Box Score

ERIE, Pa. – Three late goals propelled the tenth-ranked Mercyhurst University past Syracuse University on Saturday afternoon by a score of 5-3. With the win, the Lakers improved to 7-4-2 in the season and 2-1-1 overall in the College Hockey America Conference. Syracuse fell to 6-5-1 overall and is tied with the Lakers in the CHA at 2-1-1.

With the win, Mercyhurst improved to 24-0-2 overall lifetime against the Orange. The Lakers went 1-0-1 over the weekend series, outscoring the Orange eight to six and outshooting Syracuse 66 to 54 throughout both contests.

Junior assistant captain Shelby Bram gave Mercyhurst the 1-0 lead at the 12:20 mark of the first period. Senior Christie Cicero picked up her first point of the contest after setting up the even strength goal on the offensive zone. Cicero passed it to senior Christine Bestland in front of the Syracuse goaltender Kallie Billadeau. Bestland attempted a shot that went wide for Bram who snuck it passed Billadeau to give her team the lead before the end of the first.

Syracuse answered back in the second period after scoring back to back unanswered goals. Nicole Ferrara tallied her fourth goal of the season at the 7:55 mark. Both teams were then penalties to force a four-on-four for two minutes.

During the four-on-four Larissa Martynuik gave her team the 2-1 advantage at the 11:52 mark but less than a minute later Cicero answered back with a goal of her own to even the score at two. Cicero tallied her four goal of the season after finishing off a rebound from sophomore Kathy Donohue.

At the start of the third, Bestland took the lead at the 1:58 mark. Bestland broke up a Syacuse breakout by stealing the puck from an Orange defensive player in front of the Syracuse net. Bestland then quickly took a shot right in between Billadeau's legs for the unassisted goal.

The Lakers gave up another power-play goal when Nicole Renault scored at the 3:40 mark of the third period. However, Mercyhurst was eight for ten in the penalty kill throughout the entire contest and allowed just seven shots during the 20 minutes of playing a man down.

Senior Kaleigh Chippy scored her second game-winning goal of the season after making a shot at the hash marks and scoring after the puck past Billadeau, hit the cross bar and trickled in the back of the net. Sophomore Jenna Dingeldein set passed it to junior Molly Byrne at the point. Bryne then picked up Chippy crossing the center ice before taking the shot.

With just 1:15 left in the final period of play, Syracuse pulled Billadeau for their final offensive rush. During that time, Mercyhurst goaltender Amanda Makela stopped all three shots faced with her team playing a man down.

The Lakers junior Caroline Luczak was able to clear the puck out of their defensive zone with just 20 second left on the clock. Bram carried the puck down the ice and made an attempt towards the empty net, but Cicero picked up the puck and finished the 5-3 victory after scoring her second goal of the contest.

Makela improved to 7-4-2 after stopping 28 shots faced throughout the entire contest. Billadeau made 26 saves and fell to 3-5-1 overall in the season.

All told, Bestland accounted for two goals and two assists throughout the series. She is just nine points away from a career-high 200 points and join just four other Mercyhurst players to ever reach the 200-point milestone.

Cicero tallied two goals and three assist during Saturday's contest while Bram scored a goal and two assists throughout the weekend series. Bram is approaching a milestone of her own as she is just five assists away from a career 50 assists as a junior. With Chippy's goal, she is shy four points in her career while playing with Mercyhurst and Niagara.

The Lakers continue conference play as they head to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on Friday, November 22 and Saturday, November 23. The Lakers face the Tigers at 2:00 p.m. during both contests.