Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team makes the 117-mile trip north to take on the Niagara Purple Eagles. The Lakers are coming off a weekend in which they fell to Air Force in both games.
All Time Against Niagara
Mercyhurst has played Niagara 38 times since Niagara started in 1996-97. The Lakers are 15-20-3 against the Purple Eagles all time. Both teams are 2-2-1 in the last five games with Niagara winning the last two games including ending the Laker's season last season.
The teams played three games in 1986 when Mercyhurst was Division III, the Lakers outscored NU 27-6.
Men in the Masks
The trio of Mercyhurst goalies have made the second amount saves in the conference as they have made 778 saves and are averaging 32.42 saves per game which is tops in Atlantic Hockey
Kyle McClellan sits in atop the saves per game category (33.42) in the AHA while Hank Johnson is sixth at 28.38.
Battle of Special Teams
The Lakers have the 13th best power-play in the nation and have scored 21 times on the man-advantage.
Carson Briere, Gueorgui Feduolov and Mickey Burns are tied for the team lead in power-play goals with three while Dante Sheriff, Jonathan Bendorf, Cade Townend, Austin Heidemann, and Pierce Crawford have each scored twice on the power play.
Mercyhurst is has killed off 73-101 power plays this season.
Niagara has scored 17 power-play goals on 99 attempts, they are 37th in the nation and eighth in Atlantic Hockey. The penalty kill has allowed 22 goals this season and kills off 74.7% of penalties which is ninth in the AHA.
Where They Rank
As a team the Lakers have scored 74 goals which is second in the conference, just four behind Canisius who has played one more game
The Laker shooting percentage is also second in the conference as they are scoring on 10.8 percent of their shots.
The Lakers are led by Heidemann, Briere, and Sheriff who have 21, 17, and 16 points respectively. Heidemann has ten goals which leads the team and is tied for first in Atlantic Hockey.
First Ever
Head Coach Rick Gotkin has the most wins in the history of Atlantic Hockey, currently he has 299 wins.
Gotkin is now just one win 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 577-476-100 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.
Scouting Niagara
The Purple Eagles started the season with back-to-back non-conference series against North Dakota and Penn State. Niagara were swept both weekends. Niagara earned their first win of the season against Sacred Heart. Niagara closed out their non-conference schedule by splitting a series with Norte Dame on Jan. 1 and 2. Since the start of 2022 the Purple Eagles are 3-5-0 to with an overtime win and overtime loss to RIT last weekend.
Albin Nilsson leads the Purple Eagles with 17 points (7G, 10A). Ryan Cox and Ryan Naumovski are tied for second for points as they each have 15 points. Three different goalies have made starts in net for Niagara including Chad Veltri who has made 15 starts while appearing in 16 games. He has a 3.19 goals against average and a .889 save percentage.
Up Next
The Lakers continue playing on the road as they go to Army to take on the Black Knights on Feb. 4 and 5.
