The Lakers nearly pulled themselves back up to .500 at the end of November when they earned a surprising split with Ohio State and there was some hope that the team was ready to turn a corner.

However, Rick Gotkin decided to put his trust in McClellan as the team's starter and the sophomore began to respond with stellar performances by the end of the month.

Mercyhurst arrested their downward descent and started winning games, the most surprising coming against conference-leader, American International in mid-February.

The winning came too late for Mercyhurst to finish any higher than 7th, but it did grant the Lakers home ice advantage in the first round of the conference tournament.

McLellan continued to be called upon to save the team's season and he responded with two sterling efforts, winning consecutive 2–1 games while stopping 71 shots.