The Mercyhurst University men’s hockey team settled for a 3-3 overtime tie on Saturday, Jan. 18 against the University of Connecticut at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
The Lakers are now 11-1-3 in conference play and 13-9-4 overall.

With such a successful season, there are many top players who are getting recognized for all of their dedication and hard work.

There are three outstanding players who are on the national ballot for the 2014 Hobey Baker Award, given to the top player in Division I men’s hockey: senior forward Daniel O’Donoghue, junior forward Matthew Zay and junior goaltender Jimmy Sarjeant.

“It is a great honor just to be nominated, there have been a lot of great hockey players and people to have been nominated and selected as winners. To have been selected is very humbling and a lot of credit goes to my teammates for helping me get this opportunity,” Sarjeant said.

Also, for the fourth time this season, junior goaltender Sarjeant was named the Atlantic Hockey Association’s Travel Team USA Goaltender of the Week as announced by the conference office on Tuesday, Jan. 14.

When asked about their biggest challenges so far, Sarjeant said, “We started the season off with a few losses, but we battled through adversity a couple times to get some wins and gain confidence. It is always tough going through a stretch of losses, so for us it has just been to continue to remain positive and committed to our systems and teammates to ensure future success. This is paying off for us right now, but as I said earlier, we need to continue to do the things we have been doing that have given us success.”

With a total of 692 saves, and an average of 2.41, Sarjeant has proven to be an outstanding asset to the team and continues to prove his skills as a goaltender each and every game.

When asked what they doing differently to prepare for the rest of the season, Sarjeant replied, “Continuing to trust our systems, ourselves, our coaches, and our preparation. We do a lot of video analysis that our coaches prepare for us week to week. Our on-ice preparation also needs to continue and improve if we want to continue down the path of championship aspirations.

“Every team we play brings a new challenge and we constantly have to prepare and make adjustments to compete each game. Each game is a different battle in itself and we need a full team commitment to win games,” Sarjeant said.

The Lakers will travel to Buffalo, NY to take on Cansius College on Thursday, Jan. 23, and again on Friday, Jan. 24, at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.