BOSTON, Mass. – The Northeastern Huskies rallied from a four-goal first period deficit to defeat the Mercyhurst University women's hockey team, 5-4, on Friday afternoon at Matthews Arena. Northeastern, receiving votes in the latest USCHO.com Division I poll, improved to 3-1-1 while the Lakers, also receiving votes, are still looking for their first win of the young season (0-2-1).

Mercyhurst exploded out of the gate in the first period, scoring on its first three shots against Northeastern junior goaltender Sarah Foss.

Sophomore forward Sarah Robello got the Lakers on the board, before fans had even settled into their seats, when she beat Foss off of a centering feed from senior assistant captain Hannah Bale just 80 seconds into the contest.

Freshman Rachael Smith then scored her first collegiate goal at 6:27, beating Foss on a breakaway opportunity, to extend the Mercyhurst lead to 2-0. She converted passes from seniors Jenna Dingeldein and J'nai Mahadeo. Four minutes later at 10:36, Bale found the back of the net for the first time this season, sniping a shot just under the crossbar and over the shoulder of Foss, for a 3-0 lead. Sophomore Jennifer MacAskill and senior Jaclyn Arbour assisted – their first points of the season.

The Huskies replaced Foss at that point with freshman Brittany Bugalski, but the Lakers upped the ante to 4-0 when Robello cashed her second of the game from a bad angle at 12:08. Robello's shot appeared destined to go wide, but Bugalski stuck out the glove hand and the shot ricocheted off of the netminder and into the back of the net. Juniors Taylor Accursi and Paige Horton recorded the assists - also their first points of the season.

Northeastern got to Mercyhurst freshman netminder Sarah McDonnell when senior Jordan Krause scored, during a 5-on-3, at 16:16.

The Lakers outshot Northeastern 9-6 in the opening twenty minutes. The four first-period-goals were the most by the Lakers since collecting six against visiting Penn State in an 8-0 win December 7, 2013.

McDonnell and the Lakers, however, were roughed up in the middle period.

Northeastern senior Kendall Coyne, who won a silver medal for the United State at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, trimmed the deficit to 4-2 when she scored her eighth of the season, shorthanded and unassisted, at 6:34. Sophomore McKenna Brand drew the Huskies within one when she scored a power play goal at 11:58 and junior Hayley Scamurra got Northeastern even at 4-4 on the Huskies' first even-strength goal of the game at 18:59.

Despite being outscored 3-0 in the second, Mercyhurst had a sizeable 14-6 advantage in shots.

Mercyhurst changed goalies itself in the third, opting for sophomore Jessica Convery (0-2-0). But, Scamurra scored her second of the game and fourth of the season at 10:16 of the third to complete the comeback. Mercyhurst pulled Convery for an extra attacker for nearly 90 seconds late in the third, but couldn't notch the equalizer.

The Lakers outdistanced the Huskies 9-5 in third period shots and 32-17 over the sixty minutes. The visitors allowed two power play scores on five Northeastern chances and were blanked in three tries. The Huskies also cashed a shorthanded marker.

McDonnell, making her second start of the season, stopped 8-of-12 shots over forty minutes. Convery allowed just the one goal and stopped 4-of-5 in the third but suffered the loss. Bugalski (2-1-1) turned aside 28 of 29 Mercyhurst shots in relief.

Robello's two-goal game was the second of her career. Her other came on October 24, 2014 in a 5-1 win at home over Minnesota State.

The two teams will conclude the weekend series on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.