Erie, PA—The Mercyhurst Women's Hockey Team was able to complete the sweep the Lindenwood Lions while earning a very important three wins as the playoffs are right around the corner. Mercyhurst was able to win by a score of 3-1 on Sunday.
How it Happened
Mercyhurst was able to jump out a great start as Emily Pinto scored her fifth goal of the season. Pinto took a pass from Megan Korzack and drove to the net and beat Lindenwood goalie Julia Maguire with a backend shot. It is Korzack's sixth assist of the season while Rachel Marmen also picked up her seventh assist of her senior season.
Lindenwood would beat sophomore goalie Jenna Silvonen to tie the game, that would be the only time the Lions would be the Lohja, Finland native.
Marmen wasn't done for the afternoon as she took a pass from Pinto and skated down the right side of the Lion zone and beat Maguire on her short side. The puck went off both the right post and crossbar and was originally called no goal, however after a quick review it was determined the puck crossed the line. Pinto picked up her second point of the game and Mary Kromer picked up her third point of her freshman season.
For the third time of the series the Lakers went into the locker room after the first period with the lead.
The Lakers got their insurance goal at the 8:39 mark of the second period as Alexandria Weiss took the breakout pass from Jordan Mortlock and skated through the neutral zone. Weiss took a wicked wrister that beat Maguire for her first of the season and fourth of her career, it was Mortlock's second point of the season.
Mercyhurst went into the final frame with a two-goal lead all while holding the Lions to just ten shots in the first two period.
The Lakers were able to keep the Lions off the board in the third period despite allowing ten shots to make their way to Silvonen. The skaters for the Lakers help Silvonen out the best they could by blocking ten shots of their own while Marmen led the way blocking three while also tallying two points.
Silvonen earned her fifth win of season by stopping 20 of 21 Lindenwood shots.
Battle on Special Teams
The Lakers were able to win the special team battle as they were able to keep the Lions off the board on all three of their powerplays while allowing just three shots. The Lakers only generated two shots on net on their three powerplays but one of their shots found the back of the net. Mercyhurst now sits at a 89.1 percent penalty kill while improving their powerplay to 11.7 percent.
Playoffs? Talking About Playoffs?!
Mercyhurst only has two regular season games remaining with the playoffs starting in Erie on March 4th. This season the CHA will be seeding in order of winning perecentage due to teams having an uneven amount of conference games. The Lakers after this weekend sit with a .633 winning percentage with a 9-5-1 record. The Lakers currently sit in third while Penn State clinched the CHA regular season championship this weekend, Robert Morris has a .711 conference winning percentage, Syracuse a .500 winning percentage, Lindenwood .156 winning percentage, and RIT a .056 winning percentage.
The Lakers can finish as high as second in the conference and can only fall to fourth in the conference as Syracuse has three games remaining while both Robert Morris and Mercyhurst have two.
Up Next
The Penn State Nittany Lions will come to Erie for the regular season's final weekend. Penn State has already clinched the one seed while the Lakers are looking to secure the second seed in the CHA Tournament. Mercyhurst and Penn State will faceoff Friday, February 26th at 6:05 and Saturday, February 27th at 2:05 PM from the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
