Jan. 3, 2016
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Penn State women's hockey team used a three-goal second period to record a 3-2 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes inside the OSU Ice Rink Sunday afternoon. Sunday's game marked the final non-conference series for the Nittany Lions in 2015-16.
The Buckeyes (7-13-0) opened up the scoring on the afternoon just 34 seconds into the game as Dani Sadek netted her second goal of the season. Ohio State added one more goal in the opening frame to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
On its first power play attempt of the day, Ohio State built a 2-0 lead as Melani Moylan netted her second goal of the 2015-16 season with 3:59 to play in the first period. During the first 20 minutes of play, Ohio State outshot Penn State, 12-4.
Despite the two-goal deficit heading into the second period, Penn State (5-13-4) responded with three goals on 10 shot attempts in the second frame.
The Nittany Lion rally began with Emily Laurenzi (Townsend, Del.) netting her second goal of her senior year less than five minutes into the second stanza. On the Laurenzi goal, Sarah Nielsen (Edina, Minn.) recorded the first of her two assists on the afternoon. Her two assists Sunday tied a career high.
Penn State then tied the game at two on Laura Bowman's (Minnetonka, Minn.) team-leading ninth goal of the season just 1 minute and 18 seconds after the Laurenzi strike. Bowman's game-tying goal at 6:13 marked her eighth career power play goal, which ranks second all-time at PSU (Yoxheimer - nine).
The Nittany Lions were not done scoring in the second period as sophomore defender Remi Martin (Littleton, Colo.) gave Penn State a 3-2 lead on her second career goal at 11:20. Nielsen and Laurenzi recorded assists on the Martin goal.
In the final 20 minutes of regulation, the Nittany Lions withstood the OSU attack as they were outshot, 10-3. With 1:55 left in regulation, Ohio State brought an extra attacker on the ice but the Nittany Lion defense blocked two of the three final shot attempts and sophomore Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) made one last save with seven seconds left to secure the 3-2 win.
In the game, both teams tallied power play goals as Penn State went 1-for-4 on the power play and Ohio State went 1-for-3 with the man-advantage. Each team had an opportunity on the power play in the final period, but were unable to capitalize.
Ehresmann made 26 saves for the Blue and White while Stacy Danczak recorded 14 saves for OSU.
The Nittany Lions do not play next weekend as they return to CHA action on Jan. 15 at RIT in Rochester, N.Y.