ERIE, Pa. – The third-ranked Mercyhurst College women's hockey team scored five goals in the first period before adding four more in the second en route to a 9-1 win over St. Cloud State Friday evening at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The Lakers move to 1-0-0 for the fifth straight season and record their largest lid-lifting victory in program history.

Coming off a 7-0 romp of Wilfrid Laurier that saw seven different players score a goal, the Lakers continued with the balanced attack as eight different skaters accounted for the offense this time.

Senior Vicki Bendus led the group with a game-high two goals and an assist, while seniors Meghan Agosta and Jesse Scanzano and junior Kelley Steadman all scored once and helped out on two others. In addition to picking up three points in her return from the Olympics, Agosta joined classmate Scanzano as the the only Mercyhurst players on the active roster to have 100 assists in a career, picking up her milestone helper in the second period.

Senior Cassea Schols, sophomore Jessica Christofferson and freshmen Christie Cicero and Christine Bestland each contributed a goal.

Mercyhurst wasted little time in building its lead in the first period, scoring two goals less than five minutes in. Bestland put the home team up 1-0 when she cleaned up a rebound from sophomore Samantha Watt's shot from the point at the 15:40 mark. Less than 40 seconds later, Christofferson doubled the advantage thanks to a pass from junior Meghan Corbett at 15:01.

Two more goals would be added to the scoreboard before the clock could hit the midway point. Bendus gave the Lakers a three-goal cushion when she stole a puck off a defenseman in St. Cloud State territory and skated in for an unassisted tally at 12:08. Cicero then connected off a feed from junior Bailey Bram that was created by a long pass from Agosta at the other end of the rink at 11:22.

After a St. Cloud State goal that the cut the deficit to three, Steadman made it a four-goal lead again on a self-made play at the 4:47 mark.

Mercyhurst outshot the Huskies 18-5 in the first period and continued to add to that total in the second, holding a 14-6 edge while special teams fueled the scoring with two goals coming on the power play and one on the penalty kill.

Scanzano opened the second period and got the home crowd on its feet when she scored a dazzling short-handed goal with 16:01 showing on the clock. On a breakaway with one defenseman to beat, Scanzano put on a spin move between the circles and sent a shot as she was falling to the ice past the goaltender for the 6-1 lead.

Two power-play goals followed from that point, as Schols saw her shot from the blueline make it through several players into the back of the net, while Agosta expanded the score to 8-1 with a sniper shot from the top of the right circle.

Bendus closed out the scoring with 5:01 remaining in the second, taking a pass from Scanzano for the tally on an even-strength opportunity.

Mercyhurst finished the game with a 42-23 advantage in shots and converted 2-for-5 on the power play. Junior Hillary Pattenden turned aside 12 of those chances through two periods of play to earn the win. Sophomore Stephanie Ciampa closed out the game with 10 saves.

Ashley Nixon, on the other hand, recorded 18 saves and allowed seven goals through 28:41 worth of action before being relieved by Tayler VanDenakk, who made 15 stops and allowed two goals in the remaining 31:19.

Both teams close out the two-game series on Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. Game time is set for 2 p.m.