WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Freshman goaltender Brandon Wildung stopped 27 shots to lift the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team to a 3-1 victory over the Yellow Jackets of American International College on Friday night at the Olympia Ice Center. The Lakers snapped a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) in the process and improved to 13-10-4 overall and 11-7-3 in the Atlantic Hockey Conference standings. The Yellow Jackets dropped to 3-19-7 overall and 3-13-7 in conference play.

Mercyhurst remained in fourth place in the league standings and is now two points behind Canisius and Bentley, which are tied for second place. The Lakers are one point ahead of fifth-place RIT, two points ahead of sixth-place Holy Cross, and three points clear of seventh-place Air Force with seven regular season games remaining.

The Lakers scored once in each of the three periods on Friday night and rode the strong goaltending of Wildung, who improved to 5-4-3 in his rookie season. The Nassau, Minnesota, native was not tested much through the first two periods but stopped all 15 shots he faced in a third period, one that saw the Lakers cling to a 2-1 lead until senior Daniel Bahntge iced the contest with an empty-net goal with 1:15 left in regulation.

Senior Matthew Zay put the Lakers in front with his eighth goal of the season at 14:10 of the opening period. Senior defenseman Ryan Misiak took the initial shot from the point and Zay redirected the puck past American International goaltender Hunter Leisner. Redshirt senior Kyle Just had the other assist.

It was Zay's fifth goal in the last ten games after scoring only three goals in his first seventeen games of the season. The tally also moved Zay into a tie for ninth place on the school's all-time Division I scoring list with Daniel O'Donoghue, who graduated last season. Zay has 43 goals and 76 assists for 119 points in his career.

Mercyhurst outshot AIC, 12-8, in the first period.

The hosts tied the contest at 1-1 when Chris Porter fired a shot from between the circles that beat Wildung at 5:33 of the second period. Nathan Sliwinski and Bryant Christian had the assists on Porter's fourth goal of the year.

Just a little more than four minutes later, with the Lakers working on the power play, sophomore Kyle Dutra deflected a shot from the point by junior Anthony Mastrodicasa, for his ninth goal of the season, and fourth on the power play, at 9:47. The goal,  Dutra's first game-winner of the season, was reviewed but was upheld. Bahntge had the other assist.

Mercyhurst had a much larger margin in shots in the second period, outshooting the Yellow Jackets, 16-5.

Wildung took over in the third and made a number of big saves to keep the Lakers in front by a goal. AIC pulled Leisner for an extra attacker with 1:47 left in regulation, but Bahntge sealed the victory with his team-leading 12th goal of the season 32 seconds later. With the Yellow Jackets swarming the Laker goal, Bahntge came up with a loose puck and flipped a backhander nearly the length of the ice into the empty net. Just and senior Grant Gettinger had the assists on the tally.

Bahntge had a goal and an assist while Just had two helpers to pull to within eight points of reaching the century mark in his collegiate career.

Wildung stopped 27-of-28 to lower his goals against average to 2.51 and to increase his save percentage to .918. Leisner suffered the hard-luck loss in goal for AIC, stopping 33-of-35 Mercyhurst shots to fall to 1-7-2 on the season.

Mercyhurst held a 36-28 shot advantage in the game - the sixth time this season that the Lakers have outshot their opponent. Mercyhurst improved to 2-4-0 in such games.

Only four minor penalties were assessed in the game - three to the Yellow Jackets. Mercyhurst was 1-for-3 on the power play while AIC was 0-for-1.

The teams will conclude the weekend series on Saturday afternoon. Faceoff is scheduled for 3:05 p.m.