Former Mercyhurst University goaltender Hillary Pattenden was the No. 1 overall pick and one of three former Lakers selected in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League draft Tuesday.
Girard native and forward Jen Schoullis was Boston’s fourth-round selection.
Pattenden went first to Team Alberta, the first goalie ever to go No. 1 and the second straight season a Mercyhurst player has been selected in the top spot. Montreal drafted NCAA career scoring leader Meghan Agosta first in 2011.
Forward Bailey Bram was selected by Brampton in the second round and forward Kelley Steadman went to Boston in the fourth round
Pattenden, 21, is the first NCAA goaltender to earn 100 career victories. She is a native of Surrey, British Columbia.
Schoullis, 23, completed her playing career with Minnesota this past spring, winning the NCAA championship. She was among Division I’s scoring leaders and played prominent minutes for Team USA in international tournaments.
Bram, 21, played for Canada at the Women’s World Championship this year. She scored 201 career points for Mercyhurst including 68 as a senior.
Steadman, 22, led Mercyhurst with 33 goals as a senior. She played for the United States in the 2011 world championship.
The season is scheduled to start in October. Montreal is the defending Clarkson Cup champion.

- From staff reports

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Mercyhurst alumnus Meghan Agosta scored the tying goal late in the third period and assisted on the winning goal in overtime, as Canada defeated the United States 5-4 Saturday to win gold at the IIHF Women’s World Championship at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
Agosta forced overtime by scoring with 2 minutes, 38 seconds left in regulation. Then she assisted on Caroline Ouellette‘s goal 1:50 into the extra period to seal Canada’s first title in the tournament since 2007 and snap the Americans’ three-year championship run.
Agosta finished the game with a goal and two assists and the tournament with four goals and eight points in five games. Former Laker Vicki Bendus and Mercyhurst senior Bailey Bram were scoreless in the game. They finished the tournament with a point apiece.

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Mercyhurst alumnus Meghan Agosta leads her native Canada into today’s gold-medal game against the United States at the IIHF Women’s World Championship. The game is set for 7 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
Agosta has three goals and five points in four games. Former Laker Vicki Bendus and current Mercyhurst senior Bailey Bram have one point apiece for Canada.
Canada beat Finland 5-1 in the semifinals, while the U.S. trounced Switzerland 10-0 in the other semifinal.

Former Mercyhurst standout forwards Meghan Agosta, Vicki Bendus and Bailey Bram will represent their native Canada at the IIHF World Women’s Championship. The event runs from Saturday through April 14 in Burlington, Vt.
They earned spots on the 22-player roster during the six-day Canadian National Women’s Team selection camp, which ended Saturday. Agosta, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, led the Montreal Stars to the Canadian Women’s Hockey League this season. She also was named the league’s player of the year. Bendus, the 2010 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner, played for the Brampton Thunder this season. Bram concluded her Mercyhurst career last month.

Mercyhurst’s streak of five straight finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award has ended.

Senior forward Bailey Bram wasn’t named one of the three finalists for the prestigious award, which annually honors the top women’s hockey player in NCAA Division I. A 13-member selection committee chose Wisconsin junior forward Brianna Decker, North Dakota junior forward Jocelyne Lamoureux and Northeastern senior goaltender Florence Schelling. The finalists were unveiled Thursday.

Bram joined fellow Laker forwards Christine Bestland and Kelley Steadman as well as Girard native Jen Schoullis, a redshirt senior forward at Minnesota, on the initial list of 30 nominees two weeks. Bram survived the cut to 10 players a week ago. But she fell short of joining former teammates Meghan Agosta (2007-09, 2011) and Vicki Bendus (2010) as Kazmaier finalists. Bendus won the award in 2010.

Decker has 36 goals, 42 assists and 78 points for the top-ranked Badgers, who on Saturday begin their quest for a fifth national championship in the past seven years as the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Lamoureux has 34 goals, 48 assists and 82 points for the Fighting Sioux, which earned the seventh seed in the NCAA tournament field. Like her twin sister, Monique Lamoureux-Kolls, she represented the United States in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Schelling finished the season with a 20-6-4 record, 1.42 goals-against average and .950 save percentage.

The award will be presented March 17 at the Greysolon Ballroom in Duluth, Minn., as part of the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four, which will be held March 16 and 18.

PITTSBURGH – The Mercyhurst women’s hockey team will play for the College Hockey America title.

Yet before earning an opportunity to win a 10^th straight conference tournament championship, the sixth-ranked Lakers had to survive a stern test from surprising Syracuse in the CHA Tournament semifinals Friday afternoon.

The top-seeded Lakers held off Syracuse 4-3 in front of 267 fans at Island Sports Center to secure a matchup in Saturday’s 3 p.m. title game against second-seeded Robert Morris. The Colonials (18-9-4) beat third-seeded Niagara 3-2 in the second semifinal.

Fourth-seeded Syracuse (10-22-3) took an early 1-0 lead 6 minutes, 50 seconds into the game on the first of Shiann Darkangelo’s three goals. She nearly matched her four-goal total in 34 regular-season games.

Mercyhurst (23-6-3) tied the score at 1 on Kristine Grenier’s goal at the 10:01 mark of the first period, and then took a 2-1 lead on Christine Bestland’s power-play goal with 1:14 left in the period.

Bestland’s second power-play goal of the game, her 24^th goal of the season, handed the Lakers a 3-1 lead 8:37 into the second. But Darkangelo pulled the Orange within a goal on the power play 4:06 later.

Grenier scored again 3:36 into the third to record her first career two-goal game and regain the Lakers’ two-goal advantage at 4-2, only to have Darkangelo score again on the power play with 5:19 left in the game. Grenier had three goals in 31 regular-season games.

But Mercyhurst held off  the Orange down the stretch to seal the hard-fought win.

Hillary Pattenden made 32 saves for the Lakers to become the first goaltender in NCAA history with 100 wins. She outdueled Syracuse’s Jenesica Drinkwater, who had 38 saves. Mercyhurst senior forward Bailey Bram had an assist to become the fourth player in Lakers’ history to reach 200 career points. She joins Meghan Agosta (NCAA-record 303 points), Jesse Scanzano (225) and Valerie Chouinard (200).

College Hockey America tournament schedule

at Island Sports Center, Pittsburgh

Semifinals – Friday

No. 1 Mercyhurst 4, No. 4 Syracuse 3

No. 2 Robert Morris (17-9-4) vs. No. 3 Niagara (10-15-8), 3:45 p.m.

Championship game – Today

Mercyhurst (23-6-3) vs. Robert Morris/Niagara, 3 p.m.

On the air: www.b2livetv.com (live stream), www.rmucolonials.com (live statistics)

SUMMARY

Mercyhurst 4, Syracuse 3

Syracuse  1  1  1  —  3

Mercyhurst  2  1  1  —  4

1^st Period — 1. Syracuse, Shiann Darkangelo 5 (Mullan, Greco), 6:50 (pp). 2. Mercyhurst, Kristine Grenier 4 (B. Bram, S. Bram), 10:01. 3. Mercyhurst, Christine Bestland 23 (Byrne, J. Jones), 18:46 (pp). Penalties — DeSutter (M) high sticking, 3:53; B. Bram (M) cross checking, 5:15; Roach (S) hooking, 10:01; Grenier (M) tripping, 15:30; Darkangelo (S) hooking, 16:31; Skelly (S) roughing, 18:17.

2^nd Period — 4. Mercyhurst, Bestland 24 (unassisted), 8:37 (pp). 5. Syracuse, Darkangelo 6 (Greco, Mullan), 12:43 (pp). Penalties — Higson (M) hooking, 6:33; Ferrara (S) hooking, 7:38; S. Bram (M) body checking, 10:40; Byrne (M) boarding, 11:22; B. Bram (M) slashing, 13:24; Drinkwater (S) tripping (served by Ferrara), 15:56.

3^rd Period — 6. Mercyhurst, Grenier 5 (Zgoda), 3:36. 7. Syracuse, Darkangelo 7 (Sorensen, Greco), 14:41 (pp). Penalties — Steadman (M) interference, 13:18; Ferrara (S) hooking, 15:26.

Shots on goal — Syracuse, 12-15-8—35; Mercyhurst, 20-11-11—42.

Goaltenders — Syracuse, Jenesica Drinkwater 4-9-1 (42 shots, 38 saves); Mercyhurst, Hillary Pattenden 20-6-3 (35 shots, 32 saves).

Power plays — Syracuse (3-8), Mercyhurst (2-6).

Referees — Scott Bell, Jason Brown. Linesmen — Justin Loomis, Erik Geller.

Attendance — 267.

Mercyhurst College senior forward Bailey Bram has joined 39 other players at her native Canada’s National Women’s Team September Camp/Fall Festival in Calgary, Alberta. The list includes former Laker stars Meghan Agosta, Vicki Bendus and Jesse Scanzano.

The camp, which runs through Sunday, will provide the coaching staff with its initial evaluation. Then players will be watched at international events throughout the year. Bram had 43 points in 28 games last season. She enters her final college season with 60 goals and 133 points in 98 career games.

The Mercyhurst College women’s hockey team begins the 2011-12 season ranked eighth in the opening USCHO.com Division I poll, which was released Monday.

The Lakers lost NCAA career scoring leader Meghan Agosta as well as Vicki Bendus and Jesse Scanzano, two of the program’s top all-time scorers, and four other seniors off a team that finished 29-6 and reached the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

Defending national Wisconsin (37-2-2) earned all 14 first-place votes on its way to the No. 1 spot. Boston University (27-7-4), which lost to the Badgers in the national title game at Tullio Arena in March, stands second. Final Four entrants Cornell (31-3-1) and Boston College (24-7-6) are third and fifth, respectively.

Girard native Jen Schoullis, a redshirt senior forward, and Minnesota are fourth. The rest of the top 10 includes No. 6 Minnesota Duluth (22-9-3), No. 7 North Dakota (20-13-3) and No. 9 Quinnipiac (22-12-3). Dartmouth (22-12-0) and Providence (22-12-1) are tied at No. 10.

Division I Women’s Hockey USCHO.com Poll

Others Receiving Votes: Northeastern 11, Harvard 8, Ohio State 1.

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario – Former Mercyhurst College women’s hockey players Meghan Agosta, Vicki Bendus and Jesse Scanzano were all drafted in the top five of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) draft held recently in Mississauga, Ontario.

Agosta was drafted first overall by Montreal and was followed closely by Bendus, who went fourth overall to Brampton, and Scanzano, who was drafted fifth overall by Toronto. Also drafted from Mercyhurst in the CWHL draft were defensemen Melissa Lacroix (17^th overall by Toronto) and Cassea Schols (60^th overall by Alberta).

The five aforementioned players join three other former Lakers currently playing in the CWHL: goaltender Laura Hosier (Brampton), defenseman Ashley Pendleton (Brampton), and forward Samatha Shirley (Burlington).

- From Mercyhurst news release

ZURICH, Switzerland – The United States Women’s National Team scored just over 12 minutes into overtime to defeat Canada, 3-2, and win its third straight International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship Monday afternoon in Zurich, Switzerland.

Junior Kelley Steadman, who became the first Mercyhurst women’s hockey player to be named to the senior team, did not record a point but helped the Americans register 50 shots on the Canadians, who gave up three goals for the first time in the tournament. She finished the tournament with two assists and a +3 plus / minus rating.

Girard native Jen Schoullis, a rising fifth-year senior at the University of Minnesota, also played for Team USA.

Meghan Agosta was also held scoreless in the championship game after posting five assists and a +5 plus / minus rating through Canada’s first four games.

- From Mercyhurst College news release, staff report