MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MO. - Lindenwood Women's Hockey got their first win of the 2025-26 season on Friday night as they defeated Merrimack College 6-3. The victory over the Warriors marks the first time that the Lions have defeated a Hockey East opponent since October 10, 2015 when they beat Northeastern on the road by a score of 4-2.
The first period had a lot of action with five total goals being scored in the opening 20 minutes of play. Three of the goals scored came from
Paige Cline,
Molly Henderson, and
Zsofia Pazmandi as the offense scored the most goals in a single period this season. Lindenwood struck first 5:29 into the game to give them the early 1-0 lead thanks to a turnover created by
Tatem Starlight-Yellowfly in the Warriors defensive zone. Yellowfly intercepted a pass along the left side of the boards behind the net, and sent a pass to the middle of the ice where Cline was all alone and beat the Merrimack goaltender to the right side of the net.
The Warriors responded with two unanswered goals at the 7:40 and 8:43 mark of the first period to grab the 2-1 lead midway through the first, before the Lions scored back-to-back goals to regain the lead. At the 10:25 mark,
Molly Henderson tied the game at two from just outside of the faceoff circle after the Lions forced another Warrior turnover.
Tatiana Blichova retrieved the misplay from the Merrimack defenseman and found Henderson for the goal for her second assist of the season and Henderson's first goal of the year. A minute later, both teams were in the middle of a line change as
Rhaea Flint sent a pass up the ice to
Zsofia Pazmandi. Pazmandi went up the left side of the ice, made a move past two Warrior skaters towards the middle of the zone, and fired a shot across her body that found the back of the net to put the Lions back in front by a score of 3-2 that would hold until the third period.
In the second period, the Lions killed two Merrimack power plays and allowed just two shots on those power plays. The Lions had several blocked shots in the contest, finishing the game with 16.
Zsofia Pazmandi had a team-high five blocked shots, while
Lucie Quarto and
Michaela Paulinyova each had two.
Madison Bowtell stopped all seven shots that she faced in the second period as the Lions kept the 3-2 lead with one period to go.
In the third period, the Lions erupted for three more goals, including two coming off the stick of
Tatiana Blichova. After Pazmandi scored her second goal of the night to make it 4-2, Blichova extended the Lion's lead to 5-2 on a break away goal off an assist from Henderson. The Freshman from Slovakia sent a wrist shot through the Warrior goalie's legs to give the Lion's a comfortable lead. Later in the period, Blichova struck again on the power play with less than two minutes to play to put the Lions in front for good by a score of 6-3.
"We played very very well tonight. The last few weeks have been tough with the WCHA opponents and we definitely learned some lessons and got better." said Head Coach
Taylor Wasylk. "Tonight we definitely showed maturity and we showed we can play with some really good teams."
The Lions will wrap up their series with Merrimack College tomorrow afternoon with puck drop set for 1 p.m.
