I'm counting down the memorable moments of the Mercyhurst hockey season. Here are links to moment 10, moment 9, moment 8, moment 7.
Memorable Moment #6: 1-0 Win at #9 Robert Morris on December 1, 2017
Every season has a narrative, and I've said before that for the 2017-2018 Mercyhurst hockey team it was responding to the rare losing season they experienced in 2016-2017. For Robert Morris, 2017-2018 was about living up to the hype they created that same season.
RMU went 24-5-6 in 2016-2017, winning the CHA regular season for the first time in program history and the CHA tournament for the second time since joining the league in 2005. With their regular season championship, they became the first team other than Mercyhurst to win the regular season outright, in the league's then 15 year history. Mercyhurst has won the regular season in every other year, sharing the title once with Wayne State. RMU was picked to win the CHA in this year's pre-season polls as a result of last year's success. In addition to team success, Robert Morris had the 2016-2017 USCHO Rookie of the Year in Jaycee Gebhard (Plenty, Saskatchewan), and a potent scorer in Brittany Howard (St. Thomas, Ontario) who put up 50 points her junior year.
When Robert Morris and Mercyhurst met on December 1, 2017 Robert Morris was still the favorite. They entered the weekend ranked 9th in the country, and had a record of 10-2-2. They had just beaten #5 Ohio State the week before (RMU's highest ranked win in program history), and Brittany Howard and Jaycee Gebhard were continuing their scoring with 26 and 18 points respectively coming into the Mercyhurst series.
Enter Mercyhurst. Mercyhurst entered the series coming off a series split versus RPI at home, and a record of 3-9-2. They were unranked. Taking nothing away from Robert Morris's impressive record it is of note that Mercyhurst played a monstrous first half schedule including Minnesota, Colgate, and Wisconsin - all eventual NCAA tournament teams. CHA fans knew that a comparison of the records only did not tell the whole story and were eager to see this head to head match up betwen two conference rivals. Nationally, it was expected RMU would sweep the series, with both USCHO columnists picking RMU to win both games.
Given the anticipation of this game, I decided to drive to Neville Island (near Pittsburgh) and watch it live. Robert Morris is one of the few programs that doesn't have an on campus arena, instead playing at an off campus school owned rink, located six miles from campus. The arena has two ice surfaces, so lots of activity and people at the rink. The 1200 seat capacity rink that RMU calls home has player benches on one side of the rink, and bleacher seating on the opposite side. The seats in the front row are somewhat elevated and right up against the glass, which makes all the seating feel that much closer to the action. In one of the corners on the players' bench side of the rink there is a small section of seating where the band sits, and plays with vigor, at breaks in the action. The mascot, a Colonial dude with a pony tail walked around adding to the atmosphere for the 386 fans out for the game.
The game was a CHA classic. Freshman Kennedy Blair got the start in net for Mercyhurst. RMU probably had the momentum in the first, with two power plays and the edge in shots 13-10, but the score was 0-0 after one period.
In the second, it was RMU who got into penalty trouble, resulting in a five on three in the middle of the second period. The Lakers made them pay, going up 1-0, on a Brooke Hartwick (London, Ontario) wrister from the top of the circles. There's nothing like breaking a tie to elevate the intensity of a game, and the teams played hard to the end of the second. The score held, and after two periods it was 1-0 Mercyhurst, and shots were 21-20 in favor of RMU.
The third period took the intensity of the second to another level. RMU pushed hard for the equalizer but it never came. Not only did the Lakers kill two huge penalties, but scoring threat Brittany Howard had a break away in the final minutes of the game. It was turned assigned by the right pad of Blair, who made ten stops in the third, a period that was offensively dominated by RMU. Howard would take eight shots on the day, denied each time. It was the first time RMU was shut out all season.
The buzzer went and so ended another game between the CHA rivals. For Mercyhurst it was a statement win on the road against the reigning CHA champ. For Robert Morris, it was a reminder of what it's like to play with a bulls eye on your back. Both teams played well, and in Mercyhurst's case, unfazed by any hype.
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