PROVIDENCE STOPPED BY MERCYHURST, 6-3

Sophomore forward Allison Micheletti scored a goal for the Friars

ERIE, Pa. - The Providence College women's ice hockey faced off against No. 9 Mercyhurst Lakers Friday, Oct. 12, where they fell 6-3.

After 20 minutes of back and forth hockey, both teams ended the first period scoreless. The Lakers killed off a penatly at 17:58 in the first period. Later in the period the Friars had a solid penalty kill with three big blocks in the defensive zone.

The Lakers took an early lead in the second period with two powerplay goals. The Friars went down two players when senior Nicole Anderson (Jordan, Minn.) took a penalty at 19:07 for interference and senior Jessica Vella (Pickering, Ontario) also took an interference penalty at 18:43. The first Mercyhurst goal came at 17:59 from Molly Byrne when the Lakers had a two man advantage. The second came from Valia Higson just 43 seconds later, while they were still on the powerplay.

The Friars answered at 16:23 of the second period when Molly Illikainen (Grand Rapids, Minn.) put her second goal of the season past Laker goaltender Amanda Makela off a feed from Anderson, closing the Laker lead to one goal. Just 2 minutes later at 19:01 Mercyhurst again extended their lead to 3-1 with a powerplay goal coming from Molly Byrne.

Junior Rebecca Morse (Westfield, N.J.) scored her first goal of the season and closed the Mercyhurst lead. She ripped a slapshot from the blueline off a pass from freshman Lexi Romanchuck (San Jose, Calif.) with just 32 seconds remaining in the period. At the end of the second period the Lakers led the Friars 3-2.

Morse took a tripping penalty 3:36 into the third period giving Mercyhurst a powerplay. The Laker offense capitalized on the man advantage and put the puck in off a rebound shot. Extetnding their lead to 4-2 with 15:41 left of the third period. The Friars had a chance to close the lead when Jenna Dingeldein of Mercyhurst took a roughing penalty at 5:02. Junior Maggie Pendleton (Woodbury, Minn.) hit the post with a one-timer shot in the closing seconds of the powerplay.

At 14:17 sophomore Allison Micheletti fired the puck upstairs off a rebound shot taken by senior Emily Groth (Monona, Wisc.), putting the Friars within one goal of the Lakers.

Mercyhurst put the game out of reach with just 2:58 remaining in the third period when the Lakers scored off an offensive zone faceoff on freshman goaltender Sarah Bryant (Bethleham, Pa.). Bryant finished the game with 33 saves. The Friars pulled Bryant with 1:47 remaining in the game to try and equalize the score. With 12 seconds left and the net open the Lakers finished the game with an empty-net goal. The final score was 6-3 Lakers.

Mercyhurst now moves to a 4-0-1 record, while Providence falls to a 1-2-0 record on the season. The Friars will look to bounce back in tomorrows game against Mercyhurst at 2:00 p.m.