Jan. 14, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team begins its final stretch of College Hockey America play Friday, Jan. 15 against RIT in Rochester, N.Y. The Nittany Lions and Tigers will play a two-game series Jan. 15-16 inside the Gene Polisseni Center. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and 3 p.m. The RIT series marks the end of a 12-game road trip for the Nittany Lions.
FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow along with live stats via www.ritathletics.com. The game will be streamed on www.eversport.tv for a fee and fans in the Rochester, N.Y., area can watch the game on Time Warner Cable Sports.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS (4-17-1, 0-7-1 CHA)
The Tigers enter the series with an overall record of 4-17-1 and a record of 0-7-1 in CHA play.
Last weekend, RIT dropped a pair of games to Providence (5-1, 3-1).
In the Providence series, goalie Jetta Rackleff made 77 saves on 85 shot attempts, including a career-high 43 saves in the opener.
The Tiger offense is led by freshman Reagan Rust who has 12 points (4g, 8a) on the year; her eight assists is currently tied for the team lead.
Rust currently ranks seventh in the CHA with six power play points (2g, 4a) and she ranks seventh in freshman scoring in the CHA with 12 points.
Carly Payerl leads the team with her six goals and has also tallied five assists this season giving her a total of 11 points.
Additionally, three more RIT student-athletes have tallied 10 points during the 2015-16 campaign.
A week after the Nittany Lions swept Union (3-0, 3-0) on Oct. 17-18, RIT swept Union (3-1, 2-1) on the road.
RIT also played Princeton in a non-conference series matchup, Nov. 27-28. Princeton swept RIT (4-0, 6-1).
As a team, RIT has tallied a CHA-low 34 goals and has allowed a CHA-high 79 goals.
Though their penalty kill percentage (77.3) ranks last in the CHA, the Tigers have tallied a three short handed goals this season.
LAST SERIES RECAP
The Nittany Lions did not play last weekend, but they opened the year with a series split at Ohio State Jan. 2-3.
In the opener, freshman Hannah England tallied her second goal of the season in a 2-1 loss.
Penn State responded with a 3-2 victory in the finale with the Nittany Lions scoring three goals in the second period.
After trailing 2-0 heading into the second period, Penn State rattled off three goals on 10 shot attempts. Penn State tallied two of its three goals in a 1:18 span of play in the middle frame.
Hannah Ehresmann made 26 saves in net for the Nittany Lions in the 3-2 win.
SCHOOL RECORDS IN SIGHT
Last season, Laura Bowman set the single-season school record with 16 goals. Currently the junior has tallied nine goals in 2015-16.
Bowman also ranks second all-time at PSU in career goals and power play goals. Shannon Yoxheimer holds the program record of 36 career goals and nine power play goals.
Bowman has netted 35 career goals and eight power play goals.
MINNETONKA CONNECTION
Juniors Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen lead the team with nine goals and nine assists, respectively. Petersen has tallied an assist on six Bowman goals.
Petersen has netted two goals this season on assists from Bowman.
IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Victoria Samuelsson is tied for 10th in the CHA in freshman scoring with eight points (1g, 7a).
Also, Hannah England is tied for 15th with four points (2g, 2a).
NOT SO FAST, MY FRIEND
The Nittany Lions have only allowed 12 goals in the first twenty minutes of play, which ranks first in the CHA.
WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER
Hannah Hoenshell is tied for second in the CHA in game-winning goals (three). In her career, Hoenshell has scored six game-winning goals, which ranks second all-time. Shannon Yoxheimer holds the Penn State record (nine).
DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE
Penn State has allowed 51 goals on the year, which is tied for second in the CHA with Robert Morris. Mercyhurst leads the league with 49 goals allowed.
BACK-TO-BACK
For the first time in program history, the Nittany Lions tallied back-to-back shutouts against a Division I team. Penn State swept Union by a score of 3-0 in each game.
NCAA RANKINGS
Celine Whitlinger is eighth in save percentage (.944) and she ranks 10th in goals against average (1.62) in the NCAA this season.
SUTTON EXCELS ON THE POWER PLAY
Bella Sutton tallied her sixth career power play goal against No. 7/8 Boston University. The sophomore is tied for fourth all-time at Penn State in power play goals.
ALL-TIME SAVES RECORD
Celine Whitlinger captured the all-time Penn State women's hockey saves record Friday, Oct. 30, at Lindenwood. Nicole Paniccia held the previous Nittany Lion all-time saves record with 1,801.
NITTANY LION ATTACK
The Nittany Lions have tallied at least five goals in a game twice this season. The two five-goal outings are the 10th and 11th in program history.
PLAYING SMART
Penn State is currently averaging 6.8 penalty minutes per game, which ranks second in the CHA (Syracuse - 6.0).
100 GAMES
Two Nittany Lions have eclipsed the century mark in games played this season.
In the season-opener against Minnesota, Jill Holdcroft became the seventh Nittany Lion to skate in 100 career games and Micayla Catanzariti became the eighth Nittany Lion to post 100 games played on Oct. 31.
Laura Bowman, Sarah Nielsen and Amy Petersen are on track to become the next Nittany Lions to skate in 100 games. The trio of Minnesotans have played in 95 games each.
STARTING OUT FAST
On Oct. 9, 2015, against No. 7/8 BU, Laura Bowman scored 43 seconds into the game, which is three seconds shy of tying the program record for the fastest goal to start a game. The record, held by Bowman, was set on Oct. 26, 2013, against New Hampshire.
CHA HONORS
Celine Whitlinger has been named the CHA Goalie of the Week twice in the 2015-16 season. Whitlinger tallied 41 saves against the top-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers for the first plaudit and made 65 saves in a weekend series against Robert Morris for the second award.
For her performance against the Union Dutchwomen, Victoria Samuelsson was named the CHA Rookie of the Week. In the series, Samuelsson dished out two assists Saturday night and added one more in Sunday's game.
For the third time as a Nittany Lion, Whitlinger was named the CHA Goalie for the Month for October. In the month of October, Whitlinger made 158 saves, tallied a goals against average of 1.66 and posted a save percentage of .940.
Hannah Ehresmann received CHA Goalie of the Week honors after tallying 74 saves in the series against the No. 10 Princeton Tigers.
Ehresmann made a season-high 38 saves Friday night and Saturday she recorded 36 saves. Her 38 saves are the third-most in a single game in her Nittany Lion career, while her 36 saves rank fourth-best.
NEXT TIME OUT
After playing 12-straight games on the road, Penn State returns to the Pegula Ice Arena for its final home games of the regular season starting on Jan. 22 against Robert Morris.