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SETTING THE SCENE: This weekend's contest are between the visiting Lakers of Mercyhurst College and the hosting Yellow Jackets od American International College.

ABOUT AIC: AIC enters this weekend's series with Mercyhurst with a record of 4-9-0 for the season and are 4-7-0 in Atlantic Hockey play after beating Bentley 3-1 last Tuesday night in Watertown, Mass. The vicotry was the teams fourth in their last seven attempts and was the teams first road vicotry of the season. The Yellow Jackets jumped from ninth to sixth in the AHA standings after the win. Sophomore Steve McLeod scored on AIC's very first shot of the game at 3:11 into the opening period with assists from classmate Tom Mele and junior Chris Campanale. The goal was McLeod's second of the season. The Yellow Jackets jumped on top 2-0 when freshman Michael Penny found the back of the net for the fifth time this season, with an assist from junior Mike McMillan. The Falcons would not get on the score board until after the mid-way point of the second period when junior Marc Menzione netted his thrid goal of the season to make the game 2-1 in favor of AIC. Menzione recieved assists from seniors Dain Prewitt and Anthony Canzoneri on the goal. After two periods of play the Yellow Jackets held a one goal lead heading into the third period where junior Frankie DeAngelis put the game out of reach for Bentley. DeAngelis found the back of the net without an assist during four-on-four play while both teams had a man in the penalty box. Sophomore Dan Ramirez made 35 stops including 14 in the first period and 12 in the third, and was crucial on the penalty-kill as he had 10 saves when AIC was a man down and helped kill off eight of the Falocns nine powerplay oppertunities. His counterpart, freshman Kyle Rank, had 23 saves in the loss for Bentley. The Yellow Jackets were outshot in the game 36-26, 14-8 in the first period, 10-6 in the second, and tied 12-12 in the third. AIC went 0-4 on the powerplay, while Bentley was 1-9 for the game, going 1-5 in the second period.

ABOUT Mercyhurst: The Lakers come into this weekend's series with an over all record of 5-8-1 and are 3-2-1 in the conference after going 2-0-0 last weekend. In there first game they beat RPI 4-1 on Friday night, and then stunned No. 7 Princeton 6-4 on Saturday.Mercyhurst jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period against RPI as senior Ryan Toomey opened the scoring just 55-seconds into the game.Freshman Phil Ginand and sophomore Steve Cameron followed Toomey as they also found the back of the net in the opening period. The Engineers didn't get on the board until the third period, but the Lakers attack was just to much, Senior Brett Robinson capped of the Mercyhurst win as he netted his fifth goal of the season with 1:33 left in regulation. Sophomore netminder Ryan Zapolski stopped 39 shots on goal to propel the team to a 4-1 victory. In Saturday's maintnee, the Lakers pulled off a major upset as they beat the No. 7 Tigers . Mercyhurst, again, took the lead as they recieved goals from junior Matt Fennell, Cameron, and two scores from sophomore Brandon Coccimiglio to go up 4-0. After a scoreless second period, Princeton came out in the third period firing on all cycliders as they tied the game at 4-4 with 2:01 left on the clock. The tie lasted all of 40-seconds as Laker sophomore Scott Pitt scored the game-winning goal unassisted. Senior Matt Pierce added an empty net goal for Mercyhurst with 59-seconds to go in the game to cap off the Lakers victory. Zapolski made 46 saves including 18 in the first period and 21 in the second. His 21 saves in the second period were as many as both Tigers goalies had combined in the game.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET: The Lakers went 2-0-0 against the Yellow Jackets last season. Mercyhurst recorded a 5-4 victory on December 14, 2007, and a 2-1 win on the 15th. In the first game, sophomore Mike Gurtler scored twice to propel the Lakers, while Robinson, Cameron, and fellow sophomore Dan Bremner each scored once. Richardson, McLeod, McMillan, and T.J. Smith netted goals for AIC. Ramirez made 35 stops, while his counterpart senior Matt Lundin had 19 stops in the win. In the second game, Smith opened the scoring for AIC, giving them a 1-0 lead in the first period, but a second period goal by Pitt and a third period goal by Coccimiglio capped the 2-1 victory for the Lakers. Ramirez had another nice effort making 33 saves, while Lundin stopped 31 shots to earn his second victory over the weekend.

NEXT UP: AIC travels to Schenectady N.Y. for a non-conference match-up with Union College on Tuesday at
7:05 p.m.