ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Suffolk women's hockey found itself in an early hole it never climbed out of as Nazareth skated away with the opening weekend closer, 6-1, Saturday afternoon at Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 1 | Nazareth 6
RECORDS: Suffolk (0-2-0) | Nazareth (2-0-0)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Nazareth capitalized on the Rams' hotel hangover as the hosts put three pucks into the back of the netting within the first nine minutes. 

Makenna Wiljanen was the first to strike just 1:30 into the second battle between the first foes with help from Gabriella DeMeo. Less than two minutes later an assisted marker by Rachel Rice stretched the Golden Flyers edge to a pair and five minutes after that Celena Rea made it a 3-0 margin in the hosts' favor with help from Abbey Luth and Stephanie Kubis.  

A power play middle period goal by the Golden Flyers stretch the hosts cushion to four after 40 minutes of action. 

In the third period, Wiljanen completed her hat trick in less than a five-minute span to stretch Nazareth's advantage to six. Wiljanen's second and third goals of the afternoon came on the man-up opportunity. 

With less than five minutes remaining, Shana Cote eliminated the shutout and an unassisted marker with 4:27 left on the clock.  

Although Cote put the blue-and-gold on the board, Suffolk was unable to score again from there and Nazareth cruised to the victory. 

NETMINDER NOTES

• Julia McLellan registered 24 saves over 53:17 in net. 
• Kristen Caporusso stopped all three shots she faced in 6:43 of relief. 
• Adrianna Brehm turned aside 28 shots in the outing for the Golden Flyers.   

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Cote scored Suffolk's lone goal. 
• Nazareth outshot Suffolk, 33-29. 
• The Golden Flyers converted three of their eight powerplay opportunities. 
• Suffolk could not take advantage of one of its seven powerplays. 

POST-GAME PIC
 

COMING UP
Suffolk remains on the road as it lifts the lid on its NEHC calendar at Plymouth State Friday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m.