March 8, 2008

Stats

Niagara University, NY - Senior team captain Stephanie Jones' goal, 3:29 into sudden death overtime, gave No. 7 Mercyhurst a hard-fought 2-1 win over Wayne State in the College Hockey America (CHA) women's championship game Saturday night. The Lakers, who improved to 26-7-3, won the CHA title for the 6th straight year. Wayne State fell to 22-9-3.

After a scoreless first period, one in which the Warriors took eight of their game-total 16 shots, Mercyhurst sophomore Meghan Agosta put the Lakers on top with her 39th goal of the season, a power play tally, at 6:34 of the second. Agosta was helped by freshman Jesse Scanzano, who registered her fourth helper of the tournament. However, it took Wayne State less than two minutes to manufacture its own power play score when Sam Poyton collected her 38th of the season.

The score remained deadlocked until Jones' heroics in overtime. Her 15th of the year was assisted by senior Kristen Erickson.

Mercyhurst allowed Wayne State's high-powered offense just eight shots in the final 43+ minutes of the game and seven of those came in the middle period. The Lakers totaled 30 shots in the contest and finished 1 of 5 with the skater advantage. The Warriors ended 1 of 6.

The teams divided five games this season (2-2-1) as four of them went to overtime.

Agosta was named tournament MVP while teammates Stephanie Jones, goalie Laura Hosier and Natalie Payne were selected to the All-Tournament squad.

Mercyhurst will now wait for a possible NCAA bid Sunday. The announcement is due at 6:00pm. If the Lakers get the nod, it would be their fourth successive trip.