Complete Box Score

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Mercyhurst men's hockey team entered Friday night at the beginning of a critical four-game stretch to close out the regular season. Friday night, however, turned out to be a night the Lakers would just soon forget.

Mercyhurst suffered its worst loss of the season, losing by the score of 8-0 against the Falcons of Air Force in Colorado. The loss dropped the Lakers to 16-13-4 overall and 13-7-4 in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings. Meanwhile, the Falcons reclaimed sole possession of first place with the win, improving to 16-7-7 overall and 14-4-6 in conferece play.

While the loss certainly didn't help any, the Lakers remain right in the thick of things for a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey Association playoffs. The top four teams in the conference will earn byes in the opening round, and Mercyhurst will enter play on Saturday in a tie for fourth place in the standings with Bentley and just one point ahead of sixth-place Holy Cross and two points ahead of seventh-place Robert Morris. Mercyhurst is now two points behind RIT and Niagara, who are currently tied for second, and four points behind the league-leading Falcons.

A win on Saturday would definitely go a long way in helping the Lakers' chances of a top four spot.

Friday's game was scoreless until the 10:03 mark of the opening period when John Kruse beat Mercyhurst goaltender Jordan Tibbett for a 1-0 Air Force advantage. Then, Dan Weissenhofer scored his first collegiate goal at the 16:28 mark of the first, giving the Falcons a 2-0 lead after a period. Shots on goal favored Air Force 11-5.

The early stages of the second period really changed the dynamic of the game. Stephen Carew scored at the 5:39 mark, giving Air Force a 3-0 advantage. But, soon thereafter, Mercyhurst had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:17 to try to get back in the hockey game. But, Air Force goaltender Jason Torf came up with the save of the night on Mercyhurst freshman Ryan Misiak, keeping the Lakers off the scoreboard.

Air Force would extend the lead to 5-0 to close out the second period on goals by Chad Demers and Tony Thomas just 71 seconds apart. Shots were dead even at 10-10 in the second period.

Freshman Jimmy Sarjeant came on in relief of Tibbett to start the third period and was greeted rudely. Kruse scored his second goal of the game just 48 seconds into the third, giving Air Force a 6-0 lead. Demers and Carew would add goals later in the final period to close out the scoring.

Tibbett started the game for Mercyhurst and was pulled after two periods for the second consecutive start. He dropped to 3-2-2 on the season by stopping just 16-of-21 Air Force shots. Meanwhile, Sarjeant was tagged for three goals in the final period, while stopping 11. Torf picked up the shutout for Air Force, stopping 20 Mercyhurst shots on goal. He improved to 5-2-2 this season.

The game featured two of the least penalized teams in the country, and the game did not break that trend. The teams combined for just seven penalties, with four being assessed to Air Force. The Falcons went 1-for-3 on the power play while the Lakers were 0-for-4.

Mercyhurst will look to put Friday's game behind them and try to earn a weekend split on Saturday night in Colorado. Faceoff is scheduled for 9:05 p.m. EST.