SYRACUSE, N.Y.—No. 10 Mercyhurst’s early lead was enough to get past the Orange ice hockey team (14-11-2, 6-6-2 CHA), and Syracuse fell 2-1 to the Lakers (17-7-3, 10-3-1 CHA) on Saturday afternoon at Tennity Ice Pavilion. Margot Scharfe got SU within one point at the end of the second but the Orange’s third period efforts were unsuccessful despite preventing MU from scoring for the final 42:40 of the game.
“We were at least going hard, and that’s one of the messages we’ve tried to get across to the team,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “If you make a mistake, recover quickly. I really felt that they did a good job from start to finish. It’s disappointing to have the same result against this team but I do think that there are good things to take from this.”
Melissa Piacentini‘s seven-game goal streak, the longest in program history, came to a close but she assisted on the lone SU goal to extend her point streak to eight games, tied for the longest stretch of any SU player.
Jenesica Drinkwater made 35 saves, matching her season high set last night against the Lakers, including 15 in the third period that gave SU a chance to tie it on the other end. Mercyhurst’s Amanda Makela stopped 24 of Syracuse’s 25 shots on net.
The game opened with six minutes of straight play before the first whistle was blown at 13:50. In that span, Mercyhurst controlled the puck, getting nine total shots off including five on target. Cara Johnson had an opportunity to net the first goal of the game when Makela got caught behind her net but the Laker defense forced her to shoot wide of the net and the score remained at 0-0.
Midway through the first stanza, Mercyhurst’s up-tempo offense became productive and the Lakers notched two goals within five minutes to take a 2-0 lead going into the intermission.
With nine seconds left in the second period, Margot Scharfe cut into the Laker lead, wristing one top shelf after Nicole Renault centered the puck from the point, bringing the score to 2-1.
Syracuse held off MU for all of the third period but couldn’t notch the game-tying goal and dropped its second game of the weekend.
The Orange completes its home stand on Tuesday night when St. Lawrence visits for a 7 p.m. puck drop at the Onondaga War Memorial.
