{"id":149148,"date":"2024-10-16T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=149148"},"modified":"2024-10-18T22:16:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T03:16:16","slug":"this-week-inn-atlantic-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2024\/10\/16\/this-week-inn-atlantic-hockey\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Mercyhurst’s record may not represent the strength of this Lakers team, says coach Rick Gotkin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Mercyhurst has begun the season 1-3, but coach Rick Gotkin says the team easily could be 2-2 or 3-1 (Photo: Mercyhurst Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s been a rough start for Atlantic Hockey America in non-conference play.<\/p>\n

Two weeks into this season the conference has dug itself a 3-20-2 hole in non-league play, not ideal if the league wants to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. These games tend to have an oversized affect on the PairWise Rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That said, there’s still a lot of non-conference games to be played. It’s encouraging that nine of the 20 losses were by a single goal, but we’re past close games and moral victories.<\/p>\n

Conference play kicked off last weekend in Erie in a series between host Mercyhurst and Rochester Institute of Technology, with the teams splitting the weekend by identical 4-2 scores.<\/p>\n

Friday’s win by the Lakers was their first of the young season after a pair of one-goal losses to Bowling Green the week before.<\/p>\n

That means coach Rick Gotkin’s team is 1-3 to open the season, but he and the Lakers are seeing some positives.<\/p>\n

“All four were essentially one-goal games,” said Gotkin, “They were similar from our perspective. All were good games and winnable. If we get a bounce or two, we’re probably 2-2 or making a case to be 3-1.”<\/p>\n

Gotkin says he likes what he’s seen from new players as well as veterans stepping into new roles.<\/p>\n

“Like a lot of teams, we have a good number of new faces,” said Gotkin, in his 37th season at Mercyhurt. “I’m always really curious how the new guys adjust to college hockey. Practice can’t really tell you that.”<\/p>\n

But after four games against real compeition, Gotkin says that he is excited by what he saw.<\/p>\n

“I like this group’s work ethic,” he said. “Their compete, their discipline, their committment to blocking shots. We’re seeing some good things.”<\/p>\n

In the series with Bowling Green, sophomore goaltender Simon Bucheler, who saw limited action last season, started the first game (2-1 loss) and made 25 saves while transfer\/graduate student Carter McPhail took the 5-4 overtime loss, making 37 saves.<\/p>\n

Against RIT last weekend, Bucheler started both games, making a combined 68 saves. The sophomore spent most of last season behind starter Owen Say, who transferred to Notre Dame in the offseason.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to see Simon in back-to-back games with points on the line,” said Gotkin. “We knew he was good. He had a coming out party last year against RIT (a 51-save shutout on Nov. 11, 2023). He was unbelievable. We had put our stock in Owen, but we felt very comfortable knowing what Simon could do. This year, he’s our guy.”<\/p>\n

McPhail has also started a game, and Gotkin says we will also see freshman goalie Michael Chambre, a former Boston College recruit, soon.<\/p>\n

On the offesive side, the Lakers have scored 11 goals this season, by 11 different players.<\/p>\n

“So far it’s been by committee,” said Gotkin. “And that will be a strength for us. We need the young guys to step up and the veterns to play like veterans.”<\/p>\n

Sophomore forward Boris Skalos is the top returning point-scorer this season, along with fifth-year forwards Mickey Burns and Steven Agriogianis.<\/p>\n

The defense is bolstered by senior Jake Beaune and sophomore Trent Sambrook. Sambrook and Skalos were named to the AHA all-rookie team last season.<\/p>\n

“It’s a good mix,” said Gotkin. “I think like us, the league is moving in the right direction, getting better and more competative. We’ve shown that in the NCAA Tournament, and now we need to show it in non-conference play.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercyhurst has begun the season 1-3, but coach Rick Gotkin says the team easily could be 2-2 or 3-1 (Photo: Mercyhurst Athletics)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":149151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[847],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in Atlantic Hockey: Mercyhurst's record may not represent the strength of this Lakers team, says coach Rick Gotkin - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mercyhurst has begun the season 1-3, but coach Rick Gotkin says the team easily could be 2-2 or 3-1 (Photo: Mercyhurst Athletics)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149148\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Mercyhurst's record may not represent the strength of this Lakers team, says coach Rick Gotkin - 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