Jan. 13, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior goaltender Nicole Paniccia (Oakville, Ont.) and sophomore forward Hannah Hoenshell (Plano, Texas) were named College Hockey America's Goaltender and Player of the Week, respectively, Monday afternoon.
Paniccia had her best showing of the season on Saturday in a 2-1 overtime win over Colgate, stopping 39 of 40 attempts as Penn State broke a five-game losing streak. For Paniccia, she posted a .975 save percentage and won her first game of the season, snapping a 21-game winless drought. Paniccia posted double-digit save totals for the first three periods (13, 14 and 10), while stopping two more in OT. The award is the first for Paniccia in her collegiate career.
The hero in overtime was Hoenshell with her game-winning goal following an assist on the game-tying goal in the second period, which forced the extra frame. Hoenshell's pass across to Laura Bowman (Minnetonka, Minn.) tied the game with 1:55 remaining in the second period before her tremendous stick handling gave PSU its first OT win in program history. Hoenshell posted a plus-two rating in the victory, which snapped a five-game skid for the Nittany Lions. The night before, Hoenshell tallied four shots and blocked two shots in a tough 3-2 overtime loss to the Raiders.
This is the third and fourth times Penn State has been honored by the CHA as Hoenshell and freshman Kelly Seward (Williamsville, N.Y.) earned weekly awards in October for a 1-0-1 weekend at Vermont. That week Hoenshell was named Player of the Week and Seward the Rookie of the Week. Last season, Hoenshell earned a Rookie of the week honor for a four-point weekend in Jan. 2013.
The Nittany Lions return to action Jan. 24-25 for a two-game conference series at Syracuse before taking on Princeton Jan. 28 in New Jersey. Penn State kicks off a six-game home stand at Pegula Ice Arena Jan. 31 vs. RIT.