ERIE, Pa. – The Mercyhurst College men's hockey team completed the home-and-home sweep of Atlantic Hockey Association foe Niagara Saturday evening, blanking the Purple Eagles by a score of 4-0 at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. With the victory, the Lakers improve to 13-12-3 overall and 10-9-1 in AHA play. The Purple Eagles, meanwhile, fall to 15-10-3 on the season and 12-8-1 in the conference.

Senior captain Scott Pitt scored three goals in a row to record his first career hat trick, freshman Daniel O'Donoghue netted the eventual game-winner in the first period, and senior Ryan Raven posted two assists as the Lakers swept Niagara for the first time in 10 meetings.

Senior Ryan Zapolski made 43 saves on 43 shots for his second shutout of the season and eighth career at Mercyhurst.

The Lakers took care of business early on with two goals in the first period. O'Donoghue put the home team up 1-0 when he one-timed a shot on the doorstep with 5:05 elapsed. Pitt made it 2-0 after he cleaned up a rebound in the midst of several players crashing the net at 17:42.

Pitt then capped the game off with a goal in each of the next two periods. He added his second of the game on a tic-tac-toe play set up by Raven and freshman Taylor Holstrom on the power play at 9:48 of the second, before completing his natural hat trick with an empty-net score with 39 seconds remaining in the third.

It marked the second hat trick by a Laker this season, as redshirt sophomore Phil Ginand accounted for the first in an 8-3 win over Alabama-Huntsville Dec. 11, 2010.

Niagara finished the game with 43-34 advantage in shots and went 0-for-4 on the power play. Mercyhurst finished 1-for-3 with the man-advantage.

Mercyhurst returns to action next weekend with a home-and-home series against Robert Morris, beginning on Friday, Feb. 11 at the RMU Island Sports Center.