MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo.- The Lindenwood Women's Hockey team (11-17-2, 9-10-1 AHA) picked up their second straight home sweep with a 5-1 win over RIT on Saturday afternoon behind big offensive performances from Zsofia Pazmandi and Ellie Muscedere. Pazmandi scored two third period goals and Muscedere had four assists to help the Lions move into third place in the AHA standings with four regular season games to go. 

Lindenwood opened the scoring early on in the first period at the 2:24 mark after Muscedere played the puck up the middle of the ice to Molly Henderson after RIT misfired on a pass in the Lions defensive zone. Henderson and Paige Cline had a two-on-zero breakaway from the neutral zone and passed the puck back and forth a few times before Cline buried the puck in the back of the net to give the Lions the 1-0 advantage. LU added on to their lead six minutes later on a power play goal scored by Silje Gundersen. Gundersen found open ice in the middle of the slot and buried a wrist shot under the right post with traffic in front of the net. The Tigers responded at the 14:06 mark to cut the lead down to one and the score would be 2-1 in favor of the Lions after one period of play. Zsofia Pazmandi and Paige Cline each had two shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes to lead the Lions who finished with nine shots on goal. 

In the second period, Lindenwood was forced to kill off an early power play opportunity and did just that to keep the lead in tact. Most of the second period was spent in the Lions defensive zone, but Lexington Secreto stopped all 12 shots that she faced in the middle frame to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard and kept the Lions in front after 40 minutes of play. LU came out of the locker room with a lot of energy in the third period and scored two goals in a matter of two minutes to take a commanding 4-1 lead with 17:11 to go in the contest. Zsofia Pazmandi scored the first goal of the period on the power play after Ellie Muscedere found Molly Henderson below the Tiger net. Henderson was able to find space near the left faceoff circle and fired a shot that created a rebound where Pazmandi was able to tap in the rebound opportunity to put the Lions back up by two. Henderson wouldn't be done as she scored Lindenwood's fourth goal of the game after Muscedere fired a shot from the blue line that was redirected by Silje Gundersen. Off the redirection, Henderson was able to control the puck and found the back of the net to put the Lions up by three. Pazmandi added an empty net goal later in the third period with assists coming from Josey Dunne-Weeks and Ellie Muscedere to seal the Lions second straight home series sweep. 

The special teams unit was once again the difference in the contest this afternoon with the Lions going 3/3 on the penalty kill and 2/5 on the power play. Lexington Secreto made 32 saves in the contest and added her eighth win of the season while Paige Cline picked up her sixth straight game in which she has recorded a point.

With the win, Lindenwood moves into third place in the AHA with 30 conference points and sits one point ahead of RIT and two points ahead of Syracuse. The Lions will remain at Centene Community Ice Center next weekend for their final regular season home series of the season as they welcome in #4 Penn State. Puck drop on Friday, February 6 is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT.