Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Men's Hockey team completed the first round sweep of Holy Cross in their final game of the year in the Mercyhurst Ice Center by a score of 2-1.
How It Happened
In the opening 20 minutes neither team found the back of the net, the Lakers generated two shots while Kyle McClellan made 14 saves in the opening period.
The second period consisted on back and forth play. McClellan made multiple big saves to keep the game scoreless until the 16:21 mark of the period.
Carson Briere scored his 13th goal of the season off the forecheck. Briere forced a turnover and deked a defenseman and the goalie to put the Lakers up one.
After two periods the Lakers were up 1-0 despite being outshot 30-13.
The third period started with a bang as Paul Maust extended the Laker lead to two on a break-a-way goal at the 2:38 mark of the period. Geoff Kitt earned his ninth assist of the year on Maust's fourth of the year.
At the 5:41 mark, Holy Cross cut the Lakers lead in half as they scored to make it 2-1.
After Holy Cross netted their goal, it was the Kyle McClellan show. It total he turned away 12 shots in the final period and 42 in the contest.
Sweeping Is Fun
The Lakers completed the sweep of Holy Cross, it was the first Laker playoff sweep since 2018 when Mercyhurst swept Sacred Heart in the second round of the playoffs to move on to the Atlantic Hockey Semi Finals.
Playoff Maust
Coming into the weekend Maust scored only twice in the regular season and neither of them were game winning goals. In the first round of the playoffs, both of Maust's goals were game winning goals, he is the fourth Laker to have multiple game winning goals this season.
We Are Not Worthy, Mr. McClellan
The Manchester, MO native turned in one of his nearly perfect weekends making 74 saves on 76 saves. This season he has 13 games in which he has made 35 or more saves including tonight, he has 40 plus saves in nine games this season.
Let's Hear From The Guys
Up Next
The Lakers travel to Canisius to take on the Golden Griffins in a three game series. Mercyhurst went 3-1-0 against Canisius in the regular season including a sweep just two weeks ago.
