Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament: Mercyhurst beats Robert Morris
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Hot goaltenders often rule in hockey, and Robert Morris ran into one Saturday night.
Mercyhurst senior Ryan Zapolski stopped 31 shots as the Colonials fell, 5-1, in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey Association tournament in front of 1,202 at Island Sports Center, Neville Island.
Robert Morris developed plenty of scoring chances, but not a lot of the rebound, short-range type.
"If you can't get to him and get to his head a little bit, he'll stop everything that he sees," said Colonials senior defenseman Denny Urban, who had an assist. "We didn't get enough traffic in front of him to make him fight the puck."
It was the first postseason home game for Robert Morris, which finishes 18-12-5. Mercyhurst (15-16-4) advances to the quarterfinals of the league tournament. This was the Colonials' first season in the AHA.
Robert Morris spotted the Lakers a 3-0 lead through two periods before junior Trevor Lewis split the Mercyhurst defense while short-handed and beat Zapolski with a backhander at 1:59 of the third period.
The teams had each gone 1-1-1 in their three-game season series, with Mercyhurst holding a 9-8 scoring edge. The Lakers were the only school to win on Robert Morris home ice, where the Colonials were 9-2-3. A major reason for that is Zapolski.
"We just had too many perimeter shots," said Colonials senior and leading scorer Nathan Longpre. "We didn't get on Zapolski.".
Mercyhurst senior Scott Pitt got the only goal of the first period. He and Colonials senior Brock Meadows battled down the slot before Ryan Raven broke free to slip a shot in off the glove of Robert Morris goaltender Brooks Ostergard to make it 1-0 at 7:02.
The best of the Colonials' several good scoring chances in the first period came at about the midpoint when Longpre, with an open half-net, swung and missed from just left of the net on a pass from Urban, who was at the right point.
The Lakers trebled their lead in the second period.
Pitt made it 2-0 with his second goal at 8:36 when, from the slot, he one-timed a pass from freshman Nate Jensen, changing the direction of the puck by nearly 90 degrees.
A deft play by senior Jesse Echternach upped Mercyhurst's lead to 3-0 at 12:43. From the extended goal line to Ostergard's right, Echternach bounced the puck in off of Ostergard.
Robert Morris continued to threaten -- Urban got stopped on a two-on-one break with Longpre during four-on-four play, and junior Brandon Blandina had a short-handed breakaway -- but what Zapolski didn't stop, his teammates blocked. Mercyhurst had 17 blocks.
This season was the start of something different with a new league, but it also marked the end of a significant era in the six-year-old Robert-Morris program.
"We're graduating our all-time leading scorer [Longpre, 138 points]. We're graduating our all-time leading scoring defenseman [Urban, 112 points] and the all-time winningest class," coach Derek Schooley said. "It's time for the juniors to embrace the chance to lead the team."
First Published March 5, 2011 10:56 pm
