Erie, PA - Three goals in the opening five minutes was enough for third-ranked Mercyhurst College to handle the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team as the Lakers handed the Golden Knights their first loss of the season, 5-2, Friday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

The Golden Knights, who opened the weekend ranked just outside the top 10 in the country, fell to 2-1 overall with the loss while Mercyhurst moved to 3-0. The Lakers have outscored opponents 18-5 in the early going of the 2006-07 campaign. The two teams will meet again at 2:00 pm on Saturday.

It took just 19 seconds for Mercyhurst to jump on the scoreboard as Angelica Lorsell scored with assists going to Stephanie Jones and Laura Hosier.  Junior Katie Morrison (Ridgefield, CT) scored in her first game of the season at 2:28 to knot the score at 1-1, with assists going to Jessica Cloutier (Parker, CO) and Kim McKenney (Smiths Falls, ONT) on the Knights first power-play attempt of the game.

The tie score lasted for just over a minute as the Lakers flexed their scoring muscles with a pair of goals just 22 seconds apart. Meghan Agosta tallied at 3:50 in the first period and Jones added what would prove to be the game-winner at 4:12. Freshman Britney Selina (Thornhill, ONT) picked up her third goal of the season, a power-play marker, and the second goal of the game for the Knights at 10:55 to reduce the gap to a single goal. Morrison contributed the assist.

Stefanie Bourbeau and Agosta scored a goal in the second period and third period, respectively, for the final score.

Mercyhurst owned a sizeable shot advantage at 41-14, including an overwhelming 17-2 edge in the final period, putting to rest any hope of a Clarkson comeback. Senior goaltender Kira Hurley (Pickering, ONT) made 36 saves for the Golden Knights and Laura Hosier made 12 saves in addition to assisting on the game's opening goal. Clarkson went 2-for-9 with the man advantage as Mercyhurst was whistled for 10 infractions, but the Lakers were 2-for-6 on the power play, taking advantage of six penalties by Clarkson.