Mercyhurst took third place at the Syracuse Invitational with a 5-2 win over Colgate on Saturday afternoon, and removed a couple monkeys from their backs in the process.
The victory was the first ever for the Lakers (6-5-1) in four tries against Colgate (3-8-0), and snapped a 12-game winless streak (0-11-1) in independent contests. The Lakers had not won out-of-conference since a 4-3 win at Findlay on Nov. 27, 1999.
Sophomore forward Mike Carter got the Lakers a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal, his sixth of the season, at 15:20 of the first. The teams then scored a combined three goals within a 54-second span early in the
second.
Colgate’s Dmitry Yashin, the brother of the New York Islanders star Alexei Yashin, tied the game with a goal at 27 seconds. Mercyhurst sophomore defenseman Jamie King quickly regained the lead for the Lakers with his third of the year at 56 seconds, and junior forward Adam Rivers followed suit with his second at 1:21.
Colgate’s Darryl McKinnon brought the Raiders to within a goal with a power-play goal eight minutes later.
The score stayed that way until Laker sophomore forward Adam Tackaberry struck on the power play at 6:05 of the third. It was Tackaberry’s team-leading seventh goal of the year. Senior forward Brad Olsen ended the scoring with an empty-net tally at 19:46. The goal was Olsen’s second of the campaign.
Mercyhurst sophomore netminder Matt Cifelli picked up his second win of the season by stopping 27 Raider shots. Freshman goalie Steve Silverthorn made his first career start for Colgate and took the loss.
The Lakers will continue their lengthy road trip next weekend with conference games at Quinnipiac and Connecticut on Friday and Saturday, respectively. This will be the first meeting against the Braves since the Lakers edged them, 6-5, in the MAAC Hockey League Championship game last March.
Mercyhurst is 5-4 overall against the Huskies, including a three-game sweep last year.
