Nov. 7--Mercyhurst College men's hockey coach Rick Gotkin said his team needs to get a lot better.

But first, the Lakers have to get healthy.

Several players were sidelined with swine flu and several skaters played with the flu in the Lakers' 6-4 home-opening loss to Canisius Friday before 502 fans at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

Unlike many of his players, Gotkin felt fine physically -- to a degree.

"I want to throw up after this game (Friday), but I don't think that's from the flu," Gotkin said. "I think it's from the way we all performed tonight."

The Lakers (2-6-1 overall, 2-2-1 Atlantic Hockey Association) lacked energy in the opening period, and Canisius took full advantage, jumping out to a 3-0 lead.

"We weren't as sharp as maybe would have liked, given our practice situation this week," junior forward Steve Cameron said. "We had enough guys in there ready to play and I thought we played well given the circumstances, but we're still disappointed with the loss,"

Gotkin said his team practiced with only 13 or 14 skaters all week due to the flu. He said athletic officials considered postponing the game.

"We decided we have 23 or 24 guys on our roster, and maybe we do have some illness, but we still had other healthy guys," Gotkin said.

"We have a confident team and we know what we can do, but that first period was a hard hole to dig out of," Cameron said.

Mercyhurst trailed 5-2 in the third period before power-play goals by freshman winger Paul Chiasson at 8 minutes, 14 seconds and senior forward Cody Collins at 9:27 pulled the Lakers within 5-4.

The Lakers pulled goalie Ryan Zapolski with 1:19 to play for the extra skater, but Canisius secured the win on center Josh Heidinger's empty-net goal with 23 seconds left.

"Even being sick and fatigued and rundown, we still needed to play smarter in that first period," Gotkin said. "We just didn't take care of the puck. You give a good team like Canisius chances, the next thing you know it's 3-0 and it's a long way back."

Heidinger and winger Dave Kostuch led the Ice Griffs (3-6-0, 2-3-0) with two goals apiece.

"Our experienced players really brought it to the table tonight," Canisius coach Dave Smith said. "It's a good feeling when those guys lead the charge."

Heidinger intercepted a clearing pass in the Mercyhurst zone and scored on a top-shelf wrist shot to give the Ice Griffs a 1-0 lead at 9:07 of the first period.

Canisius struck again 48 seconds later when Kostuch finished a two-on-one rush with his first goal. Canisius added a power-play goal at 12:17 before Mercyhurst's Scott Pitt scored at 18:23.

"In the first period, we looked like a team that hadn't practiced all week because we hadn't practiced all week," Gotkin said. "Our guys battled, but you don't get much for a good try."

RON LEONARDI can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail.

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