Jan. 15, 2008

Erie, Pa - The Mercyhurst College men's club hockey team went 1--1--1 during their three game home set this past weekend. The team struggled early against Rutgers University suffering a 5-4 shoot-out loss on Friday and losing by a score of 8-4 on Saturday. The Lakers then rebounded with a win against #24 Duquesne University on Sunday with a 6-5 victory.

Prior to Friday's match-up Rutgers came into Mercyhurst with a winning record of 12-4-1 (last year they finished just 2-15-1 within league play), quite an impressive turnaround from last season commented Coach McKinnon who was quick to applaud Rutgers for their effort over the weekend. "They came at us pretty aggressive at times and were able to score 7 special team goals (5 on the power play and 2 shorthanded) which ended up making a big difference in the outcome of both games", replied McKinnon.

Sunday's game with Duquesne was a much closer battle between two very good teams. After the first period the Lakers led 2-1, off of goals by both senior captains, Whitney Gibbs and Matt Warren. After trading goals throughout the game, the Lakers got the eventual game winner off a Blake Camlin point shot that found its way through traffic and into the back of the net. "I feel good obviously about scoring the goal, it is always good to get one," said Camlin, "I think that it was good for us to salvage the weekend with a win and I am just glad that I could help out."

Duquesne would answer one last time within the remaining minutes, but it would not be enough, with the final score being 6-5. Sunday's win gave the team a boost in confidence by knocking off the #24th seed in the nation. "I think that today's win is going to help us going into next weekend," said senior Justin Henning. "Everybody worked really hard and it showed. Everyone was making good plays and getting quality chances that eventually helped us edge out the other team," he said.

The Lakers now stand at 9-7-5 overall, and 4-3-1 within the Eastern Collegiate Hockey League (ECHL). Mercyhurst will take to the road this coming weekend with 2 ECHL league games scheduled against the University at Buffalo and Niagara University. Both games begin at 8:30pm.