The Mercyhurst Division I men’s ice hockey team fell to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Tigers on Saturday, March 21, in the Atlantic Hockey Conference (AHC) championship game. The loss came after a 4-3 overtime victory in the semifinals against Robert Morris Friday, March 20.

All four goals were scored by seniors Kyle Just, Ryan Misiak, Chris Bodo and Zac Frischmon in the win Friday. In the 5-1 loss to RIT on Saturday, sophomore Stephen Hrehoriak scored the lone goal.

Forward Kyle Just scored first for the Lakers to give them an early 1-0 lead in Friday’s game. Forward Ryan Misiak scored shortly after to help their early lead, 2-0. Robert Morris responded with three unanswered goals until forward Chris Bodo sent the game into overtime. He tied the game 3-3, scoring with 35.5 seconds left in regulation.

Forward Zac Frischmon scored the game-winning goal at 3:04 in overtime.

“It was toward the end of my shift and I was thinking about changing” Frischmon said. “But then, Nardo passed me the puck so I brought it
into their zone, saw that there was some room on the goalie’s glove side and just decided to
shoot. In playoffs especially, you just try to get as many shots as possible.”

Freshman goalie Brandon Wildung had a record number of saves in the tournament, stopping 59 of 62 shots.

The Lakers overtime win Friday sent them to the AHC title game for the second time in three years, in a matchup against the RIT. The result was a 5-1 loss. The Lakers’ only goal came from sophomore forward Stephen Hrehoriak.

“We played two very good teams with the season on the line, so going into the games we knew it was going to be a great battle,” said Wildung.

“We won the first game against Robert Morris to get into the championship game so that was great. It was a bittersweet weekend and tough to swallow the loss knowing how close we came to winning the championship. We played with a lot of heart and just came up short.”

Wildung was the only player named to the All-Tournament team.