MILFORD, Conn. – Led by two goals from sophomore Justin Danforth (Oshawa, Ont.) and 38 saves from Alex Vazzano (Trumbull, Conn.), the Sacred Heart men's hockey team capped a three-point weekend with a convincing 5-1 win over the Mercyhurst Lakers Saturday night at Milford Ice Pavilion.

It was the first time Danforth had scored two goals in a game in his career as a Pioneer. Evan Jasper (Whitby, Ont.) and Ben Lake (Calgary, Alb.) each had a goal and an assist for two-point nights as well.

Sacred Heart (7-15-4, 6-10-4 AHC) needed only 34 seconds to get on the scoreboard Saturday. Freshman Kory Kennedy (Midhurst, Ont.) wheeled around the Mercyhurst net and fired a shot off of a defender's skate past Brendan Wildung to give the Pioneers an early 1-0 lead. Lake and Mitch Nylen (Lawrenceville, Ga.) had the assists on Kennedy's second tally of the year. The Lakers outshot the Pioneers 13-9 in the first period, but couldn't get on the scoreboard.

Danforth made the score 2-0 at 10:07 of the second period. The forward crashed the net for the rebound of a Zach Luczyk (Charlton, Mass.), roofing it into the goal. He added his second goal 5:05 later on the power play, taking the puck after a Vazzano save end-to-end to give Sacred Heart a 3-0 lead. Vazzano got his first career assist and point on Danforth's second marker. The scoring continued in the third, when Lake scored his sixth goal of the season, with assists from Jasper and Jordan Minello (Sweaburg, Ont.), at 10:49. Vazzano came 3:19 shy of his first shutout of the season, as Kyle Just scored on a 2-on-1 breakaway with Jack Riley for Mercyhurst's lone goal. Jasper added an empty-net goal in the final seconds to make the final score 5-1.

Mercyhurst (12-8-4, 10-5-3 AHC) outshot sacred Heart 39-26 for the game. The Pioneers were 1-for-4 on the power play, holding the Lakers scoreless on six chances.

Sacred Heart travels to AIC next weekend for two games, beginning Friday, Jan. 30 at 7:05 p.m.