The Official Thread of the Mercyhurst Lakers

[blogster]

wow, quick replies...thanks for the updates...

as for live streaming video next week that would be really cool, listened to it last year, booooo the result, but still appreciated it.

[quixote]

Wanted everyone in the Erie area to know that there will be a big pep rally for the women's hockey team on the Mercyhurst campus Wednesday night. It will be inside (it's very cold here right now) but exact location is to be announced (today I think). Most of team (not in classes, etc.) will be there I think.

GO Lakers!!!

[Hurst Fan]

Don't know about anyone else, but I'm on pins and needles for tomorrow's quarterfinals game vs. UMD. It doesn't help my nerves that it's a complete sellout. Anyone know if it's true that UMD didn't order any tickets? If that's true.....LOOK OUT. The MIC is going to be a crazy place to be.:D

[MICZamboni]

The MIC will definately be rocking tomorrow night. Different look in the arena as the boards were cleaned, glass replaced, scoreboard with team names, curtains where the Lakers will be coming out and much more. I am telling you it is going to be loud as the buzz on campus has been incredible.

[ARM]

You Lakers are really into this. Cool.

[MICZamboni]

This was taken right from the Erie Times News this morning.

Goal in sight for 'Hurst seniors

BY RON LEONARDI
ron.leonardi@timesnews.com*

Win or lose tonight, team captain Julia Colizza will be among seven seniors playing their final home game at Mercyhurst College.
"I hadn't thought of that," Colizza said earlier this week, minutes after finishing a practice. "It's going to be sad in a sense. I've had a great four years here and couldn't have asked for anything better.'"
Actually, she could.
About the only goals that have eluded Colizza and the rest of her senior class in their four years of building Mercyhurst women's hockey into a national power are winning an NCAA Tournament playoff game and a national championship.
Both are within reach. Mercyhurst (32-1-3), unbeaten in 24 games, hosts Minnesota Duluth (22-10-4) today at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

A win would send the No. 2 Lakers to the NCAA Women's Frozen Four Tournament March 16-18 at Lake Placid, N.Y.
"It would be very upsetting if this season were to end prematurely," senior defender Lesley McArthur said. "Day-in and day-out, we've put blood, sweat and tears into this program. Hopefully, it all comes out in a positive way and the way you want to end it. This is a strong program, and it would be nice to bring something so big home to such a small school."
Mercyhurst's senior class includes forwards Stefanie Bourbeau and Sarah Kurth, defenders Michelle Bonello and Ashley Pendleton, and forward/defender Jill Nugent.
During their four years together, the seven seniors have been part of a program that has gone 109-22-15, won four College Hockey America regular-season and playoff championships and made three NCAA Tournament appearances.
To them, its seems fitting and fortunate that they have an opportunity to end their careers with a chance to win the first national championship in the program's eight-year history.

"This senior class actually replaced our first senior class and got the torch passed to them," Mercyhurst coach Michael Sisti said. "Now, as they leave, they're kind of doing the same."
Sisti remembers how his current seniors struggled at times during their freshmen season in 2003-04, when the Lakers finished 26-6-4.
"If you look at everything our first senior class that started our program did, it was phenomenal," Sisti said. "The pressure was on these current seniors, who had the luxury of coming into a successful program. They assumed we were going to win a lot of games because we had in the past. This group had to learn how to work hard and how to win and be accountable so the team could win, and they did a great job of that."
In 2005, the Lakers made their first NCAA Tournament appearance, losing 5-4 in triple overtime to Harvard in the quarterfinals and finishing 28-7-2.
Mercyhurst returned to the NCAAs last season and lost 2-1 in the quarterfinals to eventual national champion Wisconsin, ending a 23-8-6 season.

Mercyhurst held the No. 1 national ranking in the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Division I polls for 11 weeks this season until the Lakers dropped to No. 2 last week, behind Wisconsin.
"It would be amazing to be the first senior class here to win an NCAA championship," Bonello said. "Taking that step up to where we are now contending for one has been unreal."
Tonight's game marks another milestone for the program, as it's the first time Mercyhurst is hosting an NCAA Tournament game. The Lakers earned home ice with a No. 2 national seeding (the top four seeds in the eight-team national tournament host quarterfinal games).
"One of our goals coming into this program was to make it better and to become one of the top-ranked teams and make it to the Frozen Four," said Colizza, who is third in career scoring at Mercyhurst with 126 points. "We always knew we had it in us, and over the years, we've built the program to prove that to everyone and ourselves."

[LakersFan]

An additional blurb from the paper. The game sold at around 4:00 PM on Thursday. Tickets went on sale Tuesday, so it took less than 48 hours to sell 1500 tickets. I hope anyone traveling from UMD already has their tickets, because no standing-room tickets will be sold. Should be a good time in the loud, small, MIC tonight. Go Lakers!

[MICZamboni]

Looks like Schaublin will be in goal tonight for the Bulldogs. Crowd is electric and there is still 1/2 hour before the puck drops.

[ARM]

Congrats to the Lakers on a great season. I'm sure they will be back.

[Skate79]

Three OT defeats in the NCAAs is hard to swallow but it goes to show that in a one game situation, anything, and I mean ANYTHING, can happen. I think that Laker fans can take solace in that Agosta will be around for three more seasons. She is a fine player but I think UMD really slowed her down in the second half of this game.

[sk8happy]

It's amazing to realize the season that Mercyhurst had this year. Incredibly, it also goes to show just how difficult it is to win in the NCAA's.
I know that for Laker fans this one will be tough to swallow. You have a great program and it sounds trite, but everyone in the college hockey world knows you'll be back.

[Hux]

Wow, I'm in shock. After the season the Lakers have had I didn't even remotely think UMD would pull an upset. Wow:eek:

[Fightingsiouxfan]

Mercyhurst had a great season. But after playing Niagara to a 3-3 tie recently I suspected that they might be vunerable. After all UND beat Niagara 4-2 and tied 0-0. The UMD/Mercyhurst game tonight was exciting to watch. Congrats to all the players on their fine seasons.

[hab]

I'm disappointed that the Lakers lost - like many others I was hoping that this was the year. But unlike others here I am not at all surprised by the result. The polls, of course, have to look at the entire season and Mercyhurst's record before Christmas was spectacular while the Bulldogs were quite mediocre. Since Christmas, the Lakers have continued to put up the W's but were clearly being pressed by teams in the middle of the pack or below. By the end of the season it didn't look like there was much to separate these two teams despite the W-L records and the polls. Its no consolation at the moment, but Mercyhurst will come back strong next year.

[Skate79]

I know Laker fans aren't going to want to read this but I sincerely believe that the CHA isn't doing your team any good at this point. Yeah I know you play out of conference games, but I think being in a four team league is a negative at this point. You would be better off being an independent or joining the ECACHL or Hockey East. Then, at least you know the team would have top flight competition into February which would better prepare them for March. Wayne State and Niagera just doesn't cut it.

[ARM]

I doubt MC has much choice. They fit into Hockey East less than Niagara, who was in a league with many of the current HEA teams and was dropped when they reorganized. I doubt that the ECAC is looking to expand. IMO, the Lakers did the best they could with their situation.

[MICZamboni]

I know Laker fans aren't going to want to read this but I sincerely believe that the CHA isn't doing your team any good at this point. Yeah I know you play out of conference games, but I think being in a four team league is a negative at this point. You would be better off being an independent or joining the ECACHL or Hockey East. Then, at least you know the team would have top flight competition into February which would better prepare them for March. Wayne State and Niagera just doesn't cut it.

You may or may not be right. I know when the league was formed they had thoughts of getting some good teams to possibly join in (i.e. Ohio St). Some people forget Niagara was once in the frozen four and nobody thought they would become stagnant. Wayne St. has improved but not to the level of the top 10 or 15 teams in the country. Mercyhurst did try to gain entrance into the ECACHL last year but was denied. Believe me, if Mercyhurst thought getting into another league would make them a better team they would, and they have tried.

[camman15]

You may or may not be right. I know when the league was formed they had thoughts of getting some good teams to possibly join in (i.e. Ohio St). Some people forget Niagara was once in the frozen four and nobody thought they would become stagnant. Wayne St. has improved but not to the level of the top 10 or 15 teams in the country. Mercyhurst did try to gain entrance into the ECACHL last year but was denied. Believe me, if Mercyhurst thought getting into another league would make them a better team they would, and they have tried.

MIC, as usual, you're right on the money AGAIN!!!,.....and that's the dilemna: a nationally ranked team playing in a very fragile league with only 4 teams,.....everybody continues to hear the rumblings in Detroit that WSU's hockey programs are on a death march and if that happens, things really get difficult,.....sure, you can go out and get independent games, but it's not as easy as it looks, and who in their right mind wants to face Mercyhurst if they need non-league competition that may have NCAA ramifications down the line,.....no one, I would think,.....now I do think the best teams should play one another, but that's not how most coaches look at it,.....heck, any of them would go as far as move next door to your annoying neighbor, if they thought it would get them to the big dance,.....I have to believe Mike Sisti already spends an inordinate amount of time on the phone "negotiating" his schedule all around the different women's D-1 leagues,.....no, picking up the phone and trying to convince people they need to play you for the betterment of women's hockey has to be difficult, especially when those teams will be (many times) the recipients of a pretty good "whouppin",.....

[Skate79]

sure, you can go out and get independent games, but it's not as easy as it looks, and who in their right mind wants to face Mercyhurst if they need non-league competition that may have NCAA ramifications down the line,.....no one, I would think,.....

Any team that has designs on reaching the NCAA tournament has to have some quality non-conference opponents or they will suffer from a weak PWR. Top teams don't avoid one another because women's hockey is just starting to take off nationally and internationally and if you want to make the tournament, you need games against top flight competition. Mercyhurst would not be considered for the NCAA had they not decided to up the ante with their schedule. Your conference is a non-factor where the NCAA is concerned.

no, picking up the phone and trying to convince people they need to play you for the betterment of women's hockey has to be difficult, especially when those teams will be (many times) the recipients of a pretty good "whouppin",.....

I don't think the "betterment of women's hockey" is at issue here. I'm sure the "power" schools like Minnesota, UMD, Wisconsin, Dartmouth, UNH and Harvard recognize your success. Now it's up to the administrators of the leagues in question to figure out how to bring you in. One obvious problem is a lack of a travel partner. I can see where that would be a problem in the ECACHL. In HE, well, I'm not sure. They don't seem to follow the same pattern as the ECACHL and might be more open to accepting Mercyhurst. Where is the school's AD in all of this? Why is Sisti left to do all the heavy lifting here?

Uh, as far as a "whuppin" is concerned, you do mean the bottom feeders, right? After what happened last night, I think it is premature to assume you are going to be some powerhouse in any of the established conferences. Not going to happen overnight.

[hab]

It is absurd to suggest that top teams are trying to avoid Mercyhurst. This year the Lakers put together an outstanding schedule and did very very well against top teams. They played 8 ECACHL teams including 6 of the top 7 teams, and they played 5 Hockey East teams including all of the top 4! Unfortunately, this all comes in the first half of the year, leaving them with only conference games down the stretch. Most conferences arrange their schedules such that there is a steady diet of conference games in January and February which is the period when the Lakers could really use some of those tough non-conference games to sharpen them for the NCAAs. I would like to see the leagues start their conf scheds earlier and leave at least a couple of weekends open in January and February for non-conference games. It would not only help teams like Mercyhurst to balance their schedule out better, it would help the NCAA selection process.