Erie, PA—The Lakers scored five goals while Jenna Silvonen saved 18 of the 19 shots she faced and notched her second win in as many nights. This was the second win of the young 2020-21 season for the Lakers, however this was win number 500 for Head Coach Michael Sisti, becoming just the second Division I women's hockey coach to reach this milestone.
Unlike last night in Rochester, the Lakers struck first. Junior Emily Pinto scored just 3:52 into the contest. Senior K.K. Thiessen got her shot through from the blueline and Pinto was able to tap in her first of the season on the Lakers first of two powerplay goals of the night.
About five minutes later the Lakers capitalized once again on the powerplay when Megan Korzack took the cross-ice pass from Alexandria Weiss and took a wicked wrister that beat RIT goaltender Jessi O'Leary in the top right corner of the net.
RIT would score their only goal of the night just 1:43 into the second period. The Lakers retook the two goal lead 8:47 into the second period when Liliane Perreault took the pass off the faceoff from Sarah Nelles and tapped in the easy goal on the backdoor as O'Leary couldn't get over in time.
Just five seconds later off the ensuing faceoff the Lakers scored their fourth goal of the night when Sarah Nelles decided she wanted a goal for herself. Nelles took the feed from behind the net from freshman Jersey Phillips and Nelles made no mistake putting it past O'Leary.
Perreault wasn't done, just 3:15 into the third Perreault took a pass from Chantal Ste-Croix and made no mistake shooting from the bottom of the right faceoff circle beating O'Leary of the short side.
"I am proud of our players, a lot of things have changed in their lives, I am happy they were able to play, and see them win and smile, I'm glad we got to this point" Sisti said. "We just wanted to build a great successful program, we clawed and scratched and looking back at the longevity of our success I believe we did that" Sisti added on reaching 500 wins as the Lakers Head Coach.
Special Teams was huge factor in the game Mercyhurst was able to score two powerplay goals on five attempts while also being able to kill off all seven RIT powerplays.
Both the Lakers and Tigers will go on their holiday breaks and will return in January, the CHA will be announcing the rest of the 2020-21 schedule in the near future, fans are encouraged to follow @Hurstwhockey on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and our website for the latest updates.
