By: Sean Houston
The St. Lawrence Women’s Hockey Team completed a successful weekend, topping the Mercyhurst Lakers 6-1 on Friday and 4-1 the following afternoon. Entering the weekend, the Lakers held the #9 spot in the USCHO rankings with St. Lawrence sitting just outside the poll of the top ten teams in the nation. When the new poll was released this past Monday, their roles were reversed, showing that the Saints had earned their way to the #9 position and Mercyhurst had dropped out of the top ten.
In Friday’s matchup at Appleton Arena, SLU took the lead mid-way through the first period and never looked back. Junior forward Jenna Marks kicked off the scoring for the Saints 8:55 into the period. Although the home team would not resume its scoring until the second period, senior goaltender Carmen MacDonald’s eight saves and multiple blocked shots by the Saints defense kept Mercyhurst off the scoreboard.
The SLU skaters burst the game open in the second period, finding the back of the net four more times. Sophomore Brooke Webster, the team’s leading scorer, notched her 14th goal of the season just 1:12 into the period. Although the Lakers’ Sarah Robello broke the shutout at 7:04 during a frenzy in front of the goal, the Saints were undeterred, regaining the two goal lead less than 2 minutes later. The tally belonged to Sophomore Alex Moore. It was her first of the 2014-2015 season and first of two in the game. The Saints’ third goal resulted in a goaltender change for the Lakers with Julia DiTondo replacing Amanda Makela at 8:59 in the second period. Despite the switch, the home team scored twice more in the period, receiving a goal each from Kayla Raniwsky ‘15 and Jacqueline Wand ‘15.
The final period resembled the first, punctuated by resilient defense and goaltending, and a final goal by Alex Moore, her second of the game.
Although Saturday’s contest was a much different story, St. Lawrence earned its second win of the weekend and senior goalie MacDonald recorded the 60th victory of her career.
The Saints started the game strong, scoring just 2:30 into the first period off of a shot from forward Raniwsky. The game, however, would remain locked at 1-0 through the first period and most of the second despite heavy pressure from the Lakers’ offense. Mercyhurst finally broke through on a pass redirected by Jennifer MacAskill and past the Saints’ MacDonald at 17:51 in the second.
The back-and-forth grind remained tied until 9:21 in the third period when Saint Lawrence junior defender Megan Armstrong netted the eventual game-winner. At the 12:21 mark, junior Kailee Heidersbach added an insurance goal after a turnover created by senior Jessica Hon. With 1:49 remaining on the clock, Marks clinched the game for St. Lawrence with an empty-netter.
The Saints improved to 14-8-3 overall following the decisive sweep of Mercyhurst. The team returns to ECAC play this weekend at Appleton, taking on Brown University at 7:00 PM on Friday and the Bulldogs of Yale University at 4:00 PM on Saturday.