There’s a saying in sports (and life): “You get what you deserve”.
In hockey, that means points in the standings after a hard-fought victory, as well as a loss resulting from a disappointing effort.
But there’s another saying: “Life isn’t fair.”
Sometimes, you have the effort and the correct game plan, but the puck doesn’t bounce your way.
The Mercyhurst Lakers, in the words of coach Rick Gotkin, got what they deserved in a 5-4 win over Miami on Jan. 4. Despite outplaying and handily outshooting the RedHawks, the Lakers found themselves down 4-2 with just 2:34 to play.
But extra-attacker goals from Pierce Crawford and Cade Townsend 36 seconds apart forced overtime, and a key save by Hank Johnson was almost immediately followed by the game-winner from Rylee St. Onge, giving Gotkin’s team a 5-4 win and snapping a six-game slide.
“Our record (5-11-4) hasn’t been great,” said Gotkin. “We haven’t played all that bad in some of the games where we felt short. We felt we might have deserved better in some of those games. Every team can say that.”
The come-from-behind win against Miami offered some justice.
“It was great,” said Gotkin. “We were down a couple of guys, but I thought we really started well, our focus was really good, but we got down 2-0 early. We kept fighting back and got it to 4-2 and then scored a couple of extra-attacker goals and won it in overtime.
“I thought we deserved to win that game.”
Gotkin, who’s in his 34th year behind the Mercyhurst bench, has seen it all.
“Sometimes, there’s just no justice,” he said. “Usually, you get what you deserve, but sometimes you don’t. You just keep going and eventually get rewarded for that.”
Mercyhurst is led scoring by a trio of sophomores: Austin Heideman (9-8-17), Carson Briere (8-5-13) and Dante Sheriff (3-10-13).
“Our sophomore class has been really, really good,” said Gotkin. “We’re getting good contributions from everyone. We’ve got eight seniors this year, more than we’ve had in a while. We’ve been a young team for a long time. But we’ve also got a pair of freshmen defensemen that have played very well for us.
“The past month or so, it’s been hard to keep everyone healthy. We’ve needed everybody to contribute.”
A pair of graduate transfer students have also made significant impact: Crawford (4-5-9), a co-captain and transfer from Notre Dame and Johnson (4-5-2, 4.31 GAA, .873 save percentage), who came to the Lakers from Bemidji State last season.
Johnson has been splitting time in net with sophomore Kyle McClennan (1-6-2, 3.46, .906 save percentage). Gotkin says he expects that to continue.
“Kyle McClellan was available for some games, so Hank Johnson has seen a bit more action,” he said. “We’ve also gotten (freshman) Matt Lenz in. We like our goaltending going forward.”
The Lakers face a tough challenge this weekend when they travel to first-place American International, which has won its last six contests, five in league play, to move from the middle of the pack to the top of the standings in Atlantic Hockey.
“They’re the class of our league for what they’ve done the past few seasons,” said Gotkin. “They’re the team to beat until somebody beats them.
“It’s going to be a big challenge for us. We’re going to have to play very well from top to bottom.”
If they do, maybe the Lakers will get what they deserve.
