BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team jumped out to a 1-0 lead only to see Canisius College score the final three goals of the night to skate away with a 3-1 victory over the Lakers at the brand new HARBORCENTER. The Lakers dropped to 16-12-4 overall and 14-9-3 in the Atlantic Hockey Conference standings. The Golden Griffins improved to 15-10-7 overall and 14-6-6 in conference play.

Mercyhurst still holds the all-time series lead over Canisius, 40-32-10, but the gap is narrowing as the Golden Griffins have had the upper hand recently. Canisius is on a six-game unbeaten streak against Mercyhurst (5-0-1) and is 7-1-1 against the Lakers in the last nine meetings between the two schools.

Coupled with other results on Saturday night, Mercyhurst's series at Rochester Institute of Technology weighs large in determining a first-round bye, and home ice, in the conference playoffs which begin the following weekend. RIT defeated Robert Morris in overtime on Saturday and now trails the fourth-place Lakers by two points in the conference standings. Sixth-place Holy Cross is also in the mix as it trails Mercyhurst by four points in the standings. The Crusaders, however, lost against Sacred Heart on Saturday.

The Lakers jumped out in front 1-0 when redshirt freshman Jack Riley picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, sprinted down the right wing, and snapped a shot from the right wing circle past Canisius senior netminder Keegan Asmundson for his ninth goal of the season, unassisted, at 4:46.

The lead, however, would be short-lived. Senior forward Matthew Zay was whistled for a goaltender interference penalty just thirty seconds later and eight seconds into that infraction, Canisius forward Ralph Cuddemi slid a shot through the five-hole of freshman goaltender Brandon Wildung from between the circles to tie the game at 1-1.

The Golden Griffins took their first lead of the night when Mitch McCrank converted a 2-on-1 opportunity with Matthew Grazen. Tyler Wiseman had the other assist at the 9:18 mark of the opening period.

Despite trailing on the scoreboard, Mercyhurst held a slim 13-12 advantage in first period shots on goal.

Neither team could dent the scoreboard in an end-to-end second period as both Wildung and Asmundson made some big saves to keep the contest a 2-1 Canisius lead through forty minutes.

The biggest play of the period, however, came from senior Grant Gettinger who was the lone defender back on a 3-on-1 rush for the Golden Griffins. Gettinger, however, slid to the ice and broke up a pass to nullify even a shot on goal for the home team.

Canisius outshot Mercyhurst, 10-6, in the second period and held a 22-19 advantage through two periods.

Cuddemi gave the Golden Griffins a two-goal advantage with his second goal of the game, also on the power play, at 6:09 of the third period. Shane Conacher set him up with a brilliant centering feed and Cuddemi fired it over the glove hand of Wildung and just under the cross bar for his team-leading 21st goal of the season.

Mercyhurst was able to pull Wildung for an extra attacker down the stretch and had roughly 55 seconds on a 6-on-4 power play as Canisius' Stephen Farrell was whistled for a high-sticking minor. However, the Lakers were unable to get any closer.

Wildung suffered his second consecutive loss and dropped to 8-6-3 overall in his rookie season. He turned aside 30 shots in the setback. Wildung is 0-3-1 against Canisius this season – 8-3-2 against other opponents. Asmundson stopped 26 shots in picking up his 10th victory of the season.

Canisius outshot Mercyhurst, 33-27, for the contest and was 2-for-4 on the power play. Mercyhurst, meanwhile, was 0-for-3 with the skater advantage.

Mercyhurst will conclude the regular season on Friday, February 27 and Saturday, February 28 at RIT and the new Gene Polisseni Center. Both games are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. and have huge playoff implications. With the new playoff scenarios, the top five teams get a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey tournament. However, fifth-place would travel to fourth-place in the quarterfinal round and would not have a home playoff series.