UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Laura Bowman scored three times, the last two late in the third period, as Penn State rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to defeat the sixth-ranked Mercyhurst University women's hockey team, 5-3, on Saturday afternoon to sweep the weekend series. The Nittany Lions won Friday's opener 2-1. Penn State improved to 10-7-3 overall and to 5-4-1 in College Hockey America (CHA). The Lakers fell to 16-4-2 and 7-3-0 respectively.

The two teams scored three times in the game's first four-and-a-half minutes. Mercyhurst junior forward Jenna Dingeldein scored her 11th goal of the season, with help from juniors J'nai Mahadeo and Kathy Donohue, just 62 seconds into the contest. When junior forward Emily Janiga parked her team-leading 16th goal of the season less than three minutes later, the Lakers appeared to be off to the races. Senior defender Molly Byrne and freshman defender Callie Paddock helped on the goal. It was Paddock's first collegiate point and it marked the 50th career goal for Janiga.

But Penn State settled down and cut the lead in half when Bowman beat Mercyhurst senior goaltender Amanda Makela (16-4-2) at 4:21. There was no further scoring in the opening stanza, one in which Mercyhurst owned a 12-6 advantage in shots.

PSU forward Caitlin Reilly produced the second period's lone goal at 10:01 as the Nittany Lions outshot the Lakers 9-5.

Forward Hannah Bramm then put PSU ahead for the first time in the game when she beat Makela at 4:11 of the third while the Nittany Lions were up a skater. Janiga got the Lakers even with her second of the game and third of the weekend at 10:23. Taylor Accursi helped on the game-tying marker.   

But that only set the stage for Bowman. Her eventual game-winner came at 18:16 and then she completed her hat trick with an empty net goal at 19:59.

Mercyhurst outshot Penn State 12-7 in the third period and owned a 29-22 advantage for the whole 60 minutes. The Lakers finished 0-for-3 on the power play while Penn State scored once in two chances.

Hannah Ehresmann (4-3-3) got the win in goal for PSU.

Dingeldein's goal represented her 100th career point. The Lakers have now lost two straight for the first time since bowing to Cornell (6-4) and Robert Morris (3-1) at the Ice Center last January. The two-game sweep by a conference opponent is the first since Robert Morris won 3-1 and 2-1 decisions December 7 and 8 of 2012 in suburban Pittsburgh.

Mercyhurst's road record dropped to 3-3-2 as the Lakers lost for the first time this season (7-1) when ahead after the first period.

Mercyhurst, off now for more than a month, has only four home games remaining in the regular season. Two of those will come against CHA-rival Syracuse Friday and Saturday, January 16 and 17, at 3:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. respectively. The Orange trail the Lakers by three points in the race for first, but have a game in hand.