I'm counting down the memorable moments of the Mercyhurst hockey season. Here are links to moment 10, moment 9, moment 8, moment 7, moment 6, moment 5.
2017-2018 Memorable Moment #4: 3rd Period Comeback to beat #7/6 Ohio State University on December 16.
In the last series of the 2017 calendar year, the Lakers were still looking for a big non-conference win. They had had plenty of opportunities, with a schedule that included Wisconsin, St. Lawrence, Minnesota, and Colgate, but were 0-7-1 against the group, including two overtime losses. Ohio State represented the Lakers last opportunity of 2017 to make a non conference statement win against a ranked team.
Ohio State beat Mercyhurst 2-1 in game one of the series the day before, scoring the winner with less than two minutes left in the third. (Ugh!) Despite a large home crowd, game 2 of the series wasn’t going Mercyhurst’s way either. In front of 950 Laker faithful (including a few OSU fans I'm sure), the Lakers were losing 4-2 with 7 minutes left in the third. It’s over I thought. Good thing I’m not a player because it was far from over. With 6:33 to go in the third, sophomore Sam Isbell (Thunder Bay, Ontario) scored to pull within one. A minute later OSU took a penalty, and about 30 seconds into the power play, senior Brooke Hartwick (London, Ontario) tied the game.
This is impressive on its own, but consider that OSU had All-American Kassidy Sauve in net, and had at that point a 12-3-4 record, with losses only to Wisconsin and Robert Morris, two ranked teams.
There was just under 5 minutes left in the tie game, and the Lakers weren’t done their scoring: at 18:05 of the third sophomore Celine Frappier (Tecumseh, Ontario) scored and the Lakers had their first lead of the game. This time, they wouldn’t relinquish it, and also picked up an empty net goal, to win 6-4. With the win, Laker goaltender junior Sarah McDonnell (Oakville, Ontario) earned her biggest win of the season.
The win wasn’t enough to get the Lakers into the polls, and in fact they didn't even receive a vote, but the win was still of value in that it gave them a W for their record, gave them a big non conference win to recruit on, and gave them a shot of confidence going into Christmas and the second half of the season. Both teams had a solid second half of the season; Mercyhurst ended up winning the CHA tourney, and in Ohio State's case the highlights included a home sweep of Wisconsin, and making it to the Frozen Four for the first time in program history.
The series split nurtures a budding rivalry between Ohio State and Mercyhurst. At 240 miles apart, Erie, Pa to Columbus, Ohio is one of the shortest non conference drives either team has. Despite this, the teams have only met 6 times in their nineteen year histories. The teams played a one game series in each of the 02-03 and 03-04 seasons. Mercyhurst won both games by one goal, in tightly contested games that could have been won by either team. Sadly, the schools never played each other again until a one game series in each of 2013-14 (Ohio State won in OT), and 2014-15 (Mercyhurst won 3-0) seasons.
I can't help but wonder why these teams have played each other so few times. In Ohio State’s eyes they may have felt that dealing with the grueling WCHA conference, they had nothing to gain by adding an at times great, and always difficult to play against Mercyhurst into the mix. From Ohio State’s perspective it may have been no big deal to drop Mercyhurst from their schedule, but I know as a former Laker, there was a thrill in playing schools with national name brand recognition, and it was especially cool to host those teams. To have Hurst and OSU so geographically close, and rarely playing each other was unfortunate.
Luckily, the trend might be turning. The two game series that was played this year was a step in the right direction, and OSU has Mercyhurst scheduled for two games in 2018-2019, as well. With the demise of the UND women’s hockey program the WCHA league membership has shrunk to 7, and each team has 4 more non conference games to schedule, which will further make room for an OSU Mercyhurst matchup. In 2017-2018 OSU played 8 games vs CHA teams (4 games vs RMU, 2 a piece vs Mercyhurst and Penn State); next year Mercyhurst is the only CHA team on the slate.
This time, Mercyhurst will travel to Ohio State on December 15 and 16, and the rivalry will continue. Maybe someone will even sweep.
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The WCHA has already released its composite 2018-2019 schedule. WCHA games on Mercyhurst's schedule next year include the same WCHA opponents as 2017-2018, only with location reversed. In 2018-2019 Mercyhurst will be:
Vs. Wisconsin weekend of October 5
At. Minnesota weekend of September 28
At. Ohio State weekend of December 15
Vs. Bemidji weekend of December 7
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