The Misericordia hockey team's third-period rally came up just short in a tough 5-4 loss to at Wilkes, Friday afternoon at the Toyota SportsPlex.

The Cougars scored twice in the first five minutes of the third period and added a goal with less than five minutes to play, but couldn't find the game-tying goal.

Jake Perrin was stellar in net while making 33 saves, including 15 stops in the first period to keep the Cougars within a goal after 20 minutes.

Special teams played a key role for both teams as Wilkes scored four power play goals in six opportunities and added a four-on-four goal.

Misericordia scored a short-handed goal as well as a power play goal.

Eight different Cougars hit the scoring column with William Moran, Brendan Vettraino, James Eng and Eric Honold all scored.  Cameron Hawks, Cameron Perry, Zach Ross and Corbin Scheibel all had assists.

Perrin stopped the first 15 shots he faced before allowing a power play goal with less than six minutes to play in the first period.

The Cougars picked up the pace over the final and put five shots on goal in a little over a minute with Jack Tos having two near-misses on the right post, but were unable to sneak one by the Wilkes goalie.

Misericordia pulled even early in the second period when Hawks took a pass off the right boards in front of the MU bench and blasted a shot from just inside the blue line that was tipped and under the crossbar by Moran at 4:22.

Wilkes broke the game open with three goals in a five-minute span, including a pair of power-play goals, to take a 4-1 lead with 3:48 left in the second period.

The Colonels seemed destined to put the game away with another power play opportunity early in the third period until Vettraino forced a turnover near his own blue line and beat the Wilkes goalie on his stick side for a break away short-handed goal just 1:05 into the final stanza.

MU used good puck movement to notch a power-play goal of its own just over three minutes later.  Ross played the puck to Perry along the left board where he fed Eng who fired a wrister from the left slot into the top right corner of the net to get within 4-3 at 4:24.

Wilkes regained a two-goal lead with a power-play goal just two minutes later.

The Cougars weren't done as Scheibel's outlet pass found Honold down the right side where he scored on a tough-angle wrist shot from the right face-off dot with just under five minutes to play.

Misericordia had a few chances late in the period as they went with an extra attacker for nearly a minute before surrendering a power play with under a minute to go.