ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Mercyhurst men's hockey team dropped a 6-4 decision to host RIT Thursday night in Atlantic Hockey action at the Gene Polisseni Center. 

The Lakers jumped out to an early lead on a sharp-angle shot by Michael Bevilacqua just 6:25 into the contest. 

Mercyhurst extended the lead less than three minutes later when Jonathan Bendorf snapped a shot past Logan Drackett on a 3-on-2 break to make it 2-0 at the 9:09 mark of the first. RIT got one back in before the first break when Will Calverley scored on the power play to make it 2-1 at intermission. 

Calverley tied the game in the second scoring short-handed 1:24 into the second period. The Lakers retook the lead 1:53 later when Carson Briere shuffled a puck toward the net off a rebound to set up Austin Heidemann's seventh goal of the season. 

Alden Dupuis tied the game again with a power-play tally at the 5:10 mark of the second. Jonathan Bendorf gave the Lakers the lead back at 16:38 mark of the second with his second of the contest, but the Tigers pulled even with just over a minute remaining in the second to make it 4-4 at the second break. 

RIT grabbed the lead 52 seconds into the third period on goal by Will Calverley. The Tigers set the final on a penalty shot goal by Jake Hamacher. 

Bendorf added an assist to his pair of goals for three points. Briere picked up three helpers on the night. Joseph Maziarz added two assists as well. 

Hank Johnson made 19 saves and took the loss between the pipes.  

The Lakers are back in action on Saturday when they travel to Robert Morris for a 7:30 p.m. face-off with the Colonials.