The Sacred Heart Pioneers scored four third-period goals to break open a tight game and defeat Mercyhurst 5-0 Saturday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The win snapped the Lakers’ 26-game unbeaten streak in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, dating back to last season. Sacred Heart defeated Mercyhurst 5-3 last March, the last game of the regular season.
Mercyhurst then went on to win three straight games in the playoffs to win the MAAC championship, then went 20-0-3 in the conference this season before the Pioneers halted the streak. Mercyhurst’s overall unbeaten streak of 13 games (12-0-1) was also snapped.
After a scoreless first period, Sacred Heart cashed a power-play opportunity at 14:28 of the second when junior defenseman Les Hrapchak beat Mercyhurst netminder Peter Aubry just five seconds into the man advantage.
It was all Sacred Heart in the third. Sophomore forward Marc-Andre Fournier tallied just 55 seconds into make it 2-0. Junior forward Martin Paquet scored at 7:51 while senior forwards Chris Mokos and Lloyd Marks scored 1:27 apart midway through the period to complete the scoring.
Sacred Heart junior goaltender Eddy Ferhi stopped 32 Mercyhurst shots to up his record to 12-11-4. Aubry stopped 29 of 34 in taking his sixth loss of the season and first in the MAAC. Aubry is now 17-6-2 overall and 17-1-0 in the conference.
Sacred Heart was penalized six times for 20 minutes while the Lakers were tagged five times for 10. Mercyhurst had its share of scoring chances throughout the game, including a two-man advantage for 50 seconds early in the first period, but could not solve Ferhi.
