Nov. 21, 2015
By Jack Milewski, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - There is, perhaps, no feat more exciting in hockey than a hat trick. It is, not incredibly rare, but certainly hard to come by. It is even more hard to come by in the world of collegiate hockey, simply due to the fact that teams don't play nearly as many games as NHL teams do. This past weekend, senior forward Micayla Catanzariti recorded just the third hat trick in Nittany Lions program history, to lead the team to their first conference win.
Catanzariti is one of the many Nittany Lions on the team this year that have been with the program for the four years of its existence. Catanzariti's style of play lends it more to a grinder's mentality, though she possesses a complete arsenal of tools. Her scoring touch was on display Saturday, as it has been all season long. She is second on the team, behind Laura Bowman, with four goals. Despite the fantastic individual effort, Catanzariti was quick to deflect the praise towards her line mates.
"Obviously it was nice to get the hat trick," said Catanzariti. "A lot of it was my line mates though and most of the plays I just found myself in the right spot at the right time."
Not only did Catanzariti record the hat trick, but as a player her scoring prowess has increased this season. She has already doubled her goal output from last season and tied her point total, with still more than half of the season to go. Catanzariti is also scoring at an impressive rate. She has put in one puck, for every three shots she has taken.
"I honestly didn't even know I was shooting at that number," said Catanzariti. "I guess I don't typically take a lot of shots in general but as far as continuing with that pace I'm focused on doing what I'm doing and what I can do."
Catanzariti was also quick to say, that although a hat trick is a cool accomplishment, the focus for her is still on winning games.
"I mean it's pretty cool, but the biggest thing is that we won the game and again, a lot of it was the people I was playing with," said Catanzariti. "It was a full team effort."
Coach Josh Brandwene, who was once again very pleased with the overall effort of the team, said he felt like it was a case of simply getting more bounces to go the way of the Nittany Lions. As far as Catanzariti's performance was concerned, Brandwene was quick to praise the totality of her game and not just the scoring aspect.
"In addition to the goal production from Micayla, her totality of her game on Saturday was outstanding," said Brandwene. "[She did] an outstanding job defensively without the puck in our end, a terrific job on the fore-check in their end and a tremendous job on the penalty kill. To me it's about celebrating the complete game and she had that on Saturday."
Catanzariti's increased play as a goal scorer this season, coupled with her well rounded abilities add yet another dimension to the Nittany Lions point producers and compliments the rest of the teams depth well. The team will head back on the road Monday where they will face St. Lawrence University. The first out of conference game will begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by a 4:00 p.m. puck drop the next day.