The Mercyhurst Men’s hockey team is celebrating after having a victory against the Holy Cross Crusaders and a tie game resulting in an extra point. The games were played at the Mercyhurst Ice Center on Friday, Oct. 15, at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 16, at 3:05 p.m.

The first game played on Friday ended in a tie of 3-3. In the first five minutes of the 3-on-3 over-time, neither team scored, which meant both teams had to fight for the extra point in a shootout.

Holy Cross was the team to score first, however the Lakers tied the score with a shootout goal made by Austin Heidemann, sophomore. It was the Crusaders second turn in the shootout and they scored, but their lead did not last long. Carson Briere shot the puck and made it past the goalie, therefore, the game was tied again.

A third round of the shootout then had to be played to see who would be gaining an extra point from the game. Both teams scored again, which meant the game would be going into a fourth round of the shootout. Lakers goalie, Kyle McClellan, sophomore, stopped the Crusaders puck from entering the net. It was a blocked shot for Holy Cross, the Lakers needed to score to win the extra point.

The pressure was on Rylee St. Onge, junior, as he skated down the ice to have a shot at winning the extra point. He shot and got the puck past the goalie and scored. This overtime goal made the Mercyhurst Lakers a winning team for the extra point.

Carson Briere, sophomore, had a big impact in the game and helped the team strive for their extra point. Briere scored the first goal with assists from Dante Sheriff, who also scored the third goal in the shootout, and Owen Nor-ton. However, not only did Briere score the first goal of the game, but he also got the other two goals of game regulation earning him-self a hat trick.

“I was excited, it always feels good to contribute to the team, especially in tight games like Friday.” Briere’s goals allowed the team to be tied at the end of the game with Holy Cross. When asked what will need to be done to keep up this pace in future games, Briere said, “I think the pace I was playing is a hard pace to stay at consistently but if I play my game, I know good things will come which will lead to team success.”

The Lakers had one game under their belt, and another game to go. Holy Cross scored the first goal 12:34 in the first period Saturday afternoon. The Lakers started the second period without a goal and an overall game score of 0-1. Nevertheless, that score changed when Noah Kane, sophomore, had his first goal of the season. This goal was a result of a rebound from Johnathon Bendorf, junior.

With only 3:03 left of the second period, Josh McDougall, senior, passed the puck to Marko Reifenberger, junior, who was able to score his first goal of the season and the second goal of the game for the Lakers. The Lakers kept their scoring streak alive in the third period when Briere was able to get the puck in the net. This goal resulted in a 3-1 lead for the Lakers, and Briere’s fifth goal of the weekend. Austin Heidemann, sophomore, and Michael Bevilacqua, senior, assisted this goal.

“My linemates around me make the game easy,” Briere said, “Sheriff and Heidemann are great players and a lot of the credit goes to them along with my other teammates.” With only 53 seconds left in the game, forward St. Onge scored an empty net goal followed by another empty net goal scored by Geoff Kitt, senior, with only two seconds left in the game. The Mercyhurst Lakers defeated the Holy Cross Crusaders with a final score of 5-2.

Mercyhurst Men’s hockey will play against Rochester Institute of Technology Friday, Oct. 29, at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 30, at 5:05 p.m. at Rochester.