When Robert Morris, the nation’s highest-scoring team, took on Mercyhurst, one of the worst defensive teams in the country, in the Atlantic Hockey Conference semifinal on Friday, the Colonials were expected to get a lot of shots on goal.
They delivered as expected with a 62 shot outburst against the Lakers. What wasn’t expected was the stellar performance of Mercyhurst freshman goaltender Brandon Wildung, who made 59 saves to lead the Lakers to a 4-3 overtime victory.
Robert Morris took a 3-2 lead in to the final minute of regulation, but with Wildung pulled, Mercyhurst senior forward Chris Bodo found a rebound to the right of Izyk and took three whacks at it before finally getting it past the Colonials netminder and tying the game at 3-3 with just 34.4 seconds remaining.
The emotional goal boosted the Lakers, who had been on their heels all night, and they took the momentum into overtime. 3:04 into the extra period, senior forward Zac Frischmon took a long shot from the right wing boards that eluded Colonials goaltender Dalton Izyk and sent the Lakers to the AHC final.
For the Colonials, what could have been the program’s greatest season ever will end with heartbreak.
“I thought we played really well,” RMU head coach Derek Schooley said after the loss. “Hats off to Mercyhurst and their goaltender.
“I said before the game that we didn’t want to have any regrets if we lost; if we got beat, we got beat, and we didn’t have any regrets tonight.”
The first few minutes of the game were slow-moving as the teams felt each other out, but the Lakers quickly found the avenue for the offense: the power play.
The Lakers earned the first power play of the game just 3:48 into the contest, with RMU captain Cody Wydo going off for tripping. Mercyhurst capitalized 59 seconds in to the man advantage, with senior left-winger Kyle Just ripping a wrist shot over Izyk from the left-wing faceoff circle to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead.
Colonials forward David Friedmann then took an ill-advised high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone 5:00 into the first, and Mercyhurst capitalized on the power play yet again as senior defenseman Ryan Misiak scored his seventh goal of the season from essentially the same spot on the ice as Just’s goal.
Robert Morris answered back with a power play goal of their own at 8:12 of the first period. With Lakers captain Matthew Zay in the box for crosschecking, junior forward Zac Lynch found a loose puck to the right of Mercyhurst goaltender Brandon Wildung and fired it home to draw the Colonials to within one. Greg Gibson and Scott Jacklin assisted on Lynch’s 18th goal of the season.
The Colonials completely dominated the second period, attempting 51 shots, and got 27 of them on the goal, but were unable to solve Wildung. The freshman netminder kept the Lakers in the game while Robert Morris kept Mercyhurst hemmed in their zone.
Finally, at 19:19 of the period, Wydo took a feed from Greg Gibson and outwaited Wildung, as he waited for the young goaltender to go down and then tucked it in behind his pads to tie the game at 2-2.
The Colonials then took what looked to be a commanding lead when senior forward Scott Jacklin poked home the rebound of a John Rey point shot in a mad scramble in front of Wildung at 14:41 of the third period. Brandon Denhamn also assisted and the Colonials seemed poised to skate to victory, but Mercyhurst wasn’t finished.
For the Colonials, their season will end on a down note after setting a program record with 22 wins and winning the school’s first-ever Atlantic Hockey regular season championship. Despite their regular season success, they will not place well enough in the mathematical rankings to be selected for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Photo credit: Brian Mitchell
