Buffalo, N.Y.—The Mercyhurst Men's team opened the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals with a 2-1 double overtime win over the Canisius Golden Griffins to take the 1-0 series lead.
How it Happened
The opening few minutes of the game, Canisius controlled play but did not register many shots. The rest of the period the Lakers controlled most of the play and outshot the Golden Griffins 8-2 with three of them being from the low slot.
The middle frame consisted of each team netting a goal. Mercyhurst lit the lamp first to take the 1-0 lead.
At the 11:49 mark of the frame Rylee St. Onge and Garrett Dahm found themselves on a two on one after killing off the only penalty of the game to that point. St. Onge looked to have an open net but could not get a handle of the puck in front of the crease. Instead Dahm picked up the loose puck and fed it to Austin Heidemann who had fresh legs out of the box. Heidemann made no mistake and netted his 11th of the year.
Just over two minutes later, the Griffs took a point shot and it bounced off a Laker defender and found its way past Kyle McClellan to tie the game.
Neither team scored again in the second period, after 40 minutes of play shots were 16-15 in favor of Mercyhurst.
In the third period the Lakers outshot Canisius 10-4 but could not beat the Griff netminder, Canisius couldn't beat McClellan and the game went to overtime.
In the first overtime period, both teams killed off a penalty but neither team could crack the other goalie despite combining for 18 shots.
The Lakers started the second overtime on the power play but could not convert on it. At the 3:02 mark of the second overtime, the Griffs gave the lethal Mercyhurst power play one more chance and they made them pay for it.
Just 18 seconds into the power play, the Lakers kept the puck in on a failed Canisius clear. Dante Sheriff passed the puck to Owen Norton who beat the Golden Griffin netminder five hole to end the game.
McClellan continued to be one of the hottest goalies in the country as he made 32 saves in his 11th win of the season.
Battle of Special Teams
The Lakers killed off both Canisius power plays and allowed five shots. Mercyhurst went 1-4 on the man advantage with six shots on goal.
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Up Next
The Lakers have the chance to close out Canisius tomorrow at 8:05 PM, should the Lakers win they will advance to the AHA Semifinals in Utica, N.Y. for the first time since 2018.
