The 2-1 Mercyhurst men’s hockey team took on the 3-0 Merrimack Warriors on Friday, Oct. 24, and Saturday, Oct. 25. Friday’s game: Ashley Favata

During the Mercyhurst men’s hockey team home opener against Merrimack College on Friday, Oct. 24, the men fought back and forth throughout the whole game but fell 5-4 in overtime.

Early on in the first period, junior Anthony Mastrodicasa scored his first goal of the season from senior Tyler Shiplo and freshman Jonathon Charbonneau to take a 1-0 lead.

Merrimack came back and tie the game later on in the first period and take the lead late in the second period with two goals from Justin Mansfield.

Going into the 3rd period, Mercyhurst was down,2-1, but that did not last long.

Senior Chris Bodo scored his second goal of the season from sophomore Philippe Drouin and senior Zac Frischmon to tie the game.

Just a little more than two minutes later Marc Biega from Merrimack scored to make it 3-2 but one minute later Mercyhurst came back again.

While on the power play, senior Nardo Nagtzaam and junior Anthony Mastrodicasa fed senior Ryan Misiak the puck for Misiak’s first goal of the season.

Merrimack’s Brian Christie scored from Ben Bahe to make it 4-3 later on in the period.

With only 32 seconds left in the game, senior captain Matthew Zay tied the game by recording his 100th career point on a power play from redshirt senior Kyle Just and Mastrodicasa.

Zay is the 17th player in the Division I history at Mercyhurst to accomplish this achievement.

The game went into overtime and at 17:41 Marc Biega scored and capture the win for his team.

Senior Jimmy Sarjeant fought hard in goal making 33 saves throughout the game.

The next day, Saturday, Oct. 25, the team pulled together for a win after their tough loss the night before. They were able to rise above Merrimack College with a 3-2 win.

Junior Alec Shields started off the scoring for the night in the second period with a goal assisted by Frischmon and Mastrodicasa.

Less than a minute later, junior Kyle Cook captured his first goal of the season from redshirt freshman Jack Riley and freshman Zach Todd.

Soon after, Just also captured his first goal of the season from Riley and Cook.

Merrimack’s Alfred Larsson and Brett Seney both scored to make the game 3-2 but it would not be enough to take the win.

Jimmy Sarjeant saw 32 shots and saved 30 of them to help his team come out on top.

After this weekend, the team received two votes in the latest USCHO.com Poll. This is the fourth week in a row the Lakers have gotten votes.

The Lakers will travel to Hamilton, NY, to take on the fourth ranked Colgate Univeristy. Games will be played on Friday. Oct. 31 and Saturday, Nov. 1.
In other hockey news, the Lakers will host Ohio State on Jan. 2, 2015 at Erie Insurance Arena, Erie’s professional hockey arena.

This will be the first of an annual series in the arena. The arena has 6,500 seats and it was the location of the 2011 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four.