Mercyhurst Visits Clarkson Friday and Saturday to End Lengthy Road Trip

January 1, 2004

Courtesy of Mercyhurst Sports Information Department

Mercyhurst (7-7-1) at Clarkson (6-7-4)

Dates: Friday and Saturday, January 2 and 3

Times: 7:00pm

Site: Cheel Arena (3,000); Potsdam, NY

Radio: None

The Coaches: Rick Gotkin (Brockport State ‘82) is in his 16th season at Mercyhurst with an overall record of 285-162-27. George Roll (Bowling Green ‘86) is in his first year at Clarkson.

The Series: Clarkson leads 3-0. The teams haven’t played each other since the 2001-02 season when the Golden Knights won twice at home by scores of 2-0 and 8-1.

Scouting Mercyhurst: Mercyhurst resumed play last weekend following a break for Christmas and finished second in the 53rd Annual Rensselaer/HSBC Holiday Tournament in Troy, NY. The Lakers rallied to defeat host RPI 3-2 Sunday, their first win over the Engineers in four tries, and then lost to Northeastern 7-5 in Monday’s championship tilt. Junior defenseman T.J. Kemp had the game-winner late in the third period Sunday while junior forward David Wrigley had three goals in the two days. Mercyhurst is led in scoring by junior forwards Rich Hansen and Wrigley with 17 points. Wrigley has taken over the team lead in goals with eight while Hansen is tops in assists with 14. Senior forward Adam Tackaberry has six power-play goals on the season, while sophomore forwards Scott Reynolds and Erik Johnson have notched two short-handed goals. Sophomore Andy Franck has seen the majority of the time in goal and has a 5-4-1 record, 3.60 goals against average, and a .898 save percentage. Freshman Jordan Wakefield played both games at the Rensselaer Tournament. Wakefield has a 2-3-0 record, 3.33 goals against average, and a .912 save percentage. Mercyhurst has cashed 23 of 78 power play chances (.295) and has killed 66 of 79 opponent opportunities (.835). The Lakers are 5-5-1 on the road and 3-4-2 on this eleven-game road trip. After starting the season 4-1, including a 3-2 win at Ohio State, Mercyhurst is 3-6-1 in its last ten. At this time last year, however, Mercyhurst was only 4-9-2 and went on to win 22 games.

Scouting Clarkson: Third-period rallies by the opponents have been the downfall for Clarkson in too many games this season, so it was encouraging when the Golden Knights rallied Sunday night, December 28, to gain a 3-3 overtime tie against Harvard. The tie snapped a three-game losing streak.

Sophomore John Sullivan tallied his fourth of the season when he tucked in a shot that just crossed over the goal line at 13:41 of the third period to give Clarkson the 3-3 tie. Sophomore goaltender Dustin Traylen was named Second Star of the contest after posting a 37-save effort, including 16 stops in the second period. Traylen’s biggest save of the night came with just over a minute remaining in the second period when he stopped Kevin Du on a shorthanded breakaway attempt with a sprawling glove save.

Clarkson’s top two offensive threats combined to open the scoring early in the first period. Junior Chris Blight one-timed a passed from classmate, center Mac Faulkner for his team-high 11th goal of the season, a power-play marker at 6:08. Faulkner, the Knights’ leading scorer with 21 points, recorded his team-high 14th assist on the year.

Harvard outshot Clarkson 40-31, but the Knights held a 17-13 advantage over the final 25 minutes. The Knights went 1-of-6 on the power play, while Harvard was just 1-of-2 with both man-advantage opportunities coming in the first period.

Sophomore goaltender Traylen has a 5-6-4 record, 2.48 goals against average, and .924 save percentage. The Engineers have converted 14 of 87 power play chances (.161) and have killed 88 of 102 shorthanded situations (.863). Clarkson is 4-5-2 at home.

Mercyhurst and Clarkson have played three common opponents: Rensselaer, Cornell, and St. Lawrence. The Golden Knights and Lakers are both 1-1-1 against the trio.

Up Ahead:Mercyhurst will return to the Ice Center Friday and Saturday, January 9 and 10, for Atlantic Hockey games against Bentley. Each game will begin at 7:30.