1- Senior goalie Sarah McDonnell got the start in net, and earned a shut out in the 1-0 victory. With McDonnell getting her first start of the season on Friday, this marked the first time since 2015-2016 that all three goalies on the Mercyhurst roster saw game time in the same season. Saturday's win was McDonnell's ninth career shutout; her last one was January 2018 versus Lindenwood.
2- The only goal of the game came in the second period, on Sam Isbell's first of the year. The Mercyhurst defender kept the puck in the offensive zone, dumping it into the corner. Dobson got a stick on it, Hine took control and fed it to Isbell who was cruising through the slot. Isbell caught the pass on the backhand, patiently stepped around the defender and beat Syracuse goaltender Ady Cohen high blocker side. Nice goal, but my fave is the oohs and ahhs from the crowd:
@Buccigross you won’t find a better goal scored today in #CawlidgeHawkey on the women’s side. Sam Isbell from @HurstAthletics with beauty in their 1-0 win at SU pic.twitter.com/iwkVocEyJx— Mario Sacco (@MarioSaccoNC9) October 14, 2018
3- The Syracuse goaltender was Ady Cohen, of Boynton Beach, Florida making her first collegiate start. I didn't know what to expect, but Cohen giving up just 1 goal on 24 shots indicates Cohen and Maddi Welch, 'Cuse's senior netminder, may battle for the starting position this year. Next up, the O-3 Syracuse Orange face the Lindenwood Lions.
Semi related tangent: As an Ohioan with no real rooting interest in the 'Cuse goalie situation, I'll root for Ady, an alum of Gilmour Academy. Gilmour Academy is located in a Cleveland suburb and is home to the only girls prep hockey team in Ohio. I like to hope its youth hockey association could one day be the heart of a girls hockey surge in Northeast Ohio.
4- In the Friday night clash between the Lakers and Orange the power plays executed at 20% (Mercyhurst) and 40% (Syracuse) respectively, with five power play opportunities per team. On Saturday, despite penalties galore, seventeen in total, neither team could convert. Mercyhurst will be happy to have escaped with a win, but surely would have liked to see the power play clicking before heading into next weekend's huge conference series with Robert Morris. A positive is that the penalty kill had a big night, killing seven penalties in a tightly called game, with no room on the scoreboard for error.
5- Meanwhile, Robert Morris heads into next weekend's matchup coming off of a split with Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute. RMU outshot the RPI Engineers 58-18 on Friday, and lost 1-0, thanks to the brilliant play of RPI goaltender Lovisa Selander. Not surprisingly, RPI could not duplicate the magic on Saturday, and RMU won game 2 of the series. Bizarrely, one of the Saturday goals against RPI was a harmless looking wrister from the neutral zone. Different day, completely different set of luck I suppose. You can see the highlights from that game here.
RMU's second goal, and game winner, was more of a traditional RMU goal. Lexi Templeman and Jaycee Gebhard worked the puck back and forth on the power play, with Templeman in the corner, Gebhard coming off the wall, receiving the puck and putting in the back of the net. The Colonials will make every effort to bring their best game to Erie, in one of the bigger series in NCAA hockey next weekend. RMU currently holds a 2-4 record, with splits against SLU, and RPI, and two losses to Clarkson. Surprisingly, the Colonials scored more goals against number one ranked Clarkson, than against their other two opponents thus far.
6- Last year, the Lakers went 3-2 versus Robert Morris. Kennedy Blair got the start in each of those games. Mercyhurst won game one and lost game two, in each of the regular season series. McDonnell last started against RMU on January 21, 2017, a game in which the two rivals tied each other, with McDonnell making 35 saves in a 3-3 tie. So, as has been the case for some time with the Mercyhurst Lakers, the sub plot of "Who will start in net?" endures. The good news is, either of McDonnell or Blair, the likely starters, can get the job done.
7- RMU's Coach Colontino likely has a far easier decision to make regarding goaltening. Lauren Bailey started the first five games of the season for the Colonials, before freshman Arielle DeSmet got the start in game two of the RPI series. In her first start, DeSmet gave up one goal on nine shots, earning her first college win. Most likely we will see senior Lauren Bailey in net for the Mercyhurst series. Although this is her first year as the number one goalie, Bailey has seen game action since her freshman year, and her resume includes a win against Mercyhurst.
The great rivalry starts its 2018-2019 chapter, at six pm on Friday, at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
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