The Misericordia University hockey team fell to Arcadia University, 4-2, in their first ever home game at the Toyota SportsPlex, Friday night.
 
Dominic Della Civita opened the scoring at 7:54 of the first period with a shot from the blue line that put the Cougars up 1-0.
 
After an Arcadia goal, Eric Honold reclaimed a 2-1 lead for MU with a one-timer off of a faceoff with 37 seconds remaining in the first period.
 
Prior to the start of the game, Misericordia President Daniel Myers and Athletics Director Chuck Edkins took part in a ceremonial puck drop to commemorate the first home game in program history.
 
The Misericordia defense made their presence known in the early stages of the game as William Moran, Jonathan Lush, Eric Kotkowski and Ryan Karbach all blocked shots within the first six minutes of play.
 
The Cougars got on the board when Della Civita fired a wrist shot from the point that found its way through a pile of bodies and beat the Knights' netminder, who was screened on the play by Ethan Hollingsworth. Zachary Micciche assisted on the captain's first goal of the season to put MU up, 1-0.
 
Arcadia notched a five-on-three power play goal at 9:57 to tie the score at 1-1.
 
Misericordia's offense generated some solid time on the attack and found themselves with an offensive zone faceoff with less than a minute to go in the period. Abraham Laggis won the draw back to Honold, who ripped a one-timer that whistled past the goaltender's blocker side to restore MU's lead. Laggis assisted on Honold's second goal of the season at 19:23. 
 
After the first 20 minutes of action, the Cougars headed to the locker room with a 2-1 lead.
 
Arcadia headed to another five-on-three power play early in the second period and evened the score at 3:40 on the man advantage.
 
The Knights took their first lead of the night at 11:08 of the middle frame. 
 
The Cougars went on their second power play of the night at 14:19. Despite a shot from Karbach, MU was unable to draw even with Arcadia and exited the ice trailing 3-2 with one period to go.
 
Misericordia drew another penalty just 56 seconds into the third period and looked to even the score. Despite failing to capitalize on the man advantage, Zach Ross recorded a shot on goal and the power play unit created solid time in the attacking zone. The offense continued the momentum with shots on goal from Lush, Jack Tos, James Eng and two off the stick of Micciche in the first nine minutes of the final frame.
 
Arcadia managed to take some wind out of the Cougars' sails with a 4-2 marker at 14:06.
 
MU Head Coach Kevin Cole elected to pull his goalie in favor of an extra attacker at 17:51. Although Misericordia held possession for the majority of the remainder of regulation, they were unable to find the back of the net and dropped the contest, 4-2.
 
Della Civita and Honold accounted for both of MU's goals. The Cougars tallied 18 shots on goal and were led by Tos with three. John Barrett laid out for a team-high three blocked shots. Patrick Toomey won 11 of 22 faceoffs, followed by William Moran who went 8-14. Between the pipes, Jake Perrin made an impressive 34 saves.
 
The Cougars return to the Toyota SportsPlex for their second meeting with Arcadia, tomorrow night at 7:00.