HAMILTON — With just under eight minutes to play, the Colgate Raiders were barely hanging onto their 2-1 lead and looking to fend off a Mercyhurst comeback on Saturday afternoon. However, a five-minute stretch deep in the third period saw three Colgate goals that propelled the Raiders to their fourth-straight non-conference victory.
"It was definitely a closer game than yesterday," fifth year captain Danielle Serdachny said. "But I thought it really came together in the third and we got a great team win which is always nice."
Serdachny jolted the Raider offense to life five minutes into the opening period, slotting her fourth goal of the season off the dish from fellow fifth year Kaitlyn O'Donohoe and senior
Kristýna Kaltounková. Seven minutes later, she took the pass from
Elyssa Biederman and led a one-woman fast break, showing off an impressive display of stick skills and scoring Colgate's first shorthanded goal of the season.
The Raiders could not carry the momentum into the second frame, however, and ceded the energy to Mercyhurst who capitalized with their lone score of the weekend and the only goal of the period.
The Lakers continued to play the Raiders tough to open the third despite being outshot 29-19 and losing nearly 80% of the faceoffs through the second period.
Head Coach Greg Fargo elected to take a timeout with 11 minutes to play in an attempt to correct his disjointed Raiders offense, which proved to be the correct move from the 2021 ECACHL Coach of the Year.
His Raiders took control of the ice in the remaining nine minutes with Kaltounková breaking through for her second point of the night and fourth multiple-point effort of the season. Biederman logged her seventh assist in five games while sophomore Ava Svejkovsky was credited with her first-career helper.
Colgate did not wait long to tack on as first-year Emma Pais added another score two minutes later. After trading shots with the Lakers, junior
Neena Brick added another insurance goal with less than 90 seconds remaining with first-year
Kaia Malachino's first-career assist and
Madeline Palumbo's second dish of the weekend.
UP NEXT
The Raiders take a week off before heading south for their first road trip of the season, spending Oct. 27 in-state to take on RPI before traveling to Brown on Oct. 28.
