NEWARK, DE. – The Lindenwood Women's Hockey team dropped the first game of their series with the Delaware Blue Hens on Friday night by a final score of 5-3. Molly Henderson led the team with two goals, while Zsofia Pazmandi also lit the lmap for the Lions in the loss. 

Delaware struck first in the opening 20 minutes of play at the 7:30 mark to take a 1-0 lead off a rebound in front of the Lindenwood net. Following the Delaware goal, the Lions committed back-to-back penalties and were forced to defend for most of the last 12 minutes of the period. Lindenwood limited the damage however, killing off both Blue Hen power plays and recording three blocks during the four minutes to keep the deficit at one. With less than a minute to go, Michaela Paulinyova drew a penalty to give the Lions their first power play of the game. While on the power play, the Lions had both of their shots blocked, with the second blocked shot leading to a breakaway goal for Delaware as the Blue Hens took a 2-0 lead into the locker room at the first intermission. Nicole Pietrucha led the team in shots on goal in the first period with two, as Lindenwood was outshot 12-7 in the opening frame.
 
In the second period, Lindenwood got on the scoreboard six minutes in on a goal scored by Henderson off an assist by Hannah Dods to cut the Blue Hen lead to 2-1. The Lions were forced to defend once again in the second period as Lindenwood comitted a five minute major penalty and a game misconduct, but the penalty kill unit stepped up once again and kept Delaware off the scoreboard with three minutes left to go in the second. Similar to the first period, the Lions gave up a late goal with less than a minute to go as Delaware took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission. 

Lindenwood didn't go down quietly in the third period as the Lions scored twice to keep the game in reach. Less than two minutes into the final period, Molly Henderson was able to score her second goal of the game on an odd man rush. Rhaea Flint sent a pass up the left side of the ice to Silje Gundersen, who found Henderson on the right side of the ice to make it a 3-2 game. After the Blue Hens went up by two less than two minutes later, Zsofia Pazmandi found the back of the net off assists from Michaela Paulinyova and Tatiana Blichova to make it a one goal game yet again. However, Delaware scored an empty net goal with six seconds left in the third to take the first game of the series by a final score of 5-3. Lindenwood finished the contest with 35 shots on goal and outshot the Blue Hens, who had 24 shots on goal, but were unable to come back after being down by two after the first period. Tatiana Blichova led the Lions with six shots on goal, while Nicole Pietrucha and Josey Dunne-Weeks each had four shots on goal. 

The Lions will wrap up their series with Delaware tomorrow afternoon with puck drop set for 12 p.m.