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Three minutes into the third period, Syracuse’s Charlotte Hallett was called for her second penalty of the game, a boarding call. Mercyhurst responded by taking the puck into SU’s defensive zone. Lakers’ forward Thea Johansson created space and struck the puck off the chest of goaltender Allie Kelley. Kelley bodied it but the puck fell down to a waiting Vanessa Upson, who pounced on the puck and fired it past Kelley to give Mercyhurst a 2-1 lead.

Entering Saturday’s game, the Lakers ranked second in the CHA in power-play percentage and in today’s contest, Mercyhurst went 3-for-4 on the power-play. The goal by Upson was one of the three power-play goals the Lakers tallied in the third period, part of a five-goal frame for Mercyhurst.

Despite being tied 1-1 after the first two periods, Mercyhurst (11-12-1, 7-3-0 College Hockey America) rallied for its highest-scoring period of the season in the third period, defeating Syracuse (4-17-2, 1-8-1 CHA) 6-2. The Lakers totaled 22 shots on goal in the third period, while the Orange recorded just 23 shots on goal during the entire contest. SU couldn’t keep up with Mercyhurst, outshot 51-23 in shots on goal, leading to its fourth straight loss.

Coming off a 2-1 loss to Mercyhurst the day prior, SU forward Nea Tervonen received the first strong look for Syracuse just over a minute into the contest, but it was gloved by Mercyhurst’s Ena Nystrøm.

Over four minutes into the contest, an SU turnover in the Mercyhurst defensive zone led to a breakaway for Johansson. Johansson, who scored the game-winning goal Friday, streaked up the left side of the ice, speeding past multiple Syracuse defenders to give herself an open look in the left circle. Johansson wristed the puck past Kelley to give the Lakers an early 1-0 lead. Similar to Friday, it only took Mercyhurst four minutes to score its first goal.

For most of the first period, Mercyhurst commanded the puck in the SU defensive zone applying pressure on Kelley. About 13 minutes into the game, Olivia Cvar got a strong look and struck the puck from the right side of the goal, but Kelley saved it up to keep the contest 1-0. In the opening period, Kelley faced 17 shots on goal and stopped 16.

Syracuse was quick to create an opportunity in its offensive zone to begin the second period. Kate Holmes passed the puck ahead to Darci Johal, but it was gloved by Nystrøm.

After zero penalties by either team in the first frame, the two teams combined for four in the second period. The first came about four minutes in after Makayla Javier was called for tripping, giving SU a player advantage. During the power-play, Sofia Nuutinen used her stick to break up a Syracuse pass in the Mercyhurst defensive zone.

Hallett committed a cross-checking penalty midway through the period. But, the Orange rallied to kill off the Lakers’ advantage.

At the 13:19 mark of the second period, Nuutinen was called for interference. Syracuse controlled the puck in its offensive zone as Tatum White passed to Holmes on the left side. Holmes fired the puck into the crease, where Johal netted the score to tie the game at 1-1 50 seconds into the power-play.

A minute later, Alexandria Weiss passed the puck up the ice into the Mercyhurst defensive zone creating a one-on-one play for Sarah Thompson and Nystrøm. The puck drifted toward Nystrøm, inches from the outstretched stick of Thompson before Nystrøm could pounce on it to stop the SU attack.

In the second period, Syracuse showed signs of offensive emergence capitalizing off 1-of-3 Mercyhurst penalties and nearly matching the Lakers in shots on goal in the frame (12-10). Defensively, strong play for Kelley kept the Lakers from adding to their score total and sent the Orange to the third period tied 1-1.

It took fewer than four minutes for the Lakers to regain the lead, as Upson scored and capitalized on the power-play for a 2-1 Mercyhurst lead.

Four minutes later, Upson kickstarted a scoring outburst of three total goals between the two teams in just 64 seconds. Following an intercepted pass by Boucher, she took the puck into the Syracuse crease and it ricocheted off Kelley to an open Upson, who fired it into the net for 3-1 lead.

Just 17 seconds later, Johal and Holmes connected off a puck deflection cut the Lakers’ advantage to 3-2.

For the next minute, Kelley was peppered by Mercyhurst shots before Chantal Ste-Croix snuck behind the SU goal which drew Kelley to leave the net. Kelley followed Ste-Croix, leading to an open Johansson, who netted her second goal of the contest and gave Mercyhurst a 4-2 lead.

With nearly eight minutes to play, a flurry of penalties, two on Mercyhurst and one by Syracuse, created a 22-second window of a 4-on-3 player advantage for Syracuse but the SU offense found no success.

White was penalized with under three minutes remaining and 40 seconds later, Megan McKay converted a pass from Cvar to grow the Lakers lead to a 5-2.

Twenty seconds later, a Syracuse penalty led to another Mercyhurst goal. This time, Cvar found Ste-Croix, who struck the puck through Kelley’s legs with 1:30 left as the Lakers held on to win 6-2.

Published on January 13, 2024 at 5:16 pm