ERIE, Pa. – Junior captain Vicki Bendus scored two goals, including the game-tying marker with 3:40 remaining in regulation, as the top-ranked Mercyhurst College women's hockey team and No. 4 Clarkson skated to a 5-5 tie on Saturday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The Lakers, unbeaten in their last 13 games, move to 17-1-3 on the season and 13-1-2 against non-conference competition.

Bendus' 17th goal of the season cleared the slate after Clarkson rattled off three-unanswered goals in a span of nine minutes and eight seconds to take a 5-4 lead early in the third period. Melissa Waldie made the score 4-3 with under five minutes to play in the second on an unassisted play at the 15:28 mark. Juana Baribeau then tied the game on a short-handed breakaway at 17:52. After intermission, Britney Selina gave the Golden Knights their first lead of the game, scoring on a 5-on-3 power play with 4:16 elapsed in the period.

The score would remain unchanged for the next 11 minutes until both teams were forced to skate 4-on-4 after matching penalties. With the extra space, Bendus forced a turnover in the neutral zone and skated into Clarkson territory, where she ripped a shot from the top of the right circle over the glove hand of netminder Lauren Dahm for the equalizer. It was her 17th goal of the season and marked the first time since the 2007-08 season that Mercyhurst had to rally to force overtime.

The Lakers carried the momentum from the late goal into overtime, where they outshot the Golden Knights, 3-2, and saw their goaltender, sophomore Hillary Pattenden, come up with two big saves. Pattenden turned aside Dominique Thibault and Baribeau on quality scoring chances to keep the score intact. She finished the game with 23 saves.

Mercyhurst outshot Clarkson 36-28, including 10-7 in the first period and 13-11 in the second as the Lakers built a 3-1 lead. Bendus broke the ice in the first period when she scored off a pass from sophomore Jess Jones just 4:45 into the frame on the power play. Clarkson followed suit shortly after with Daris Tendler's even-strength marker that tied game at 1-1 at 9:22.

Back-to-back goals in the second would push score to 3-1 in favor of the Lakers. Sophomore Bailey Bram netted her 19th goal of the season with a Golden Knight in the penalty box at 4:02, while junior Kylie Rossler gave the home team a two-goal cushion at 9:13.

Following Thibault's goal on the power play at 9:42, sophomore Pamela Zgoda got the crowd on its feet. From behind her own net, Zgoda took the puck down ice and scored her first collegiate goal on an end-to-end play, giving the Lakers a 4-2 advantage with 4:52 remaining in the period.

Both teams saw their special-teams units excel in the game. Mercyhurst converted 2-for-5 on the power play while Clarkson finished 2-for-6 and scored once on the penalty kill, marking just the second time this season the Lakers surrendered a short-handed goal.

With their non-conference slate in the books, the Lakers resume College Hockey America play next weekend with a two-game series at No. 10 Syracuse on Friday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. Friday's game can be viewed live on USCHO.com as the website's game of the week.