CANTON, N.Y. — St. Lawrence completed the sweep of ninth-ranked Mercyhurst Saturday afternoon, winning by a 4-1 final.
Mercyhurst drops to 17-6-3 on the season, while the Saints improved to 14-8-3.
St. Lawrence scored early in the first to open a 1-0 lead. Just 2:30 into the game, Kayla Raniwsky took a pass from Megan Armstrong in the slot and beat Amanda Makela high on the glove side for her 10th goal of the season.
“Meg made a nice pass to me and I looked up and saw all that space,” said Raniwsky. “I just shot it where I could.”
The first period yielded no more goals for either side, but late in the second, the Lakers knotted the game at 1-all. Sarah Robello had the puck below the red line and she passed to Jennifer MacAskill standing next to the post and MacAskill tipped the puck past Carmen MacDonald at 17:53 of the second.
Following the goal, Mercyhurst maintained pressure in the St. Lawrence zone, but could not score before the buzzer sounded.
“The buzzer couldn’t have come at a better time in the second period,” said SLU coach Chris Wells. “They had good chances and we got lucky that it ended.”
After regrouping during the intermission, Wells’ players sealed the game in the third period with three unanswered goals, including two in a span of three minutes.
At the 9:21 mark, Armstrong picked up her fourth goal of the year when she found a loose puck off a Raniwsky rebound and fired it past Makela on the blocker side.
Exactly three minutes later, Kailee Heidersbach potted her eighth goal of the season and put the Saints up by two with a slapshot from the low slot that beat Makela over the blocker.
Meryhurst coach Michael Sisti called a timeout after the third goal to try and settle his players, but MacDonald held the line in the SLU net, finishing with 26 saves for her ninth win of the season.
Jenna Marks iced the game for SLU with an empty-net goal with 1:49 remaining.
After getting swept, Sisti sees room for improvement with his team.
“I thought we played hard today and that’s a good starting point,” said Sisti. “We have to dust ourselves off after this weekend. We’re still a young team and we’ve got a lot of hockey left.”
Wells was pleased with the way his team kept focus after winning 6-1 on Friday.
“It’s tough to come back after the one on Friday, because we knew they would come out with a great effort,” said Wells. “Everybody is starting to find their spot and the depth is showing, a good sign heading into the remainder of ECAC play.”
