ERIE, Pa. - The Wayne State University women's hockey team (8-16-4, 4-9-1 CHA) surrendered four straight Mercyhurst goals, erasing a one-goal lead in a 4-1 loss to the top-ranked Lakers (25-2-3, 12-1-1 CHA) on Saturday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

Katrina Protopapas (Chatham, Ont./Bluewater Hawks) scored her 12th goal of the season early in the second period, and Lindsey Park (Thornhill, Ont./Toronto Jr. Aeros) finished with a career-high 40 saves.

The loss resulted in a season sweep for the Lakers, who have defeated the Warriors in each of the last 10 meetings.

Wayne State's current winless streak reached eight games Saturday, the longest since the 2001-02 season.

For the second day in a row, the Warriors and Lakers were tied at 0-0 through the first period. Wayne State has played to a scoreless tie through the first 20 minutes 17 times this season and has a 6-9-2 record in those games.

The first shot of the second period produced a 1-0 lead for Wayne State, as Protopapas fired from the slot off a Micheline Frappier (Val Caron, Ont./Sudbury Lady Wolves) pass from behind the net. Alyssa Baldin (Mississauga, Ont./Mississauga Jr. Chiefs) also had a helper on the play, which at 23 seconds was the fifth-fastest goal to begin a second period in program history.

The lead held until 12:16, when during a Mercyhurst penalty kill Ashley Cockell lofted a pass through the neutral zone to Jesse Scanzano, who skated in on Park and made a move to her backhand for her 14th goal of the season. The short-handed tally was MC's 20th of the year, breaking the NCAA record set by Minnesota in 2004-05.

The Lakers went on to score three unanswered power-play goals. Wayne State had killed 27 of its last 28 penalties (96.4 percent) before the three tallies Saturday.

The first came from Vicki Bendus at the 14:00 mark, as she waited for an opening on the left wing before firing a wrist shot from inside the faceoff circle into the top corner on Park's blocker side.

With less than 90 seconds left in the period, a long-distance shot by Kelley Steadman, who scored three goals on Friday, glanced in off the glove of Park.

Cassea Schols made it a 4-1 game at 17:04 of the third period with assists from Scanzano and Bendus, who each finished with three points.

Mercyhurst totaled 44 shots, tying for the most allowed by WSU this season. The Warriors had 13 shots, 12 of which were stopped by Stephanie Ciampa in her first collegiate start.

Wayne State will close out the 2009-10 regular season next weekend, Feb. 26-27, at Robert Morris. Both games are slated to begin at 7:05 p.m. ET.