Feb. 22, 2013
NEVILLE ISLAND, Pa. - A lethal Robert Morris attack was too much to overcome as the Colonials scored four unanswered goals in a 4-1 win over Penn State women's hockey Friday night at 84 Lumber Arena. Freshman Emily Laurenzi (Townsend, Del.) scored a first-period goal, while junior Nicole Paniccia made 59 saves.
Robert Morris (12-14-3, 8-10-2 CHA) came out firing, but was stopped by Paniccia at every turn in the first 30:22 of the game. Ultimately, RMU's attack was too much for Penn State (7-23-2, 1-16-2 CHA) in the end, out-shooting PSU 63-14 for the game and scoring the final four goals of the game.
A rushing Hannah Hoenshell (Plano, Texas) down the right wing swung the puck in the slot to Laurenzi with less than two minutes left in the first period. Laurenzi got some lumber to the puck and it deflected off an RMU defender and past netminder Kristen DiCiocco for a 1-0 lead. The lead was Penn State's first ever over the Colonials in the teams' three games.
The goal was Laurenzi's fourth of the season, while Hoenshell collected her fourth assist and Paige Jahnke (Roseville, Minn.) tallied her eighth helper of the season. On the plus-minus, Hoenshell, Jahnke and Laurenzi each recorded plus-one.
RMU answered back on a quirky goal as Rebecca Vint snuck one past Paniccia as the goal came off the pegs midway through the second period. Dayna Newsom made it 2-1 on a power-play goal three minutes later as RMU took its first lead. For the second period, Paniccia made 28 saves as RMU held a 30-5 edge in shots. The 28 saves were the most by a Penn State goalie in a single period this season.
Penn State fended off multiple Colonial advances in the third period until finally conceding 5:33 into the frame on Cobina Delaney's marker. Robert Morris capped the scoring with 2:16 left as Katelyn Scott tallied a power-play goal.
Penn State went 0-for-4 on the power play, while RMU was 2-for-5. The Nittany Lions lost the faceoff battle, 34-21, with Jill Holdcroft (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa.) going 6-7 and Tess Weaver (Windber, Pa.) going 3-3.
The two teams wrap up the regular season at 84 Lumber Arena at 3 p.m. The game can be streamed on AmericaOneSports.com with live stats courtesy of rmucolonials.com.
--NITTANY LIONS--