Erie, Pa. – The No. 9 Mercyhurst College women's hockey team spotted Syracuse an early 1-0 lead before scoring eight unanswered goals, five on special teams, in a 9-2 verdict Saturday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

The Lakers, winners of seven straight, improved to 10-4-0 overall and to 4-0-0 in College Hockey America (CHA). The Orange, CHA's newest member, dropped to 3-12-0 on the season and 0-8-0 in conference play.
 
Freshman forward Megan Skelly scored at 3:14 of the first to put the Orange ahead. But the Lakers caught fire late in the period and scored three times in the stanza's last five minutes. Sophomore defenseman Cassea Schols knotted the game at 14:47 when she knocked in junior Meghan Agosta's pass with the Lakers shorthanded. Freshman forward Jess Jones scored at even strength 34 seconds later to give Mercyhurst the lead for good and sophomore Vicki Bendus scored a back-breaking marker with just six ticks left.  Mercyhurst outshot Syracuse 16-13 in a wide open first twenty minutes.
 
Mercyhurst extended its lead to 5-1 after forty minutes as Agosta and sophomore defenseman Ashley Cockell collected power play goals at 7:05 and 17:29 of the second.
 
The lead grew to 8-1 in the third on power play goals by Bendus and Scanzano and an even strength marker by Agosta in the first eight minutes of the third. Syracuse freshman forward Kylie Klassen cashed the Orange's seventh power play chance of the game at 16:37 before freshman Bailey Bram ended the scoring with a goal at 19:57.
 
Mercyhurst's string of 41 consecutive penalty kills ended with Klassen's lamplighter. Mercyhurst outshot Syracuse 50-22 and connected with four power-play goals in nine chances. Freshman goalie Hillary Pattenden (9-1-0) played the first two periods while senior Courtney Drennen saw action in the third.  Junior Lucy Schoedel (3-12-0) took the loss.
 
Mercyhurst will conclude the 2008 portion of the schedule next weekend when perennial power and current No. 3 St. Lawrence visits the Ice Center for Friday and Saturday games at 7:00pm and 2:00pm respectively.