ERIE, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's hockey team earned a point on the road Tuesday evening against Mercyhurst, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Lakers at Mercyhurst Ice Center.
The loss is the first of any fashion for RMU in conference play since dropping its Atlantic Hockey season opener against Canisius on November 27th.
An opportunistic Mercyhurst team managed to dent the Colonials within the first five minutes of the opening puck drop Tuesday, taking advantage of an RMU turnover near the blue line before Austin Heidemann finished off a nice passing sequence in the slot, beating Noah West and making it 1-0 just 3:58 into the game.
A few nice shifts from the Colonials including some great forechecking from the fourth line of Nick Lalonde, Cameron Hebert, and Garrett Clegg provided a nice response, but no goals followed their zone time.
Two solid kills from the Mercyhurst PK helped to keep it a 1-0 Lakers lead after twenty.
Hebert was finally rewarded for his hard work minutes into the second.
The sophomore pivot followed up a loose puck off a broken play and crashed the net before flipping a quick shot through the arms of Hank Johnson to pull RMU even at 1-1.
Mercyhurst restored their lead just over the midway mark of the game after a mad scramble in front of the Colonials net. Though it initially appeared that West had covered up, Carson Briere managed to get a stick under the rookie's pads and poke home the loose puck.
A five minute power play for the Lakers after Garrett Clegg was given a major for charging threatened to widen RMU's deficit even more, however an excellent kill that nearly produced a short-handed goal from Gavin Gulash helped Robert Morris escape the second down just one.
A parade of Lakers to the penalty box in the third set the Colonials up with a number of glorious chances to find the tying goal in the final frame.
After nearly killing off two straight, a third Mercyhurst minor gave RMU a two-man advantage for 29 seconds as they continued to try and take advantage of the situation.
Just seconds after the first Laker stepped out of the box, the Colonials' fourth line came through again in a huge way when Lalonde got a piece of a Brendon Michaelian point shot, tipping it past Johnson to draw RMU back even at twos.
The Colonials hung on to force OT for the third time in four games, however this time it was Mercyhurst who skated away with the extra point after Gueorgui Feduolov beat West with a sneaky wrist shot from a sharp angle.
SCORING PLAYS
Heidemann, 3:58, 1st - Assists: Sherriff, Briere
C. Hebert, 3:20, 2nd - Assists: Michaelian, Clegg
Briere, 11:40, 2nd - Assists: Norton
Lalonde, 10:27, 3rd (PP) - Assists: Michaelian, Kramer
Feduolov, 4:27, OT - Assists: Heidemann, Maziarz
QUICK HITS
First OT loss of the season for RMU…first conference loss of any kind since 11/27 vs. Canisius…Matt Hutton made his NCAA debut, registering one SOG…Cameron Hebert scored his first goal of the season…RMU finished 1-6 on the power play
QUOTABLES
"We played really well in the third period to tie the game, and had numerous chances but their goalie was outstanding. Mercyhurst had a game plan that they executed well, and they made one more play than us. Not to say we were bad, but we need to play with that urgency for the whole game." - Head Coach Derek Schooley
