Milford, Conn. – The Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team fell to Atlantic Hockey guest Mercyhurst at the Milford Ice Pavilion, 6-2, Friday night.  The loss extends the Pioneers winless streak to eight as they dropped to 1-10-4 overall and 1-6-4 in league play.  The Lakers upped their record to 5-6-1 and 5-4-0.

Sophomore forward Eric Delong (Oakville, Man.) took a pass from classmate Tommy Castonguay (Rimouski, Que.) in the neutral zone and skated by a pair of defensemen to put Sacred Heart on top 1-0 11:10 into the contest.  Mercyhurst answered back with goals from freshman defenseman Nick Jones and senior forward Brandon Coccimiglio before the close of the period.

The Pioneers and Lakers skated even for much of the second stanza until Mercyhurst went on the power play with 2:04 reamaining.  The Lakers blasted shots at the cage until a rebound landed on the stick of senior Ryan Raven who knocked it in off the back of SHU junior netminder Olivier St. Onge (Wickham, Que.) with 5.7 seconds left in the period.

Skating four on four, Sacred Heart cut the lead to one when junior Matt Gingera (Winnipeg, Man.) fired home his third score of the season, from sophomores Reid MacLeod (Teulon, Ma.) and Alex Stuart *Sauk Rapids, Minn.).  Sophomore forward Paul Chiasson would end the Pioneer rally as he tallied a pair of scores, both off assists from classmate Grant Blakey, down the stretch for the Lakers.  Red-shirt sophomore Phil Ginand added one final score for Mercyhurst with 18 seconds left in the game.

The Lakers outshot the Pioneers 38-24 and held a 52-27 advantage in the face-off circle.

Sacred Heart and Mercyhurst face-off for a rematch tomorrow night when the puck drops at 7:05 pm at the MIP.