WARRENDALE — Just above the boards behind the net, a five-panel brown banner displayed a simple message.

“Free the SV boys” was scribbled in black marker and hung up below all of the Seneca Valley senior hockey players jerseys Tuesday night at BladeRunners.

That sign was made for seniors Chris Marziotto, Ben Jarrett, Tanner Pfeffer and Spencer Schutte, who were serving suspensions for fighting and had to watch their Senior Night game from the stands.

Seneca Valley lost 10-2 to Canon-McMillan.

“No, I would have never expected that,” senior forward Andrew Gagnon said, who was one of the players that didn't draw discplinary action. “But I like the sign.”

All of the suspensions were earned during the waning moments of Seneca Valley's 8-3 win over Shaler Jan. 28.

Schutte and Pfeffer, who each received four-game suspensions, can return for the Raiders' final game against Norwin next Tuesday. Marziotto and Jarrett, who received five games, can't return until the playoffs.

Raiders coach Anthony Raco is hoping that group can spark Seneca Valley, which has lost three of four games in their absence. That has dropped the Raiders, who are 10-9, into a four-way tie for sixth place in PIHL Class AAA with 20 points.

“They are a close-knit group, the guys we had out,” Raco said. “Those guys haven't had a taste of a game in a while and I think that's where we'll see the heart we need and set the emotional tone and intensity we need. Hopefully, they can ride together and do everything as a unit.”

Canon-McMillan, which was one point behind the Raiders coming in, never let Seneca Valley into the game.

Austin Tonkovich scored the first of his three goals 2:49 into the first period. Colman Hein followed with a short-handed goal on a slapshot from the point that got behind Seneca Valley's Ian Fraer, who was playing in place of Pfeffer.

The Big Macs (10-8-1) stretched their lead to 3-0 when James Oddi scored the first of his three goals with 2:13 left in the period.

Canon-McMilllan coach Terry Virtue was unavailable for comment because he was at a youth tournament.

“It's a tough situation for those guys to be in with their senior starting goalie out. Pfeffer's one of the best goalies in the league.” Big Macs assistant coach Nicholas Godfrey said. “We knew that was their backup in there and we wanted to get shots on net. That was our strategy going in, throw everything at the net and hope for good things to happen.”

Gagnon gave Seneca Valley some momentum heading into the second period. After parking himself in front of the net, Gagnon was able to flick a pass from Brendan MacFarlane into the back of the net.

Gagnon says not much has changed during the suspensions.

“The lines have changed a little bit, but there hasn't been that much of an adjustment,” Gagnon said. “We have to keep playing with what we have and play our best.”

Zach Mansmann halted that momentum, scoring the next goal for Canon-McMillan by hitting a shot off Fraer, getting the rebound and scoring. It was the first of six second period goals for the Big Macs.

Gagnon thought Fraer, who made 25 saves, played extremely well.

“They took a lot of shots and we left our goalie out to dry,” Gagnon said. “He played a good game, but we had no help for him.”

MacFarlane scored Seneca Valley's other goal to cut the lead to 5-2 in the second period. Canon-McMillan outshot the Raiders 35-19.

Raco doesn't feel the suspensions impacted his team's effort.

“I don't think they are worn down. We just didn't show up as a team tonight,” Raco said. “It wasn't like there was one guy out there setting the tone for everybody. I thought top to bottom we had poor effort and execution.”