ERIE, Pa. – Taylor Accursi netted two goals including the go-ahead goal in the third period in the Mercyhurst women's hockey team's 6-4 win over Penn State Friday evening. The win ended a five-game losing skid for the Lakers and the six goals were the most scored by them in a single game this season.
 
Despite the final offensive output, things didn't look so great for Mercyhurst in the game's first ten minutes. Penn State scored first 2:48 into the period on a shot by Laura Bowman and went ahead 1-0 but did not stop there. The Nittany Lions chased Laker starting goalie Jessica Convery after scoring again at the 5:03 mark. This time, Kate Ryland had the tally for Penn State. The goalie change to Sarah McDonnell didn't pay off immediately as Meike Meilleur extended Penn State's lead to 3-0 at the 5:53 mark.
 
After a Mercyhurst timeout, the Lakers started to charge offensively and the effort paid off in a big way in the back half of the period. Megan Whiddon scored her first of the season at 10:47 to get Mercyhurst on the board. Less than a minute later, Rachael Smith crashed the net and scored the Lakers second of the night at 11:27 to pull the Lakers within one. Then at the 13:12 mark, Mercyhurst took advantage of a power play when Samantha Fieseler buried a rebound to score the Lakers' third unanswered goal, tying the game at three apiece.
 
Scoring slowed down a bit in the second period with just one goal scored. Penn State retook the lead on the power play. Katie McMillan went backdoor and scored off a feed from Bowman to put the Nittany Lions back into the lead 4-3 with 5:00 left in the second.
 
Mercyhurst and got a huge spark from Taylor Accursi starting at 3:33 in the third period. On another power play, Jillian Skinner took a wrist-shot on net and Accursi redirected it past freshman goalie Daniela Paniccia to tie the game at four. That wasn't all for the Mercyhurst senior, as she scored the go-ahead goal just over a minute later at 4:34. Sarah Hine flipped a long stretch pass to Accursi resulting in a breakaway. She went to the backhand and put it between Paniccia's legs for her second of the game and fourth of the season. The 5-4 lead was Mercyhurst's first of the game.
 
From that point on, the Lakers locked it down defensively by playing keep-away.  Penn State tried to pull Paniccia with two minutes remaining, but the Lakers held possession of the puck, forcing her to stay in the crease, when she finally got the bench, Penn State turned it over and Brooke Hartwick scored the empty-net goal to put the game out of reach 6-4 with 17 seconds remaining.
 
The 6-4 victory marks the Lakers' first win in College Hockey America play this season. Head Coach Mike Sisti was pleased with his team's effort to handle adversity. "Despite our slow start, I am extremely proud of the character and heart our young team showed finding a way to battle back and win today." 

Mercyhurst (2-6-1, 1-2-0) hosts Penn State again tomorrow starting at 2 p.m.