The four-game tournament will consist of two games tonight, beginning at 5 and 8 p.m., followed by a consolation and championship game at 5 and 8 p.m. tomorrow. The Icers (15-5-2) will be featured in the late game this evening when they take on No. 16 Mercyhurst.
If the regular season ended today, Mercyhurst would be the last seed in the 16-team ACHA National Tournament, which will be hosted by Robert Morris University in early March. Icers coach Joe Battista knows that his
team can't take Mercyhurst lightly.
Although its strength of schedule is not as difficult as the Icers', Mercyhurst has five players with at least 40 or more points this season while the Icers have zero.
Two years ago in the ACHA Showcase, the Icers embarrassed Mercyhurst by a score of 17-3.
After that game, Battista still felt as if his team really didn't face a legit Mercyhurst squad because it was without its goaltender at the time and it seemed as if everything the Icers shot at the net went in.
He feels that this year, the Icers will play a much-improved opponent.
"I believe that Bill Shannon, their coach, wanted to prove that [the last game] was a fluke and that's why he requested that they play us," Battista said.
To say the Icers have been shorthanded since the beginning of the year would be an understatement.
This weekend signifies the last weekend the Icers will be severely short-handed due to the absence of their top-two senior defensemen, Eric Harbaugh and Joe Maglaque and their leading scorer, Kevin Jaeger, who are all in Austria competing in the World University Games.
The matchup preceding the Icers game will showcase No. 19 Towson against Slippery Rock.
The loser of both games this evening will play in the consolation game at 5 p.m. tomorrow to be followed by the championship game at 8.
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