Jan. 19, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; Jan. 19, 2015 - Following Penn State's second-straight College Hockey America (CHA) series sweep this weekend, two Nittany Lions captured weekly conference honors. Bella Sutton (Shoreview, Minn.) earned Player of the Week accolades and Celine Whitlinger (Garden Grove, Calif.) captured her fifth CHA award as the Goaltender of the Week.
Sutton scored two goals, both of which were game-winners, and added an assist to help the Nittany Lions sweep RIT this weekend. The series sweep marked Penn State's second-consecutive in conference play, diffusing one of the top goaltenders in the nation. On Saturday, Sutton posted the first multi-point outing of her career. She had the primary assist on the Nittany Lions' game-tying power play goal, sending a low wrister to the front of the net where Shannon Yoxheimer tipped in the puck. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Sutton got on the board again. Along the wall at the top of the nearside faceoff circle, she threw a shot at Ali Binnington's net that went in for the final 2-1 score. Sutton's second game-winner of the weekend came just over nine minutes into the third period on Sunday. While on the power play, Sutton, at the blueline, sent a rising shot that went above Binnington and into the net. The goal on the player advantage helped Penn State to the sixth-best power play in the nation (21.0 percent). Making her presence known on both ends of the ice, Sutton also recorded a team-high nine blocks during the weekend.
Whitlinger went 2-0 against RIT, allowing just two goals during the weekend to help lead Penn State to its second-straight conference series sweep. The junior was a stalwart in net during the Nittany Lions' first CHA series in 2015. She posted a 1.00 goals against average and a .964 save percentage, making 53 saves combined in both contests: 27 in the series finale and 26 in the weekend opener. Whitlinger improved her record to 8-5-0 and became the program's goaltender wins record holder with the victory on Sunday.
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.