ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Mercyhurst University men's hockey team needed a victory at Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday night to clinch home ice in the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals in two weeks. Unfortunately, it didn't get it.

Needing a victory, head coach Rick Gotkin pulled freshman goaltender Brandon Wildung for an extra attacker with under a minute remaining in overtime, but it was RIT's Myles Powell who scored into an empty net with 40 seconds remaining in the extra session to lift the Tigers to a 2-1 overtime victory over the Lakers in front of a raucus crowd at the Gene Polisseni Center. Mercyhurst, which has now lost four straight games heading into the conference playoffs, secured the fifth seed in the upcoming tournament and will travel to Bentley in two weeks for a quarterfinal series. The Lakers dropped to 16-14-4 overall and finished the regular season with a 14-11-3 conference record. Meanwhile, RIT, which leapfrogged ahead of Bentley and into third position in the standings, improved to 15-14-5 overall and 14-9-5 in conference play.

Over the course of the last four games, Mercyhurst went 0-4-0 against long-time rivals Canisius and RIT, and was outscored 17-4 in the process.

The Tigers jumped on the board with 7:24 left in the opening period when Todd Skirving poked home his own rebound past Wildung for his fourth goal of the season. Brady Norrish had the lone assist.

RIT took it to Mercyhurst in the first twenty minutes, outshooting the Lakers, 19-5. But, Wildung, who played brilliantly all night, managed to allow just the Skirving goal.

Freshman Jonathan Charbonneau rewarded Wildung's stellar play with his seventh goal of the season at 1:57 of the second, beating RIT sophomore Mike Rotolo with a wrist shot from the right wing circle. Senior Chris Bodo and freshman Tyler Enns had the assists on the Lakers' only goal of the night, and of the weekend.

RIT held a 9-5 shot advantage in the second period and outshot Mercyhurst 28-10 through two periods. But, thanks to Wildung, the game was tied at 1-1 heading to the third.

The turning point of the game came in the closing seconds of the middle stanza when RIT's Danny Smith was assessed a five-minute major for contact to the head and a game misconduct after giving Charbonneau a blow to the helmet with four seconds remaining in the second period.

However, despite getting several shot attempts on Rotolo, the Lakers could not dent the scoreboard during the major and the game remained tied heading to overtime. By virtue of the five-minute power play, the Lakers held a slim 12-11 advantage in shots during the final twenty minutes. 

Both teams had decent opportunities in overtime, but, with time winding down and play inside the RIT zone, Gotkin waved Wildung to the bench knowing that only a win would secure home ice. The Lakers were able to work the puck right in front of the RIT goal but it was cleared away by Powell and the puck ended up trickling into the Laker net for the final score. Rotolo and Mark Goldberg had the assists.

The Tigers held a 3-1 shot advantage in the third and outshot Mercyhurst, 42-23, for the contest. Over the two games, RIT outscored Mercyhurst 10-1 and outshot the Lakers, 86-48.

Wildung, after arguably his worst collegiate start on Friday night, had one of his best starts on Saturday but had nothing to show for it. The freshman stopped 40-of-41 shots he faced to drop to 8-8-3 overall. Rotolo stopped 22 shots to improve to 9-6-1 on the season.

Mercyhurst will have next weekend off before traveling to the John A. Ryan Arena in Waltham, Massachusetts to square off against the fourth-seeded Falcons of Bentley University in a best two-of-three quarterfinal series on March 13, 14, and, if necessary, 15. The Lakers went 0-3-1 against Bentley this season with all three losses by a margin of one goal.