Jan. 27, 2006

Box Score

Fairfield, Conn. - Sacred Heart scored three straight goals within a nine-minute span in the second period to snap a 1-1 tie and went on from there to derail Mercyhurst 4-1 in a meeting between two of Atlantic Hockey's (AH) top three teams. The Pioneers, tied for second in the conference, improved to 15-9-1 overall and to 12-6-1 in the league. First-place Mercyhurst, which saw its four-game winning streak come to an end, dropped to 15-9-0 and 14-5-0 respectively. The Lakers lead both Sacred Heart and Holy Cross by three points, 28-25, in the race for the conference's top spot, but the Crusaders, 7-5 victors Friday at American International, have two games in hand.

Sacred Heart senior forward Rocco Molinaro's 8th goal of the season, a power play score, gave the Pioneers the advantage after twenty minutes.

Mercyhurst sophomore forward Kyle Gourgon got the equalizer on a Mercyhurst power play at 6:10 of the second. The goal was his 10th of the season. But things began to unravel for the Lakers a little more than three minutes later when SHU freshman forward Bear Trapp cashed his 12th of the year on another power play to put the Pioneers ahead to stay. Senior forward Chris Connerty and freshman forward Eric Giosa added their 5th and 4th goals of the campaign respectively before the period ended.

Referee Jim Doyle assessed 34 penalties in the game, 18 to Mercyhurst, which resulted in a combined 17 power play opportunities. SHU finished 2 for 9 while the Lakers cashed 1 of 8. The Pioneers had a 42-26 advantage in shots.

Sacred Heart junior netminder Jason Smith improved to 13-8-1 while Mercyhurst freshman Tyler Small, who made his 6th straight start, dropped to 7-3-0. The Pioneers improved to 4-3-2 lifetime in their arena against Mercyhurst and drew to within a game (9-10-2) in the all-time series.

The two teams will conclude the weekend series tomorrow night at 7:00.