The St. Lawrence women's hockey team made a statement in the first game of its final non-conference series this season, cruising to a 6-1 win over nationally-ranked No.9/10 Mercyhurst on Friday afternoon at Appleton Arena. Sophomore Alex Moore paced the Saints with a pair of goals; her first scores of the season.

Kayla Raniwsky (1g-1a), Jenna Marks (1g-1a), Brooke Webster (1g-1a), Hannah Miller (2a) and Kennedy Marchment (2a) also had multi-point games for St. Lawrence. Now 13-8-3 overall, the Saints picked up their first win over the Lakers since Dec. 10 and are now 4-5-2 against nationally-ranked competition this season.

"We were able to get a few bounces go our way in the first to come out of there 1-0," Head Coach Chris Wells said. "I thought both goalies played well to keep it a one score period."

It was Marks who got the Saints on the board in the first period at the 8:55 mark with her ninth of the season. The play started when Heidersbach played the puck to Raniwsky along the right half wall. Raniwsky fired a slapshot on net and hit Mercyhurst goaltender Amanda Makela in the chest, but Marks was waiting on the doorstep to bury the rebound and give her team the lead.

"In the second we scored some nice goals on the rush and we were able to pull away. It was a nice complete effort and we'll need another tomorrow," Wells added.

The Saints added four goals in the second period and one late in the third to put the game out of reach.

Just over a minute into the middle frame Webster redirected a pass from Marchment as she cut through the middle on a two-on-one for the eventual game-winning goal and a

2-0 advantage for the home team.

The Lakers cut the lead in half at the 7:04 mark of the second when Sarah Robello tipped the puck over the shoulder of senior netminder Carmen MacDonald after an errant deflection in front. MacDonald, who was making her first start since Dec. 6, finished with 21 saves for the Saints.

At the 8:59 mark, Moore buried her first of the game and first of the season as she was cutting through the slot off a perfect feed from Miller to retake a two-goal advantage and chase Makela out of the net for the first time this season. She was relieved by junior Julia DiTondo, who had yet to record any minutes between the pipes in 2014-15.

The Saints wasted little time testing the Lakers new netminder, as less than a minute later Raniwsky made it 4-1 on her ninth of the year with Marks and Webster assisting.

Jacqueline Wand tallied the fifth St. Lawrence goal with just over four minutes remaining in the middle frame as the result of what started as a three-on-one breakout with Webster and Marchment. Webster played the puck out of the defensive zone and to Marchment along the right wall as she carried into the Mercyhurst zone before dishing off to Wand, who was streaking down the left wing and cut through a pair of Lakers defenders for the finish.

Moore tallied her second of the game with 51 seconds remaining in the third period for the final 6-1 margin.

St. Lawrence finished with a 41-22 advantage in shots, as Makela made 16 stops for the Lakers and DiTondo finished with 19 saves of her own.

The team's will meet again at Appleton Arena with puck drop schedule for 2 p.m.