SETTING THE SCENE: The American International College Yellow Jackets will host the Lakers of Mercyhurst College in an Atlantic Hockey weekend series on January 13th & 14th. The puck will drop both nights at 7:05 p.m.

ABOUT AIC: The Yellow Jackets enter the weekend series with an overall record of 3-15-2 and 2-9-2 in the Atlantic Hockey most recently dropping a 3-1 non conference decision at Rensselaer on Tuesday night. AIC was down 2-0 heading into the third period before junior forward Adam Pleskach put AIC within one when he buried a shot to make it a 2-1 contest. The Engineers scored an empty net goal with just 28 seconds left in the contest to make it a 3-1 victory over the Yellow Jackets. Sophomore forward Jon Puskar leads AIC in scoring with five goals and eight assists for 13 points. Pleskach (seven goals, five assists) and senior forward Nielsson Arcibal (four goals, eight assists) are tied with 12 points each. Junior forward Steve Mele rounds off the top four with six goals and five assists for 11 points. Junior goaltender Ben Meiner is 3-12-2 in net with two shut outs for the Yellow Jackets, a total of 560 saves, a .917 save percentage and a 3.02 save percentage.

ABOUT MERCYHURST: The Lakers enter tonight's contest with an overall record of 12-8-2 and 9-2-2 in the AHA after sweeping Sacred Heart University on January 6th & 7th in a weekend series. Fridays contest was a 9-1 victory while Saturdays was a 3-1 decision. Freshman forward Dan Bahntge had a six point weekend with three goals and one assist in Friday's contest, while earning one goal and one assist on Saturday. Classmate Nardo Nagtzaam had a three point game on Friday with two goals and one assist. Bahntge leads Mercyhurst with 8 goals and 12 assists for 20 points, closely followed by Nagtzaam with eight goals and 10 assists for 20 points. Senior forward Derek Elliot (10 goals, 5 assists) and freshman forward Chris Bodo (seven goals, eight assists) are tied for third with 15 points each. Senior goalie Max Strang is 11-8-2 in net with two shutouts for the Lakers, a total of 686 saves, a .925 save percentage and a 2.73 goals against average.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Yellow Jackets are 2-31-1 against Mercyhurst. AIC earned a 4-2 victory against the Lakers in the 2006-07 season.

NEXT UP: The Yellow Jackets will return to action a week from Friday when they travel to Niagara University to take on the Purple Knights on January 20th & 21st for a Atlantic Hockey weekend series.