Mercyhurst forward Scott Reynolds scored his second goal of the game at the 15:22 mark of the third period to give the Lakers a 4-3 win over Canisius at the Buffalo State Sports Arena Saturday night.

Canisius (5-10-1, 3-8-1 Atlantic Hockey) opened the scoring 2:04 into the game when junior forward Joey Coccimiglio (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) knocked home a rebound off a shot by sophomore forward Joel Kitchen (Orilla, Ont.).

The Lakers (11-6-0, 10-2-0) scored the next two goals as Reynolds got his first exactly six minutes into the contest when he controlled the rebound off a shot by defenseman Jamie Hunt. Reynolds sent a backhand past Canisius goalie Dan Giffin (Milton, Ont.) to even the score at 1-1.

The teams traded shorthanded goals as Lakers forward Erik Johnson disrupted the Canisius power play and took the puck up the ice on a breakaway. Johnson scored his fourth goal of the season with a top-shelf shot on the glove side to make the score 2-1 after one period.

The Griffs got their first shorthanded goal of the season when senior forward Chris Angelo (Depew, N.Y.) picked off a pass at the blueline and juked two Lakers to set up a shot. Angelo went in alone on Mercyhurst goaltender Mike Ella and shot it over Ella’s right shoulder to even the score at 2-2.

After Mercyhurst made the score 3-2 when Dave Borrelli knocked home a loose rebound at 16:01 of the second period, the Griffs tied it at 3-3 just 40 seconds later when junior defenseman Bret Norris (Snowmass, Colo.) put one on net and freshman forward Spencer Churchill (Brantford, Ont.) crashed the net to score the first goal of his collegiate career.
With the loss, the Griffs dropped their fourth straight game for the first time since Nov. 4-Nov. 17, 2000.

The last half of the third period was flooded with penalty minutes as the teams combined for 107 penalty minutes in the period, including 71 for Canisius. Five 10-minute misconduct penalties were handed out along with two game misconduct penalties as the 81 penalty minutes were the most since the Griffs got 91 penalty minutes against Sacred Heart Jan. 20, 2001.

Senior forward Andrew Dawe (Kitchener, Ont.) saw his seven-game point streak and four-game goal streak come to an end. Mercyhurst forward Scott Champagne saw his 35-game point streak end as well.

Ella (7-3-0) stopped 33 shots to pick up the win while Giffin saved 24 in his first start since Oct. 29, and fell to 1-4-0 on the season.

Canisius returns to the ice on Thursday, Dec. 29, against UMass Lowell at 4:07 pm in the opening game of the Dodge Holiday Classic, hosted by the University of Minnesota.