Complete Box Score

ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst men's hockey team suffered a 6-1 loss to the Purple Eagles of Niagara University on Friday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The loss extended the Lakers' winless streak to four consecutive games and dropped the Lakers to 14-11-4 overall and 11-5-4 in conference play. Mercyhurst now sits in third place in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings (depending on the outcome of RIT at Air Force), one point behind RIT and Niagara. The Purple Eagles improved to 12-8-7 overall and 11-4-5 in conference play and have now won seven games in a row.

Freshman Chris Bodo scored the only goal for Mercyhurst - a power play goal at the 7:50 mark of the third period. It was Bodo's ninth goal of the season and fourth power play tally of the year. He became the third Laker to reach 20 points this season, joining fellow freshmen Nardo Nagtzaam and Daniel Bahntge who each have 25 points.

Despite being outshot 18-10 in the opening twenty minutes, Mercyhurst found themselves in a scoreless tie after the first period. However, the Purple Eagles would strike at the 5:17 mark of the second period on a goal by Ryan Murphy right off an offensive zone faceoff win by Sam Alfieri. Niagara would score again late in the second period, at the 18:39 mark, on a power play goal by Chris Lochner. Giancarlo Iuorio and Marc Zanette had the assists.

Niagara again outshot the Lakers 14-7 in the second period.

The Purple Eagles held a 32-17 shot advantage through 40 minutes, but the Lakers only trailed 2-0 thanks in large part to strong goaltending by senior Max Strang. However, things unraveled in the third period, as the Purple Eagles broke the game open with four goals in the final twenty minutes.

Murphy scored his second goal of the game at the 2:04 mark from Ryan Rashid and Matt Williams to make the score 3-0. Less than a minute later, at the 3:01, Patrick Divjak beat Strang for a 4-0 Purple Eagle advantage. Zanette and Lochner had the assists.

Bodo would then get the Lakers on the board, banging home a rebound past Niagara goaltender Chris Noonan, cutting the Mercyhurst deficit to three goals. Sophomore defenseman Nick Jones and senior forward Derek Elliott had the assists.

But, the Purple Eagles would eliminate any thoughts of a Mercyhurst comeback with two goals in 41 seconds. Iuorio gave Niagara a 5-1 lead with a power play tally at the 10:34 mark. Isaac Kohls had the lone assist. Then, Dan Weiss capped off the scoring at 11:15 with Murphy and Rashid picking up the helpers.

Both teams had 11 shots in the third period, with Niagara holding a 43-28 advantage for the contest. Strang, who fell to 12-11-3 on the season, stopped 37 shots for the Lakers, but just 7-of-11 in the third period. Meanwhile, Noonan stopped 27-of-28 Mercyhurst shots to improve to 9-3-3 on the season.

Both teams were whistled for seven minor penalties. Niagara capitalized on 2-of-5 power play opportunities, while the Lakers went 1-for-5.

The two teams will reconvene at the Dwyer Arena in Niagara Falls, N.Y. on Saturday night. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., as the Lakers attempt to snap their four-game winless streak and jump back ahead of the Purple Eagles in the standings.