“ We hung around”

Mercyhurst Lakers Head Coach Rick Gotkin was direct with how both Mercyhurst and Ohio State did. The NCAA Tournament like game nearly saw the Atlantic Hockey side win another game against the Buckeyes. However on a day where their football team could not win, the Buckeyes hung on to secure a 3-2 win against a Mercyhurst team that nearly swept them missing three of their top scorers.

“ I don’t think either team got much going .” He summed up the night well with that that thought.

“I thought our best stretch was the first 10 minutes of the third period.” He didn’t knock the rest of the effort from his team but felt that was where most of the high danger chances were generated.

Gotkin praised the effort of Mickey Burns, the Vermont transfer, who put home a power play goal, called him a “ pleasant suprise for us.” He also talked about the play of Noah Kane and several others as being superb this weekend and behind.

“ We did some good things.” Praised goaltending from Kyle McClellan tonight, and goaltending on the weekend. McClellan like Johnson is laid back and calm in the net. Gotkin said “ we’re blessed, we’ve got two guys that can flat out win Hockey games for us, the challenge has been getting run support for those guys.” On the night, Gotkin was proud that”we came back twice today.” The Lakers have shown the ability to hang with any team of any skill level in the country this year. How many goals this team can score will, as Gotkin likes, determine their fate. This team is built to score four or more goals a night and make the opponent feel lucky to score two, when it’s humming.

On the lineup, other than stating McClellan, Gotkin made no other changes as the staff wanted to stick with what got them the win last night.

He did say that, “We really thought long and hard about trying.. to get in Carson Briere and a couple of other players.”

Now they prepare for Bentley. “ it’s a little bit tougher to win in conference.” “The price of play goes up.” The games have more emotion and built in intensity to them. Gotkin knows that Bentley’s feats of strength this year make them conference front runner contenders. He expects it to be harder than playing Ohio State on the road. For the skill of Mercyhurst they have to play through the grit of Bentley. “We’re going to have to skate, we’re going to have to make plays and use our feet.” “You give them enough looks on the power play .. they’ve got some guys that can hurt you. We really try to focus on what we do.” If the Lakers can steer their ship of skill and speed through Waltham, Massachusetts next weekend with some of their top talent back, all outcomes are on the table.