Shawn Mansoff scored two goals and added one assists to lead Quinnipiac to a 4-1 victory over first-place Mercyhurst in a MAAC contest before 758 at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
The victory, which avenged a disappointing 6-0 loss to Mercyhurst on January 12, improved Quinnipiac’s record to 14-9-3 (11-6-1 MAAC). Mercyhurst dropped to 14-8-2 (14-3-1 MAAC).
Mercyhurst’s Tom McMonagle scored just 3:16 into the contest as he one-timed a pass from Eric Ellis past Quinnipiac goaltender Justin Eddy. Nearly 11 minutes later, Anthony DiPalma rifled a slap shot from just inside the blue line to tie the score at one.
In the second period, the two teams played evenly for 18 minutes until Mansoff corralled a rebound off a Brian Herbert shot and flipped one past a sprawling Peter Aubry to make it 2-1.
Mansoff made it 3-1 at 4:09 of the third period when he converted off another rebound -this time off a Ben Blais shot that was saved by Aubry just in front of the net. Chris Cerrella then sealed the victory with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at the 9:55 mark. Cerrella’s goal, his team-leading 16th of the season, increased his point-scoring streak to six games.
Herbert and Matt Erhart each assisted on two goals for the Braves, who killed off all seven Mercyhurst power plays. Quinnipiac has killed off its last 23 penalty-killing situations.
Eddy made 31 saves in net, his 10th 30-save effort of the season. Aubry made 29 for Mercyhurst.
