Dec. 8, 2012
CANTON, N.Y. - Penn State pulled within one late in the third period, but could not complete the comeback against St. Lawrence as the Saints skated to a 4-2 victory to earn the series sweep Saturday afternoon at Appleton Arena in Canton, N.Y.
The Nittany Lions (5-12-1, 1-8-1 CHA) return to action for a home series Jan. 4-5 against Chatham before road swings against Union and Syracuse Jan. 11-12 and Jan. 25-26, respectively.
Down 3-1 midway through the third period and seconds after the Saints (10-7-1, 6-2-0 ECAC) killed off a Penn State power play, Hannah Hoenshell (Plano, Texas) took possession off an SLU turnover in their own zone and beat Guilia Mazzocchi with a shot to pull the Lions back to a one-goal deficit. The Blue and White were unable to build off the momentum, however, as St. Lawrence responded with 1:49 remaining to cement the final score at 4-2 as Amanda Boulier fired a slap shot from the top of the right circle past Nicole Paniccia (Oakville, Ontario).
Paniccia finished with 54 saves, including 23 in the first period. Along with Hoenshell's unassisted effort, her fifth this year, Jess Desorcie (Westford, Vt.) nabbed her fourth goal of the season in the first period with assists from Taylor Gross (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Shannon Yoxheimer (Jackson, Mich.). St. Lawrence's Jenna Marks finished the day with three helpers while Raniwsky and Boulier each picked up two points with a goal and an assist apiece.
Desorcie gave the Nittany Lions their first lead of the weekend with 6:16 remaining in the first, corralling a rebound from Gross' shot and firing it back at Mazzocchi and into the back of the net. The Saints came marching back less than two minutes later, firing a barrage of shots at Paniccia before Marks found Raniwsky in space. Raniwsky flicked a shot through to light the lamp and tie the score at one apiece.
St. Lawrence scored the only goal of the middle frame as the team converted its first power-play opportunity of the afternoon. With 8:18 on the clock, Mel Desrochers received a pass from Jenna Marks and snuck a shot through traffic to break the tie and put SLU up, 2-1, heading into the third.
The Saints extended the lead to two goals eight minutes through the final period as Kailee Heidersbach lit the lamp with help from Raniwsky and Marks.
After a 17-block performance Friday night, the Nittany Lions put up another 14 to temper the Saints' offensive output. The Saints held advantage in the circle, taking 27-of-44 faceoffs behind Raniwsky's 8-1 performance. Gross led Penn State with 5-of-13 while Jill Holdcroft (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa.) claimed 4-of-10 chances.