ERIE, Pa. -- Jonathan Charbonneau recorded a hat trick as the Mercyhurst men's ice hockey team defeated Sacred Heart, 4-2, in game one of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament quarterfinals on Friday at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
 
Michael Verboom scored the Lakers' other goal. Joseph Duszak had two assists while Tyler Enns, Taylor Best, Les Lancaster, Kane Elliot and Brandon Wildung each had one assist for Mercyhurst (20-11-4).
 
Marc Johnstone and Zach Tsekos scored for Sacred Heart (13-21-4).
 
Halfway through the first period, Charbonneau scored his first goal of the game to get the Lakers on the board first. Duszak shot the puck and Sacred Heart goaltender Brett Magnus rebounded it out to the blue line towards Enns. Enns then chipped it up to a wide-open Charbonneau, who skated it toward the net and put it five-hole.
 
Two minutes and thirty-five seconds into the second period, Johnstone capitalized on the power play to tie the game at 1-1. Vito Bavaro and Josh Allan had assists.
 
Mercyhurst came back with a power-play goal of its own to take back the lead. Charbonneau scored his second goal of the game. Best picked up a bouncing puck, dished it back to Duszak at the right point. Duszak found Charbonneau open in the left face-off circle and then Charbonneau one-timed the puck over the stick side of Magnus.
 
Late in the second period, Charbonneau finished his hat trick to make it 3-1. Wildung passed the puck up to Lancaster, who sent it up to Charbonneau. Charbonneau skated it to the right face-off circle and shot under the bar to extend the Laker lead.
 
During the third period, Verboom scored to push the Laker advantage to four. Baker flipped the puck in the air to Verboom, who passed it back to Elliot. Elliot then took a shot that was deflected in front of the net and Verboom grabbed the rebound and wrapped it around Magnus.
 
A little over two minutes later, Sacred Heart converted on the power play for the second time of the night to make it 4-2. Tsekos scored with an assist from Ruslan Rakhmatov. That served as the game's final goal.

"I thought we played well, but I think we can play better," said head coach Rick Gotkin. "Jonathan Charbonneau took us on his back offensively and Brandon Wildung had us on his back as well."

The Lakers finished 1-for-5 on the power play while the Pioneers went 2-for-6.
 
Brandon Wildung stopped 26 shots on net for Mercyhurst while Magnus stopped 26 shots for Sacred Heart.