Erie, Pa. - The Mercyhurst men's ice hockey team officially announced their schedule for the 2024-25 season with another full slate on the docket. With legendary head coach Rick Gotkin stil at the helm, the Lakers will look to take a step forward against a strong field of teams.

"We are all very excited and looking forward to this very challenging schedule ahead of us as we enter the 2024-2025 season," said Head Coach Rick Gotkin.

Mercyhurst begins their season at home with their season opener being play on homecoming on Saturday, October 5th when Bowling Green comes to town to start a two-game set at 7:00 p.m. RIT then makes the trip to Erie to round out the home stand for Mercyhurst as they'll play host on October 11th and 12th with puck-drop set for 7:00 and 4:00 p.m., respectively. The team then heads out for their longest road trip of the year, playing five games away from their home ice. The Lakers begin things with Union College on the 18th and 19th of October before making the short trip north to see Canisius for one game on the 22nd to round out the month. Coach Gotkin and company then open November with Niagara for two games on the 1st and 2nd of the month.

The final 11 games of the 2024 portion of the Laker's schedule see nine of them come at home. A two-game trip to Air Force on the 15th and 16th of November is sandwiched between three home games in the beginning of November and six on the back end of the month.The Lakers open that run of home games with Canisuus on the 22nd and 23 before Bentley comes to town the following weekend for two. The team wraps things up with RPI before the winter break on the 14th and 15th, starting at 7:00 and 4:00 p.m., respectively. 

Coach Gotkin's squad faces one of their toughest tasks all season when they restart play on January 3rd as they team takes on Minnesota. That will be the first of two games against the Gophers with Mercyhurst going on the road for the matchup before going to play Army the following weekend on the 10th and 11th. 

"Playing at the University of Minnesota to kick off the new year of 2025 will be a great opportunity for our group to match up against one of the premier top ten teams in the country at an iconic venue in front of what will be a packed crowd," said Gotkin when speaking on the challenge of a team like the Gophers.

From there, the team comes home to see AHA foe Niagara on the 17th and 18th of January before finishing out the month with Robert Morris on the road on the 24th and 25th. February begins inside the Mercyhurst Ice Center on the 7th and 8th with AIC coming to town for the final two home games of the year for the Lakers. They close things out playing two games against Holy Cross on the 14th and 15th on the road before their regular season finale with RIT on the 21st and 22nd.

"Anyone who has been around our conference and has seen our eleven teams play understands how difficult it is to win each night," said Gotkin when asked about the AHA's competitiveness. "The parody of the teams that comprise our league is amazing with every team being so competitive."