The 2021–22 Mercyhurst Lakers men's ice hockey season was the 35th season of play for the program, the 23rd at the Division I level, and the 19th season in the Atlantic Hockey conference. The Lakers represented Mercyhurst University and were coached by Rick Gotkin, in his 34th season.
Season Mercyhurst was hoping to build on an improvement in 2021 with a strong start to their season. Early returns were mixed as the team tied four of their first eight games. Defense was an issue as the Mercyhurst goal was consistently harassed by their opponents to the tune of nearly 34 shots a game. While the team had Hank Johnson and Kyle McClellan share the starting role, neither was able to shine against the constant barrage. The Lakers nearly pulled themselves back up to .500 at the end of November when they earned a surprising split with Ohio State and there was some hope that the team was ready to turn a corner.
Unfortunately, the defensive performance got even worse afterwards and Mercyhurst went 1–10 in their next eleven matches. In that stretch the Lakers allowed no fewer than 3 goals a game and, even when the offense had a good night, their two netminders couldn't keep the puck out of the net.
By the middle of January, the team was at the bottom of the Atlantic Hockey standings and it looked like the Lakers would have to wait for another year. However, Rick Gotkin decided to put his trust in McClellan as the team's starter and the sophomore began to respond with stellar performances by the end of the month. Seemingly overnight, Mercyhurst went from allowing 5 goals a game to surrendering 1. Mercyhurst arrested their downward descent and started winning games, the most surprising coming against conference-leader, American International in mid-February.
The winning came too late for Mercyhurst to finish any higher than 7th, but it did grant the Lakers home ice advantage in the first round of the conference tournament. McLellan continued to be called upon to save the team's season and he responded with two sterling efforts, winning consecutive 2–1 games while stopping 71 shots. McLellan then backstopped Mercyhurst to an upset over the #2 seed, Canisius; while he got a bit more help from the Laker offense in terms of shots, he still needed to make every save as both games were essentially 2–1 matches (Mercyhurst scored an empty-net goal in the second game).
Mercyhurst managed to lift itself into the conference semifinal and continued to play strong, putting a scare into American International. The Lakers twice took the lead in the game but a hat-trick from AIC's Blake Bennett erased both leads. The Lakers were forced to pull McLellan to try and tie the game but the Yellow Jackets ended up netting a 5th goal as a result. That marker proved critical after Mercyhurst answered with 80 seconds to play but they could not even the score and saw their tremendous postseason run end.
Departures Khristian Acosta Forward Transferred to Utica Justin Cmunt Forward Transferred to Geneseo State Jac Lymn Goaltender Joined club team Devon Mussio Defenseman Transferred to Skidmore Brendan Schneider Forward Left program (retired) Dante Spagnuolo Forward Mid-season transfer to Adrian Ashton Stockie Forward Signed Professional Contract (HCB Ticino Rockets) Quinn Wichers Defenseman Graduation (signed with Rapid City Rush)
Recruiting Jake Beaune Defenseman 21 Livonia, MI Mickey Burns Forward 21 Wayne, NJ; transfer from Vermont Pierce Crawford Forward 24 Park Ridge, IL; graduate transfer from Notre Dame Garrett Dahm Forward 21 Swansea, IL Kyler Head Forward 22 Malone, NY; transfer from Robert Morris Philip Waugh Forward/Defenseman 21 McLean, VA; already completed one year of classes
Roster As of August 23, 2021.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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Scoring statistics C/RW 31 13 14 27 20 F 38 12 15 27 18 RW 33 8 19 27 43 LW 36 15 8 23 37 LW 36 6 14 20 4 F 36 7 9 16 8 F 38 7 9 16 50 D 39 7 9 16 37 D 39 3 12 15 2 C 26 5 9 14 8 D 36 3 10 13 52 C 32 6 6 12 21 LW 23 4 8 12 2 C 35 3 9 12 6 LW 37 4 6 10 26 F 21 3 6 9 41 D 38 2 6 8 29 F 18 3 3 6 11 D 35 1 4 5 16 D 35 0 4 4 44 D 16 0 3 3 4 F 7 2 0 2 2 D 8 0 2 2 6 F 22 0 2 2 8 C 3 0 1 1 0 RW 6 0 1 1 6 D/F 14 0 1 1 2 G 27 0 1 1 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 G 13 0 0 0 0 Total 114 192 306 503
Goaltending statistics 27 1616 12 13 2 69 939 3 .932 2.56 13 741 4 6 2 54 369 0 .872 4.37 1 9:56 0 0 0 1 8 0 .889 6.04 Empty Net - 12 - - - 5 - - - - Total 39 2389 16 19 4 129 1316 3 .911 3.24
Rankings
PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NR USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
Awards and honors Carson Brière Atlantic Hockey Third Team
References