Orange Rout Mercyhurst in Friday Night Spectacular

Friday, January 10

Syracuse, NY

7 PM

Syracuse University

6-13-1, 5-1-1CHA

Mercyhurst

11-8-2, 5-2-0CHA

Mercyhurst

Syracuse

Freshman Brynn Koocher opened scoring tonight with a slick drift up the sideboards.

Orange Rout Mercyhurst in Friday Night Spectacular

1/10/2020 11:09:00 PM | Ice Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

Syracuse, N.Y. – Syracuse ice hockey used three power play goals and a full offensive showing to glide past College Hockey America rival Mercyhurst Friday night at Tennity Ice Pavilion. The 8-3 victory featured 11 different players tallying points for the Orange, with Brynn Koocher, Abby Moloughney, Lauren Bellefontaine, Emma Polaski, Savannah Rennie, Kelli Rowswell, Anonda Hoppner, and Lindsay Eastwood all netting goals. Mercyhurst shuffled through all three of its goaltenders in the late night tilt.

'Cuse improves to 5-1-1 in the CHA with the win and jumps up to first in the conference standings, bumping Mercyhurst (11-8-2, 5-2-0 CHA) from first to second. With the win, head coach Paul Flanagan is just one victory away from the 400th of his career.

🔊 Hear what Coach Flanagan had to say after tonight's win. pic.twitter.com/EzHxWGMuKx
— Syracuse Ice Hockey (@CuseIce) January 11, 2020

"This win is good for our team," Flanagan said. "Everyone's playing with confidence and it doesn't seem like it's any one person leading. When you get your team all playing hard and doing good things that means we're hitting our stride. Now it's all about sticking to the fundamentals, focusing on doing the little things well, and continuing to get better."

We scored a LOT of goals tonight. Check it out and be sure to pack Tennity tomorrow for the series finale 🍊🏒https://t.co/TkcGlSfYNk
— Syracuse Ice Hockey (@CuseIce) January 11, 2020

How it happened
Syracuse made a statement early thanks to Koocher midway through the opening period. The freshman coasted up the right-side boards and deked a slew of defenders before backhanding it blocker side on Kennedy Blair to open scoring. Rennie kept the momentum going, scoring on a feed from Moloughney to extend the Orange lead lead 2-0 with five minutes to go in the first period. Eastwood put the Orange up 3-0 with two minutes to spare off a blue-line rocket while on the power play. The Lakers snapped the shutout a minute later with a tic-tac-toe goal from Michele Robillar mere seconds before the intermission horn sounded.

The Orange continued pressuring the Lakers, scoring three unanswered goals in the first half of the second period. Hoppner finished a send-in from Victoria Klimek that made it 4-1 'Cuse before Polaski buried the Orange's second power play goal of the night a minute later. Another minute elapsed before Moloughney added her name to the score sheet to put Syracuse ahead 5-1. The Lakers added their second of the night on a one-timer from junior Summer-Rae Dobson with two minutes to go in the middle period.

The final stanza featured Bellafontaine recording Syracuse's third PPG at the 7:48 mark, followed by Rowswell finishing at the 9:44 mark to put 'Cuse ahead 8-2. With five minutes left in the game, Abigail Schauer put away a feed from Robillar for a final Laker goal.

The Orange offense forced Mercyhurst to run through all three of its goalies, Jenna Silvonen (1-2-0) recording the loss after giving up four goals in 27 minutes.

Syracuse goaltender Ady Cohen earned the win, making 23 saves on the night and improving to 4-4 on the year. Silvonen (12), Kennedy Blair (10), and Leah Klassen (5) combined for 27 saves for the Lakers in the loss.

Up Next
The Orange close out the series Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Tennity. Parking and admission to all home contests is free, and the action can be seen live via Cuse.tv.

For complete coverage of Syracuse ice hockey, follow us on Facebook (Syracuse Women's Ice Hockey), Twitter (@CuseIce) and Instagram (@CuseIce).