Whether a team’s goal is to win a national championship, a
league championship, or simply have a winning season, it all starts with the
first win of the season. With that in mind, I selected Mercyhurst’s October 14th
road win over Lindenwood as memorable moment #7.
On some level, the 2017-18 Mercyhurst hockey season was always
going to be about responding to last season. In 2016-2017 Mercyhurst
experienced their first losing season since 2001 and were bounced from the CHA
tournament by the sixth seeded Lindenwood Lions. To respond to last year, the
Lakers needed to rack up some wins, but two weekends into the season were 0-3-1.
With thoughts of Mercyhurst revenge, I looked to the October
13th and 14th series at Lindenwood. Lindenwood is in St.
Charles, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis and at about 670 miles southwest from
Erie, it’s the western most CHA team. I expected Mercyhurst would send a
message, playing Lindenwood for the first time since last year’s early playoff
exit. You can imagine my surprise when I looked at the box score for game one
of the series and learned Lindenwood beat Mercyhurst again. The game was tied going into the third period, but
Mercyhurst got outshot and outscored in the third, losing the game 3-2. For the
first time all season, I was worried.
Lindenwood joined the NCAA Division I in 2011, and the CHA
in 2012. Their October 14th win marked the first time Lindenwood
beat Mercyhurst in consecutive games versus each other. Were Mercyhurst and
Lindenwood now comparable in terms of winning ability? I made plans to watch
game two online so I could find out with my own eyes.
Well, I got my answer. In the second game of the series, the Lakers beat Lindenwood 6-1,
outshooting them 48-15. The dominance reminded me of Canada's 7-3 win over Russia in the 2010 Olympic quarterfinal. Remember that game? Canada had needed a shootout to beat Switzerland, and lost to USA in the prelims. They had to play in a qualification round and won of course, but then faced Russia in the quarter final. There was some anxiety among Canadians, whether they admitted it or not. Turned out it was for naught as Canada was winning 7-3 by the end of the second, which became the final score. A nation breathed a sigh of relief and thought, "why did we doubt them?" That's what the second Lakers vs Lions game was like.
Mercyhurst scored halfway through the first and never
relinquished control of the game, taking 16 shots in each period. Wave after
wave, the Lakers kept rolling, going 1 for 5 on the power play, five Lakers
getting their first goal of the season, and getting ice time for every line.
That win was the start of a winning campaign for the Lakers, who finished
18-15-4 on the season, second in the CHA regular season, and winning the CHA tournament.
The CHA format is that the 6 teams in the conference play
each other four times a year, for a total of 20 conference games for each team
(and about 14 non-conference games). Lindenwood traveled to Mercyhurst for
another pair of games on January 19 and 20. Once again, game one was a
challenging one. Mercyhurst put up over 30 shots on Lindenwood goalie Jolene
deBruyn before scoring with less than a minute left in the second. They added
another 2 goals in the third, winning 3-0. The next day, perhaps due to
fatigue, Mercyhurst won 5-1, and the scoring started in the first minute of the
first period.
The series concluded 3-1 in favor of Mercyhurst for the
season, and the teams did not meet in the CHA playoffs. Lindenwood tied their
career high for wins in a single season with 10, and finished 5th in
the CHA, up one spot from last year. They were eliminated by Penn State in the
first round of the playoffs. Lindenwood’s most significant non-conference win
was vs St Lawrence, and although they finished fifth in the CHA, they earned
wins against each of Mercyhurst (1), Syracuse (2), Penn State (2), and RIT (3).
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