Box Score

TROY, N.Y. - The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team saw its four-game unbeaten streak come to an end on Friday night at the hands of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 4-2, in front of nearly 2,400 fans at the Houston Field House in Troy, New York. The loss dropped Mercyhurst back to the .500 mark overall at 3-3-1. The Engineers improved to 2-5-2 with the victory.

Mercyhurst fell behind 3-0 early in the third period before scoring a pair of goals in just over a four-minute span midway through the final period to cut the deficit to one goal. But, the Engineers put an end to Mercyhurst's thoughts of a comeback with a power play goal at the 19:16 mark of the third period, closing out the Lakers' rally.

The meeting marked the first between the two schools since November 28, 2008, when the Lakers skated away with a 4-1 victory. It marked the return of Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin to Troy, New York. Gotkin served as an assistant coach at Rensselaer from 1986-88 before taking the head job with the Lakers. Mercyhurst dropped to 2-5 lifetime against the Engineers.

The hosts jumped out to a 1-0 lead exactly six minutes into the contest when Milos Bubela redirected a shot from Craig Bokenfohr past Mercyhurst's senior goaltender Max Strang. It was Bubela's second goal of the season. Guy Leboeuf also assisted on the marker.

RPI extended the lead to 2-0 at the 9:52 mark of the opening twenty minutes when defenseman Nick Bailen buried his first of two goals on the night. Matt Neal and Marty O'Grady had the assists on Bailen's third goal of the season.

Rensselaer outshot Mercyhurst 11-8 in the opening period.

After a defensive battle in the middle stanza, during which no goals were scored and 11 total shots were on target, Rensselaer built a 3-0 lead at the 3:03 mark of the third period. Mark McGowan beat Strang from right in front of the net for his second goal of the season. Mike Zalewski and Luke Curadi had the assists.

It seemed that Rensselaer had victory well in hand. But, the Lakers had other ideas.

Mercyhurst got on the board, finally solving RPI's starting netminder Bryce Merriam, at the 6:14 mark of the final period. Senior Paul Chiasson scored his second goal of the season, and his second power play goal, to cut the Engineer lead to 3-1. Sophomore Nardo Nagtzaam had the lone assist, his fourth helper of the season. Mercyhurst had gone scoreless in eight previous opportunities and was 1 for its last 12 on the power play before Chiasson's goal.

Then, with the Lakers' Kyle Johnson serving a bench minor for too many players on the ice, sophomore Matthew Zay buried a shorthanded goal at the 10:37 mark, cutting the RPI lead to 3-2. It was Zay's second goal of the season and his first career man-down goal. Mercyhurst now has two shorthanded goals this season (the other by junior Nick Jones). The Lakers had two shorthanded goals all of last season and did not score their first until game #21 of the season against Sacred Heart on January 6, 2012. Freshman defenseman Justin Stevens had the lone assist for his first collegiate point. He also became the first freshman this season to register a point.

The Lakers continued to pepper Merriam with shots in the third period, but could not get the tying goal. Then, junior Daniel O'Donoghue was whistled for a minor penalty with 1:45 left in regulation and Bailen sealed the deal with a power play goal that trickled through the five-hole of Strang with 44 seconds left. Curtis Leonard had the lone assist on the final goal of the night.

Mercyhurst outshot Rensselaer 15-7 in the third period and held a 29-23 advantage for the contest. Merriam earned his first victory of the season, stopping 27 Mercyhurst shots to improve to 1-3-1. Strang stopped 19-of-23 RPI shots to fall to 2-3-0 on the season.

Mercyhurst was 1-for-4 on the power play while Rensselaer went 1-for-5.

Sophomore Ryan Misiak saw his point-scoring streak come to an end on Friday night. Misiak had scored a point in all six games entering the contest and had an eight-game streak dating back to last season. Sophomore Daniel Bahntge also did not get on the scoresheet. His five-game point-scoring streak also came to a close.

Mercyhurst and Rensselaer will conclude their weekend series on Saturday night, November 17, from the Houston Field House in Troy, New York. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.