Oct. 14, 2007

Erie, Pa - The Mercyhurst Club Hockey Team has opened its 2007-2008 season with a win, a loss and an overtime loss (1-1-1) against junior hockey powerhouses from Central Penn and Hampton Roads.

On Saturday September 29th Mercyhurst played host to the visiting Central Penn Panthers Junior B hockey club that competes out of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League (MJHL) and are currently 8-2-1 within their league play. Mercyhurst came out strong in their home opener with a 7-3 win over CPP. Twelve different Mercyhurst players contributed to the scoresheet in securing the team's first victory of the year. Newcomer David Gaines from Philadelphia, Pa received the player of the game nomination from the coaching staff after netting 2 goals including the game winner.

Sunday's game against CPP proved to be a shootout. There were 19 goals scored within the game and the lead changed 6 different times before CPP ended the scoring onslaught a couple of minutes into overtime. Coach McKinnon was quick to commend CPP for their effort, character and power play commenting, "Central Penn came to play and compete. They are a well coached team that out played us at several points throughout the game. They had a potent powerplay that capitalized on 5 of their 13 chances. They presented a formidable challenge for our team and we thank their players, coaching staff and organization for making the trip down to Erie".

The club team's exhibition schedule came to a close against the Hampton Roads Junior A Whalers (currently 21-12-2) on Wednesday October 3rd in a 5-3 loss. The Whalers are a Junior A team playing an independent schedule against OPJHL, NAHL, EJHL, AJHL, MnJHL and CSHL teams. Hampton Roads came into Erie with 29 games under their belt compared to Mercyhurst having played only 2 games a couple of nights earlier. The club team jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the first period of play, but Hampton rallied with 4 special team goals, 3 of which came on the powerplay.

Coach McKinnon was pleased with his team's effort. "Our guys had only one week's worth of practice together as a team before heading into the exhibition portion of our schedule. I'm pleased with the team's overall effort, but there are many areas within our game that need to be addressed. Hampton and Central Penn did a very good job of exploiting our weaknesses. These games have done wonders for our team in relation to the adjustments we will have to make prior to our regular season".

Coach McKinnon would like to thank Brent Agrusa of the Hampton Roads Whalers and Geoff Beauparlant of the Central Penn Panthers for travelling to Erie.