The Last Time Out
Sophomore Adam Tackaberry’s power play goal early in the third period sealed a 5-2 win for the Mercyhurst Lakers over the Colgate University Raiders in the Consolation game Saturday in the
Syracuse Invitational Tournament.

The Lakers’ senior center Brad Olsen added an empty net goal in the game’s final minute to put an exclamation point on the win.

The win snapped a long string of non-conference losses for the Lakers. Mercyhurst (6-5-1, 5-0-1 MACC) had gone 12 non-conference games without a victory.

Tackaberry let go a wrist shot go from the right circle that caught the far top corner of the Colgate goal at the 6:05 mark of the third.

Fluke goals dominated the early minute of the second period.

Colgate freshman Dmitry Yashin, younger brother of New York Islanders star Alexei Yashin, put Colgate (3-8, 2-2 ECAC) on the board at the 27 second mark. Yashin from behind the Mercyhurst net banked a shot in off the leg of Raiders’ Paul Kelley and past stunned Mercyhurst sophomore goalie Matt
Cifelli.

Mercyhurst responded 29 seconds after Yashin’s bank shot. Jamie King was just dumping the puck into the Colgate zone and heading off the ice on a line change. The sophomore’s dump-in was on net and skipped past Colgate’s
freshman goalie Steve Silverthorn.

Mercyhurst added another goal 25 seconds later. Junior Adam Rivers took a pass from Brad Olsen and buried the puck past Silverthorn.

Colgate pulled to within one on the power play just before the midpoint of the period. Freshman Darryl McKinnon blasted a shot from the right circle that beat Cifelli on the glove side.

Sophomore Mike Carter put Mercyhurst on the board with an unassisted goal with a little over four minutes left in the first period.

So Close
With the 3-2 win over Brown on November 16, head coach Don Vaughan needs just one win to reach the 100-win mark in ECAC play. He owns a career mark of 99-82-18 against conference opponents.

Former Teammates Meet This Weekend
Junior forward Brad D’Arco will face off against two of his former teammates at Taft this weekend when the Raiders travel to Princeton and Yale. Trevor Beaney plays for Princeton and Denis Nam, his senior year co-captain plays for Yale.

Not a Sophomore Slump
Sophomore Kyle Doyle saw his five-game point scoring streak come to an end in the 5-2 loss to Mercyhurst on Saturday. However, Doyle has scored in seven of the nine games he has played.

The Freshmen Firsts
Freshmen Justin Spencer (one assist) recorded his first collegiate point over the weekend, while both Darryl McKinnon and Adam Mitchell both scored their first collegiate goals. Freshman goaltender Steve Silverthorn started his first collegiate game Saturday night against Mercyhurst, but also recorded his first collegiate loss. He also saw time in the Merrimack game.

A 360 Degree Turn for Bryce
Raider senior defenseman Ben Bryce has already equaled his career goal production this season with three goals. In his first three seasons, Bryce tallied three goals and 11 assists as he recorded two goals and four assists his sophomore season and one goals and seven assists his junior year.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm (Most of the Time)
After scoring most of its goals in the third period through the first nine games of the season, the Raiders amassed just one goal in the finals stanza over the weekend. The Raiders did, however, score three goals in the first period of the Merrimack game for the first time this season.

One For the Record Books
For the third time in school history, the Raiders faced a penalty shot in the 9-5 loss to Merrimack. Senior Jason Lefevre became the first goaltender in school history to save a penalty shot as he denied Alex Sikatchev a score. Lefevre stonewalled Michigan in the first round of the Ice Breaker Tournament last year as he denied four Wolverines penalty shots.

Staying Out of Trouble
Freshman Adam Mitchell is the only Colgate player other than the goaltenders without a penalty through 11 games this season.

Up Next
Colgate is off until Sunday, Dec. 30 when MAAC opponent Canisius comes to town for a 3 p.m. game.