Grit on Ice: Women’s Hockey Dominates

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Christina Judy, Staff writer

The Women’s Ice Hockey team took on Syracuse University this past weekend and snatched a couple of wins on the road to improve their season record to 17-13-2. In a 4-2 victory over the Orange on Saturday, Feb. 11, the Lakers received their third win against Syracuse this season. Mercyhurst came out of the locker room and onto the smooth ice dictating the energy and momentum. In the opening minutes of the first period, freshman Megan McKay shot the puck and put it in the back of the net to give the Lakers the lead. Junior Jersey Phillips and freshman Riley Johnson worked together to assist McKay in that goal. Just moments later with 3:18 remaining in the first period, Liliane Perreault scored her second goal of the weekend to increase the lead to 2-0. Later in the game, Sara Boucher a lefty forward for the Lakers, notched a goal at 15:20 with an assist from Perreault, giving Perreault her second point of the game. Syracuse gathered themselves between periods and mustered up enough strength to compete with Mercyhurst in the second period. The Orangemen had a powerplay at 15:28 in which they scored their first goal of the game. They were able to carry that momentum into the third period as they found
the back of the net again to increase their score to two points at 18:40. With their team only leading by one the Lakers geared up and showed up later in the last period. Perreault put herself on the stat sheet again with another goal at 19:08 on an empty netter. Her goal was assisted by Alexandria Weiss and Chantal Ste-Croix. The Lakers goalkeeper, Ena Nystrom kept her team at bay with a 0.938 save percentage and stopping 30 shots to close out the game. With a weekend full of wins, the Lakers look excitedly to their
last matchup of the regular season against the Lindenwood Lions. The games will be played in Erie on Feb. 17 at 6:00 p.m. and Feb. 18 at 2:00 p.m. After these games, Mercyhurst has a solid playoff slot as they currently hold second place in the Collegiate Hockey Association (CHA) with their 20 points and 9-3-2 conference record. The Lakers set themselves up nicely during their regular season with their efforts giving them a home rink advantage for the playoff semi-finals. These games are scheduled for Feb.
24 and 25, 2023 with Feb. 26 reserved should a third game be needed. Hopefully the Lakers will absolutely dominate their competition, and put it away after The final game of the season, the 2023 CHA Championship game is a single game that will be held on either March 3rd or 4th.