After a wild third period, including two goals from the Saints, the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions claimed a 5-2 win over the No. 9 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team on Friday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.

Lilien Benakova scored her first goal in Scarlet and Brown, while Alexia Côté tied things up and Saints' goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström stopped a career-best 48 shots.

Penn State broke out quickly, peppering Nordström with the first shots on goal, but Nordström kept the Nittany Lions scoreless, as she turned away back-to-back shots from Grace Outwater and Mikah Keller.

After the first 20 minutes, Penn State led 12-4 in shots on goal.

The Nittany Lions eventually broke through first, as Taya MacDonald got a lucky bounce to beat Nordström five hole, after a shot from Outwater ricocheted off a St. Lawrence defender for the 1-0 lead.

Off the faceoff in Penn State's zone, Tessa Janecke broke out and rushed down the right side, she looked for Katelyn Roberts in the slot. Roberts' shot was stopped by Nordström, but Matilde Fantin cashed in on the rush for the 2-0 lead.

After the second period, Penn State continued to lead 34-13 in shots on goal.

The third period was a wild one, as Benakova brought the game back within one scoring her first collegiate goal and the Saints first goal of the season. Benakova streaked down the left side and sent a backhander on net. Nittany Lion's goaltender Katie DeSa lost track of the puck, as it slipped over the goal line, making it 2-1 at 5:44 on the power play.

Just about four minutes later, Côté put on the moves, beating the Penn State defense to knot things up 2-2.  

The Saints had a great look from Kiley Mastel to make it 3-2, but just 20 second later Outwater beat Nordström's glove putting Penn State back up 3-2.

Janecke increased the lead back to two at 13:49 and Nicole Hall had the final say with an empty net goal to make the final 5-2.

"We put up a good fight to the end," said head coach Chris Wells. "Each day is a learning experience for us, and we certainly got better today against Penn State. They are big, physical, strong and have great chemistry."

"All we needed was to get one and we rode a little momentum when we tied it up," Wells added. "We had a fantastic chance to make it 3-2 and just missed, they scored 20 seconds after our good chance. That's the game and we have been on the right side of it before, so we know how it feels. We never doubted our ability to come back and that will help us through this next month of hockey."

Nordström recorded a career-best 48 saves, while DeSa stopped 21 for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State finished with a 53-23 advantage in shots on goal. St. Lawrence went 1-for-4 on the power play and killed off both of Penn State's opportunities.

St. Lawrence moved to 0-2-0 on the season, while Penn State improved to 2-0-0.

The Saints continue their road series to start the season with a pair of games at Mercyhurst next weekend, October 3-4.