In the span of 3:32, the Rensselaer Engineers turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3- 1 lead and hung on to defeat the Mercyhurst Lakers, 4-3, in the first game of a nine-game homestand for the Engineers.
David Wrigley quickly gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds into the game when he took a home-run pass from Mike Muldoon and went to his backhand to slip the puck underneath Nathan Marsters.
At 12:13 of the first, the Engineers got on the board on the power play. Danny Eberly took the puck down the right wing and quickly fed Carson Butterwick who one-timed it past Peter Aubry to tie the game.
Just 2:22 later, a four-on-three power play saw Eberly pick up a goal when Marc Cavosie hit him in the slot for the quick one-timer.
Chris Migliore found an open net after Aubry misplayed the puck and made it 3-1 just 1:10 later.
“Those things happen,” said Engineer head coach Dan Fridgen about the early Mercyhurst goal. “But we did good job of coming back in the first period and coming out of that period up and then not looking back. You face a little adversity and you’re working new guys in the lineup,
and they responded.”
The two teams traded goals in the second period as Mike Carter beat Marsters and then Nolan Graham tallied one on the power play, giving the Engineers their third power play tally of the evening.
A goal with 50 seconds left by Marty Rychley made the game interesting, but the Engineers hung on for the win.
“You take the power play goals out of there in the first period, and who knows?” said Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin. “But, we kept our nose to the grindstone and kept working. We had a late goal at the end and a couple of looks, but it wasn’t meant to be.
“We thought five-on-five we played very well. We could have used a power-play goal ourselves tonight, but in the end we had some good looks and we had four lines going and we had a solid effort.”
“We responded real well,” said Fridgen. “We had some guys step up and we had some beautiful plays on the power plays and some timely goals. They gave us a good effort. That last one they got on the rebound made it real close, but I guess you have to make it interesting.”
Mercyhurst (5-4-1, 5-0-1 MAAC) remains winless outside of the MAAC and will take on Niagara in the first round of the Syracuse Invitational on Friday. The Engineers (3-4-0, 1-1-0 ECAC) will host Iona next Saturday.
