Brooke Avery’s Last-Minute Goal Earns Syracuse First Win Over Mercyhurst
By David Zachary Edelstein
CitrusTV Ice Hockey Reporter
A fierce back-and-forth battle between Syracuse (7-18-2, 7-5-1 College Hockey America) and Mercyhurst (12-11-3, 9-4-0 College Hockey America) that included four lead changes literally came down to the last minute, as Brooke Avery put the Orange up 6-5 with 43 seconds left in the game.
Neither team had any shots after that, and Syracuse got the one-goal win.
This is SU’s first win over the Lakers this season. In the second and third games of the season in mid-October, SU lost 4-2 and 1-0, respectively.
This was Avery’s second game-winning goal of the season and the seventh of her Syracuse career. It was also her second game-winning goal in four games. Her first of the season was against Penn State on January 25 as part of a 2-1 regulation Orange victory.
Syracuse took an early lead, opening scoring with a goal by freshman Abby Moloughney 6:01 into the game. It was her fifth goal of the season.
Mercyhurst’s junior forward Emma Nuutinen scored her team-leading 13th goal of the season 3:40 later to tie the game at 1-1.
The score remained 1-1 at the first intermission, but from there, the game opened up and back-and-forth scoring continued.
Junior forward Sam Isbell scored a power play goal for the Lakers 13 seconds into period, giving Mercyhurst its first lead of the game, 2-1.
Just over two minutes later 2:16 into the second period, Avery scored her first goal of the game to tie it at 2-2.
Less than two minutes after than, Megan Korzack scored 3:56 into period two to put Mercyhurst back on top, 3-2.
Syracuse scored the next three goals after that. Jessica DiGirolamo (5:32 into period two), Allie Olnowich (8:23 into period two) and Anonda Hoppner (five seconds left in period two) each scored to give SU a 5-3 lead at the second intermission. Olnowich’s goal was her first of this season and second of her career.
Mercyhurst scored two goals within four minutes of play with 7:41 and 4:04 left in regulation as Nuutinen and Korzack both scored their second goals of the game, respectively. With her goal, Nuutinen extended her team lead in scoring to 14 goals this season.
With the game tied 5-5, Avery scored her game-winning goal off Allie Monroe’s 17th assist of the season. Munroe now leads the Orange with 20 points this year.
Syracuse and Mercyhurst play each other for the final time in the regular season Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
dzedelst@syr.edu | @DavidZEdelstein
