Box Score

ERIE, Pa. – The Mercyhurst University women's hockey team saw their unbeaten streak come to an end as the third-ranked Cornell beat Mercyhurst 6-4 on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, the Lakers fall to 14-6-3 overall on the season and suffered their second loss on home ice this season. Cornell improved to 13-1-3.

Midway through the first period is when the Big Red tallied their first goal of the contest. Taylor Woods finally found a way past junior goaltender Amanda Makela on a power-play goal at the 12:43 mark. Cornell's Jess Brown took the initial shot but it was Woods who picked up the rebound.

Sophomore Jaclyn Arbour answered back quickly with her third goal of the season to score the equalizer on an even-strength goal. Sophomore J'nai Mahadeo moved the puck through the neutral zone to sophomore Megan Whiddon who carried the puck towards Cornell's net. Whiddon attempted a shot at Big Red's goaltender Lauren Slebodnick who gave up a rebound for Arbour.

However three minutes later Cornell tallied two unanswered goals before the end of the opening period to take a 3-1 lead. Brown forced a turnover in the Lakers defensive end for her first goal of the season. Three minutes later, Jillian Saulnier scored another unassisted goal with a slap shot from the hash marks.

In the second, Mahadeo picked up her second assist of the night when sophomore Jenna Dingeldein shot at a wide open net behind Slebodnick at the 4:41 mark. Sophomore Emily Janiga also tabbed an assist when the Lakers narrowed the gap to a 3-2 contest.

The Big Red made the score 5-2 halfway through the second after two more Big Red unanswered goals. Cornell's leading scorer Emily Fulton extended the lead 4-2 followed by Brown's power-play goal at the 11:36 mark. After the two goals, sophomore Julia DiTondo got her chance in net against the Big Red for the remainder of the contest.

Just over a minute before the end of the second period, junior Molly Byrne took back the momentum to the Lakers bench after scoring her first goal of the season. Dingeldein added an assist after passing the puck to Mahadeo at the point. Mahadeo picked up her third assist of the contest after attempting a shot on net but Byrne was there for the rebound with another Mercyhurst back door goal at the 18:38 mark.

The Lakers trailed 5-3 heading into the third period and finally narrowed the Cornell lead to 5-4 at the 16:18 mark with the help of senior Christie Cicero. Cicero only had two shots on net throughout the contest but scored at the 16:18 mark to extend her point-streak to a career-high nine games. Sophomore Emily Janiga and senior Christine Bestland battled at the boards for the puck to allow Cicero to score her eleventh goal of the season.

Mercyhurst continued to hold onto the 5-4 score towards the end of the contest with the help from DiTondo. DiTondo made all 18 saves faced and 12 from the third period. Cornell also had two break-away opportunities from Saulnier and Brown but both were denied by DiTondo.

With two minutes left, the Lakers were sent to the penalty-box when Saulnier broke was taken down on her breakaway. Despite the extra attacker awarded to Cornell, the Lakers had no choice but to pull DiTondo with a little over a minute to play. Saulnier tallied the empty-net power-play goal at the 18:55 mark to seal the loss.

Mercyhurst pulled DiTondo again for the final minute of play, but the Lakers could not find a way past Sledobnick.

Makela suffered her sixth loss in net this season (12-6-3) after allowing five goals on 17 shots faced. DiTondo made 18 saves in the relief.

All told, Cornell outshot the Lakers 36 to 33 throughout all three periods. Cornell has 20 shots attempted on the power-play while Mercyhurst collected 13. Dingeldein and senior Kaleigh Chippy led the team in shots with five, while Janiga and sophomore Jaclyn Arbour collected four.

The Lakers will host ninth-ranked Robert Morris University on Friday, January 24 and Saturday, January 25 at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. Game times are set for 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. respectively.