Erie, Pa. - It wasn’t playoff hockey at its best, but Mercyhurst advanced in the Atlantic Hockey playoffs with a come-from-behind 7-4 win over visiting UConn Saturday night, March 12, at the Ice Center. The win, before nearly 1400 fans upped the Lakers’ overall record to 16-15-4 while the Huskies ended their season 11-23-3. Mercyhurst will play Holy Cross next Friday at Quinnipiac. The Bobcats ended Army’s season Saturday night 2-0 while Holy Cross upended Sacred Heart 4-2.

Saturday’s win didn’t come easily. The Huskies had two-goal leads twice, 2-0 and 4-2 with six minutes gone in the middle period. That’s when things unraveled. The Lakers closed the period with three unanswered goals to take their first lead, 5-4, and then completed the comeback with a pair of unanswered lamplighters in the third, with the last coming into an empty net with under a minute to play.

Trailing 2-0 on a pair of UConn goals eight seconds in the first two minutes of play, Mercyhurst got on the board midway through the period when T.J. Kemp executed a perfect give-and-go to tally his eighth goal of the year. Kemp fed the puck from the blue line down to senior Rich Hansen, who made a picture-perfect pass back to a charging Kemp who beat UConn goaltender Scott Tomes.

The Huskies avenged the goal four minutes later when B.J. Crum beat Mercyhurst sophomore Mike Ella on a rebound.

Junior Dave Borrelli drew the Lakers to within a goal a second time when he nailed his 15th of the year late in a power play at 16:29 of the first. Borrelli’s goal was assisted by juniors Kyle Gourgon and Scott Champagne. The two teams lit the lamp four times in a six minute span of the second period.

Crum scored his second of the game six minutes into the middle period and beat Ella on a breakaway.

The Lakers countered Crum’s tally with three of their own. Freshman Ben Cottreau scored an unassisted goal, his 16th, at 9:41 to bring the Lakers back to within one at 4-3.

Kemp scored his second of the contest two minutes later when he connected on a one-timer from the left circle, tying the contest at 4-4.

Mercyhurst then took the lead on David Wrigley’s goal at 12:47, his team-leading 17th goal put the Lakers ahead 5-4 heading into the third period. Wrigley’s tally was assisted by Scott Reynolds and Jamie Hunt.

The Lakers added two insurance goals in the final frame, as Rich Hansen would score with six minutes to play in the period. Hansen’s sixth goal of the campaign was assisted by freshman Matt Warren and sophomore defenseman Jamie Hunt.

The final tally came courtesy of an empty net goal from Borrelli, his second tally of the night.

Ella rebounded nicely after a shaky start to improve to 7-3-1.