After blowing a two goal lead to Mercyhurst in the third period, Friday night’s game eerily resembled SU’s 6-4 loss to RIT, when the Orange surrendered four unanswered in the final period.

This contest was different, though, because senior captain Brooke Avery put the Orange back ahead, 6-5, with 43 seconds remaining. The Orange (7-18-2, 7-5-1 College Hockey America) held on and avoided a heartbreaker against the Lakers (12-11-3, 9-4). The win featured five lead changes and an action-packed, high-scoring second period that included four goals in the first five minutes and six total. Syracuse’s six goals came from six different skaters.

Freshman Abby Moloughney opened the game with her fifth goal of the season to put SU up 1-0. Mercyhurst’s Emma Nuutinen evened it back up three minutes later with a score of her own.

Though the first period finished in a draw, the Lakers outshot SU nine to five. Leading scorer Emma Polaski also picked up a 10-minute misconduct major in the period. Her penalty rolled over into the second period, and the Lakers capitalized with a Sam Isbell goal to go up 2-1. Polaski has previously struggled with discipline. On Jan. 19, she earned a 10-minute misconduct on Jan. 19 against RMU for yelling at the officials and leads the team in penalty minutes.

Mercyhurst’s lead didn’t last long, as defenseman Allie Munroe knotted her fourth goal of the year — Munroe leads Syracuse in points (18). Once again, Mercyhurst broke the tie with a goal from Megan Korzack. To tie the game at 3-3, Shelby Calof assisted her fellow defenseman Jessica DiGirolamo. Then, defenseman Allie Olnowich gave the Orange a 4-3 lead three minutes later.

Anonda Hoppner capped off the period with a goal to give the Orange a 5-3 lead. In total, there were three lead changes in the second period. Nuutinen scored again 12 minutes into the third period to cut Syracuse’s lead to one. Then, with less than five minutes to play, Korzack scored her second goal of the game to knot it at 5 and erase the Orange’s two-goal lead.

Then, Syracuse’s two captains — Munroe and Avery — teamed up for the decisive goal with under a minute to play. Munroe had three assists in the game, and none more important than finding Avery as the game clocked ticked down.

Syracuse is now three points behind second-place Mercyhurst in the CHA standings. The teams play again tomorrow at 1 p.m.