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Email: rgotkin@mercyhurst.edu
Mercyhurst gave the fans plenty of excitement in 2007-2008. After a disappointing nine wins the prior season and after being eliminated in the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals for the first time ever, the Lakers won 15 games in 2007-2008 and reached the conference title contest for the first time in three years. Although dropping the championship game 5-4 to Air Force in double overtime, Mercyhurst finished 4-1-1 down the stretch and served notice that it will be a force to be reckoned with next season.
Mercyhurst lost only three players to graduation and got a lot of mileage from a combined 15 freshmen and sophomores in a 41-game schedule, the longest in the 21-year history of the program. Senior Ben Cottreau was named Second Team All-Conference and joined the AHL's Albany River Rats at season's end. He promptly scored a pair of goals on just three shots in his professional debut. Freshman defenseman Jeff Terminesi made both the conference All-Rookie and All-Tournament Teams while teammates Chris Risi and Matt Pierce were chosen to the All-Tournament squad.
Under Gotkin's leadership, Mercyhurst owns a nine-year Division I record of 175-127-31, three NCAA playoff appearances, three regular season conference titles, four regular season runners-up, enine conference playoff appearances, three conference playoff championships, and two conference runners-up. He ranks among the top Division I coaches in all-time winning percentage and in victories.
Gotkin was the conference's Coach of the Year in 2000-01 when he took the Lakers all the way to the conference regular and postseason titles and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. For his efforts, he was a finalist for the 2001 Spencer Penrose Award, given to the men's ice hockey University Division Coach of the Year.
Gotkin's 20 years at Mercyhurst represent the longest tenure of any Mercyhurst College head coach, past or present, and his 362 wins are also a Mercyhurst best. He came to Division III Mercyhurst from Division I Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1988 and quietly began to build a varsity program that would bring the college local, regional, and national recognition.
Mercyhurst has won 18-or-more games 13 times and 20-or-more seven times. The Lakers made the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoffs every year they were eligible, won an ECAC title in 1995, and reached the NCAA Playoffs six times (1991, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, and 2005). In fact, Gotkin is the first coach ever to take the same program to the NCAAs at all three levels. That notoriety got him a spot in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" segment at the conclusion of the 2000-01 season.
Over the years, he and his staff have produced seven All Americans, four ECAC Players of the Year, three ECAC Rookies of the Year, five MAAC First Team selections, four Atlantic Hockey First Team selections, and one AH Rookie of the Year.
Cottreau became the 9th Mercyhurst player in school history to play in the AHL, just a rung below the National Hockey League. The prior eight include:
1. Goalie Peter Aubry (1998-2002), St. John's
A number of alums also play for professional teams in leagues such as the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), the International Hockey League (IHL), and the United Hockey League (UHL).
Gotkin has overseen the program's transformation from Division III to Division II (1993) to Division I (1999) status. The Lakers were members of the ECAC West from 1988 through 1999 before joining the Division I MAAC Hockey League. Mercyhurst and the eight other MAAC teams withdrew from the conference in June of 2003 to form Atlantic Hockey, which is now comprised of ten teams.
Gotkin is very active with USA Hockey, having coached several "USA Select" National Festival Teams throughout the years. He has been involved with the NCAA Youth Education Through Sports (YES) Program. Gotkin has also been a featured speaker at many USA Hockey coaching clinics and symposiums. He has served on the Hobey Baker Award Committee and currently serves on four other national committees: the American Hockey Coaches Association Division I Committee, the US College Hockey online.com National Poll Committee, the Division I East region advisory committee, and the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine College Hockey Poll.
The Laker hockey team has also been involved in the community: the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Center, the Shriners Hospitals for Children, the annual college food drive, and the Skating Club of Erie. In 1995, the varsity hockey team won the Sister Rita Panciera Award given annually to the Mercyhurst College group that "best exemplifies the values of mercy". In March of 1998, the team was honored again, this time by the Erie Achievement Center for its work with the disabled.
Meanwhile, during Gotkin's stay at Mercyhurst, the team's cumulative QPA has been consistently good with his players majoring in such fields as Criminal Justice, Accounting, Pre-Dental, History, and Business Administration. Defenseman Matt Fennell won the conference's 2007 Student Athlete of the Year Award as a freshman with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Gotkin is married to the former Diane Kaminski of Erie, Pa. They are the parents of two children: Lindsey Ann was born September 2, 1991, and Brandon Reed arrived April 1, 1995. The family resides in Erie, Pa.
Gotkin's Record at Mercyhurst
*member of the ECAC West
NCAA Appearances: 6 (1991, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2005) |
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Lakers Athletics Ice Hockey
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