Oct. 9, 2015
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BOSTON - Behind five Nittany Lions scoring goals and a 38 save performance from Celine Whitlinger (Garden Grove, Calif.), the Penn State women's hockey team defeated No. 7/8 Boston University, 5-3, Friday night at the Walter Brown Arena. Last week, Whitlinger made 41 saves against the top-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The Nittany Lions improve to 1-2-0, while the Terriers fall to 2-1-0.
"Terrific growth from this hockey team throughout the week," head coach Josh Brandwene said. "The seeds for this were planted on Sunday with the response they had in practice. I am immensely proud of this sixty minute effort."
With a two-on-one opportunity early in the game, Jill Holdcroft (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa.) passed the puck to the right side of the ice where Laura Bowman (Minnetonka, Minn.) connected on a one-timer to give the Nittany Lions the 1-0 lead just 43 seconds into the contest.
Bowman holds the Penn State record for the fastest goal to start a game, a mark she set in 2013. On Oct. 26, 2013, Bowman scored 40 seconds into the game against New Hampshire.
Less than five minutes later, Emily Laurenzi (Townsend, Del.) capitalized on a Nittany Lion rebound for her first goal of the season. Off a Victoria Samuelsson (Leksand, Sweden) shot, BU goalie Victoria Hanson made the initial save, but Laurenzi fired home the loose puck for her eighth career goal.
The Nittany Lions then took advantage of a pair of BU penalties. At 8:15 into the first period, BU's Kayla Tutino was called for tripping and with the penalty kill winding down, BU's Sarah Lefort was given two minutes for slashing. Twenty-five seconds into the two-man advantage, Bella Sutton (Shoreview, Minn.) fired a slap shot for her eighth career goal. Last season, Sutton scored five goals on the power play.
Penn State scored its first three goals of night in the first 10:14 of the game.
With 4:16 left in the first period, BU's Lefort cut the Nittany Lion lead to 3-1.
Heading into the first intermission, Penn State led BU, 3-1. The Nittany Lions also outshot the Terriers by a margin of 12-10, during the first 20 minutes of play.
During the second 20 minutes of play, the Terrier offense continued to apply pressure on the Nittany Lion defense in search of cutting the two-goal deficit.
The Terrier offense tallied 14 shots throughout the second period and at the 14:14 mark, BU's Victoria Bach scored her first goal of the 2015 campaign to bring the score within, 3-2.
BU's Hanson recorded seven saves for the Terriers during the middle period of play, while Whitlinger made 13 saves of her own.
Penn State built on its one-goal lead with a pair of goals within a 40 second span in the third period.
Almost seven minutes into the third period Laurenzi found Hannah Hoenshell (Plano, Texas) in front of the crease and she punched home her first goal of the season. Forty seconds later, Sarah Nielsen (Edina, Minn.) passed the puck to Christi Vetter (Lakeville, Minn.) near the Terrier blue line and Vetter went to work. With three BU defenders around her, Vetter made a move and fired a shot into the upper-right corner of the net for the 5-2 lead.
BU's Rebecca Russo tallied a goal at the 15:11 mark in the third period to bring the Terriers within 5-3.
Down the stretch, BU went on the power play with 2:46 left in regulation and emptied the net giving them a six-on-four advantage, but the Nittany Lions withstood the attack and did not concede a goal. With a little less than two minutes to play in regulation, BU was called for interference negating its own power play.
In the final period of action, Whitlinger stepped up for 16 saves and Hanson made five for BU.
Penn State picked up its first win over a ranked opponent this season and its third in program history.
Tonight's game also marked the tenth time in program history that the Nittany Lions recorded five goals in a game.
The Nittany Lions and Terriers return to the ice at the Walter Brown Arena tomorrow at 3 p.m.