ERIE, Pennsylvania - The American International College ice hockey team finished a sweep of Mercyhurst University with a 4-1 victory in Atlantic Hockey America play on Saturday, February 8.

AIC is now 10-17-1 overall and 8-12-0-0-0-2 in the AHA.

After a scoreless first period in which Chase Clark stopped all nine shots, AIC appeared to strike first at 4:25 of the second period when Casey McDonald stuffed the puck underneath Carter McPhail and over the line. The Lakers challenged, and for the second night in a row won, wiping AIC's tally off the board. 

Barely a minute later, AIC again rendered the call irrelevant with another tally that did count. Clark started the play, chasing down a loose puck to the left of his net and firing a pass to Danny Weight on the right wing. Weight found Dario Beljo coming over the line, and he in turn dished to Noah Serdachny, who crashed toward the cage and redirected the puck in at 5:50 for his third of the season.

Later in the period, AIC doubled the edge on the power play. Beljo fired the puck up the right-wing wall for Josh Barnes at the point, and Barnes teed up Brett Bamber at the middle of the blue line for a one-timer. As he was doing so, Beljo cut to the netfront, putting himself in position to redirect the shot home at 16:44 for his seventh of the season.

In the third, the Lakers finally scored their first goal of the series. Will Margel tallied at 12:03 to pull Mercyhurst within one.

AIC held on, and a pair of late penalties against the Lakers gave the Yellow Jackets the cushion they needed. Barnes, Beljo, and John Lundy moved the puck nearly unimpeded around the zone, with Lundy blasting in his fifth of the season from below the right circle at 18:05.

The Yellow Jackets tacked on one more at the end for the 4-1 final, with Oscar Geschwind hitting the empty net at 19:15.8 for his second of the season; Brett Rylance added the lone assist.

Clark stopped 17 shots in the win, making 38 saves on 39 attempts total on the weekend. 

AIC continues its road swing with a pair at RIT beginning on Friday, February 14.