Jan. 18, 2015
1 RIT (8-14-3, 2-8-1 CHA) |
Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF) University Park, Pa. • Pegula Ice Arena • Attendance: 491 | 3 Penn State (12-9-3, 7-4-1 CHA) |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; Jan. 18, 2015 - Penn State's special teams propelled the Nittany Lions (12-9-3, 7-4-1 CHA) to a 3-1 College Hockey America (CHA) win over RIT on Sunday, yielding the team's second-straight CHA series sweep.
Laura Bowman (Minnetonka, Minn.) opened scoring with her second shorthanded tally of the season, which Bella Sutton (Shoreview, Minn.) followed with a power play goal. Hannah Hoenshell (Plano, Texas) capped off scoring with a third period marker.
"Tremendous mindset from this hockey team," head coach Josh Brandwene said. "The leadership of this team, and the whole team, deserves credit. They get up for every challenge and get an extra zing or oomph whether it's on the power play, penalty kill, even strength or 4-on-4. We're here, let's compete and get after it. It's a big part of our game."
At the 8:40 mark of the second period, the Blue and White showed how strong it can be on both ends of the ice. While on the power play, a Tiger player went to clear the puck from RIT's (8-14-3, 2-8-1 CHA) zone but Bowman intercepted it at the top of the gloveside faceoff circle. She took an angled shot from the nearside post that went fivehole for the 1-0 score.
The Nittany Lions, maintaining Division I women's hockey's sixth-best power play coming into today's game (21.0 percent) did not disappoint. Just over nine minutes into the third period, Kelly Seward (Williamsville, N.Y.) fed Sutton the puck from the farside boards and Sutton, at the blueline, sent a rising shot that went above Ali Binnington and into the net. Sutton closes out the weekend with two goals and an assist after her first multi-point game in the series opener.
But the Tigers cut Penn State's advantage to one 3:15 later. Lindsay Grigg took a shot from the farside faceoff dot which Celine Whitlinger (Garden Grove, Calif.) initially stopped. But the puck took a wild bounce and Cassie Clayton put it past Whitlinger to cut the Nittany Lions' lead to 2-1.
With a little more than six minutes left in regulation, Penn State cemented its second consecutive CHA series sweep. Shannon Yoxheimer (Jackson, Mich.) picked up the puck from her own end and skated it along the nearside boards with Hoenshell streaking through center ice. Yoxheimer served it to Hoenshell inside the slot who immediately wristed in her fourth of the year to give the Blue and White its third and final goal of the game.
Appearing in the second of back-to-back starts, Whitlinger made 27 saves and upgraded her record to 8-5-0. Her eighth win of the season is the most in program history. "Celine was so efficient, so poised and squared all weekend long," Brandwene said. "I'm tremendously proud of her."
Binnington fanned 21 shots to close the series with a 6-7-1 record.
Next weekend, Penn State travels to New Hampshire for its final non-conference contests of the season. The teams faceoff at 7 p.m. on Fri., Jan. 23 and 2 p.m. on Sat., Jan. 24.