Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team will play their first Atlantic Hockey game of 2022 and first since Dec. 4 when they take on the AIC Yellow Jackets this weekend.
The Matchup
Mercyhurst has played AIC 56 times since first meeting in 1999 in which they went 3-0 in 99-00 season against the Yellow Jackets while outscoring them 18-7 in the three games.
The Lakers are 42-12-2 against AIC, the .768 winning percentage is the best winning percentage the Lakers have against any team. Despite the success historically the Laker are just 2-4 in their last six games against AIC.
Where They Rank
As a team the Lakers have scored 62 goals which is second in the conference, just seven behind Canisius.
The Laker shooting percentage is also second in the conference as they are scoring on 10.4 percent of their shots. The Lakers are led by Austin Heidemann, Carson Briere, and Dante Sheriff who have 17, 13, and 13 points respectively. Heidemann has nine goals which leads the team and is third in Atlantic Hockey.
The trio of Mercyhurst goalies have made the second amount saves in the conference as they have made 635 saves and are averaging 32.11 saves per game which is tops in Atlantic Hockey.
Kyle McClellan sits in atop the saves per game category (32.22) in the AHA while Hank Johnson is third at 28.08. McClellan is also fifth in Atlantic Hockey with a .906 save percentage.
Scoring Depth
18 different players have scored for the Lakers this season with 14 of them having multiple goals. 22 players have recorded a point for Mercyhurst including goaltender Kyle McClellan. All but two forwards who has played a game this season has scored a goal for Mercyhurst.
Coaching History
Head Coach Rick Gotkin has the most wins in the history of Atlantic Hockey, currently he has 299 wins.
Gotkin is now just one 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 577-469-100 in 34 seasons at the school.
He is also on pace to coach his 700th game as an AHA head coach on Feb. 18 against AIC, he will also be the first accomplish that.
The Real Fun Starts Now
The Lakers will play Atlantic Hockey games for the rest of the season. Mercyhurst hosts Air Force next weekend. The Lakers then go on the road for two weeks as they face Niagara and Army. Mercyhurst closes out the regular season with five of their final six games at home, their lone away game is against Canisius on Feb. 25
Scouting AIC
AIC is currently on a six game win streak with five of the six games being Atlantic Hockey wins, their one non-conference game was their last game against UConn.
The last time the Yellow Jackets lost was Nov. 26 against Canisius in which AIC lost a 4-1 lead and allowed five straight goals and four total power-play goals.
Brian Rigali leads AIC in points as he has 14 points this season (6 G, 8 A). Jake Stella holds the team lead with seven goals.
Jake Kucharski and Alec Calvaruso have both seen time in net for AIC with Kucharski playing in 14 games. Calvaruso has the better save percentage (.933) and goals against average (2.18) while Kucharski has a .907 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average.
The AIC power play has scored 16 goals on the man advantage on 77 attempts. They are 22nd in the country and third in the AHA behind just Mercyhurst and Holy Cross.
