the lower point percentage.  The playoffs opening round will be on March 6. An elimination game is played between the 4 & 5 seeds as well as the 3 & 6 in the pod with six teams. The quarterfinals will take place March 12-14 and be best of three series within the pods. The team with the best point percentage remaining will host the semifinals and finals on March 19-20.

The Lakers are currently fourth in the western pod and would match up with Niagara in the opening round.

Western Pod Standings

Team	Total Available Points	Points Earned	Point Percentage
Robert Morris	39	29	0.744
RIT	27	17	0.630
Canisius	15	9	0.600
Mercyhurst	36	19	0.528
Niagara	33	9	0.273