Senior Jenna Marks snapped a 2-2 tie with 1:52 remaining in the third period with a wrister from the slot for her second goal of the season to help the St. Lawrence women's hockey team to a 3-2 win over the Penn State Nittany Lions in Appleton Arena on Monday night.

The Saints, playing their third game in four days, got a goal and an assist from both Brooke Webster and Kennedy Marchment on Monday, while Dominique Korakianitis, Kailee Heidersbach and Hannah Miller each recorded assists. With the win, the team improves to 8-7-1 overall, while Penn State falls to 4-8-3.

"We found a way to win late in the game which we haven't done in a while," Head Coach Chris Wells said. "Heidersbach and Marks hooked up on a nice little criss-cross play to get us the lead."

St. Lawrence first took the lead early in the first period when senior defenseman Korakianitis had her shot blocked at the top of the right circle, but was able to collect it and dish to Webster who was set up on the far post. Webster redirected Korakianitis's pass behind netminder Hann Ehresmann for a 1-0 lead in favor of the home team.

They carried that lead into the first intermission and through much of the middle frame until the team's found themselves in a four-on-four situation after penalties to the Nittany Lions' Laura Bowman and the Saints Abbey McRae just 38 seconds apart late in the second.

Penn State struck first on a goal by Victoria Samuelsson at the 16:49 mark to even the score at 1-1, but Marchment answered 43 seconds later when she deked Ehresmann on the near post before depositing the puck into the back of the net to help St. Lawrence regain the lead, 2-1, with her seventh of the season.

Midway through the third period, Hannah Bramm pulled Penn State even once around when she found the puck in a scrum in the crease and slid it past Saints goaltender Brooke Wolejko to make it a 2-2 game.

"Penn State played a real smart game and bottled us up all night," Wells added. "They had sticks on pucks and made it hard to generate offense."

But Marks, Heidersbach and Miller combined for the third Saints goal in the closing minutes to hold of the Nittany Lions in the first game of a two-game set in Appleton.

Miller hit Heidersbach with a pass in the neutral zone and she carried over the blue line into Penn State territory before cutting in front of Marks and laying a drop pass in the slot. Marks' shot beat Ehresmann over the shoulder on the glove side to seal the win.

Ehresmann finished with 24 saves for Penn State while Wolejko stopped 19 shots for the Saints. The sophomore netminder is 3-0-0 on the year so far for Coach Wells.

The teams will return to Appleton Arena of a 3:00 p.m. matchup tomorrow afternoon in the final game of the two-game series.