Feb. 18, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team closes out the 2015-16 regular season at CHA-leading Mercyhurst this weekend inside the Mercyhurst Ice Arena Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. Heading into the final weekend of league play, home ice in the CHA First Round is still on the line between three teams (Lindenwood Robert Morris and Penn State).
FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow along with live stats for free courtesy of http://www.hurstathletics.com/, while fans will have to pay for the video stream on eversport.tv.
CHA PLAYOFF SCENARIOS
Penn State can clinch home ice in the first round with:
• One win against Mercyhurst
• A Lindenwood loss
• A tie against Mercyhurst and a Lindenwood tie
Penn State can clinch the three seed with:
• At least three points against Mercyhurst
• A win and a Robert Morris loss/tie
• A tie + a Robert Morris loss + a Lindenwood loss/tie
SCOUTING THE LAKERS (16-10-4, 13-3-2)
The Mercyhurst Lakers enter the series atop of the CHA standings with a conference record of 13-3-2. Overall, the Lakers are 16-10-4 on the season. The Lakers have won their last four games, which includes sweeps of Robert Morris and RIT.
Mercyhurst most-recently swept RIT by scores of 4-1 and 2-0 in Rochester, N.Y.
Freshman Rachael Smith leads the charge for the Lakers as she ranks eighth in the CHA with 24 points on 10 goals and 14 assists. Senior Jenna Dingeldein also ranks tied for 10th in the conference with 22 points (11g, 11a).
This weekend's series features two of the top defenses in the conference as Mercyhurst ranks first in the CHA with 2.00 goals per goal followed by Penn State in second with 2.06 goals per game.
As a team, Mercyhurst ranks second in the league averaging 2.63 goals per game.
The Lakers are the most-penalized team in the conference, but they are also one of the top penalty killing teams in the CHA.
On the year, Mercyhurst is averaging 11.9 penalty minutes per game, but have killed 116 of 132 penalties this season (87.9). When playing with a man down in 2015-16, Mercyhurst has posted three short-handed goals all of which have been scored by Emily Janiga.
Even though she is a freshman, Sarah McDonnell has been playing as one of the top goalies in the country. McDonnell ranks seventh in the nation in goals against average (1.55) and 16th in save percentage (.926).
LAST SERIES RECAP
The Penn State women's hockey team closed out the home portion of the 2015-16 season with a series split against Lindenwood last weekend.
In the opener, Shannon Yoxheimer scored twice for the eighth time in her career, while Remi Martin and Victoria Samuelsson tallied a pair of assists each in a 3-0 victory.
Also, Laura Bowman netted her team-leading 13th goal of the season on Amy Petersen's team-leading 17th assist of the season 7:20 into the first period.
The Lions responded with a 1-0 victory in the series-finale. For Lindenwood, Shara Jasper tallied her CHA-leading 19th goal of the season in the first period to seal the victory.
In net for the Nittany Lions, senior Celine Whitlinger recorded her program-best sixth career shutout Friday night, as she stopped all 23 shots on the night.
On Saturday, Ehresmann made her 13th start of the season and posted 14 saves in the 1-0 loss.
SCHOOL RECORDS IN SIGHT
Last season, Laura Bowman set the single-season school record with 16 goals. Currently the junior has tallied 13 goals in 2015-16.
Against Lindenwood on Feb. 12, Bowman netted her 39th career goal. She ranks second behind Shannon Yoxheimer in career goals (41) and is tied for the program lead with Yoxheimer in power play goals (10).
MINNETONKA CONNECTION
Juniors Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen lead the team with 13 goals and 17 assists, respectively. Petersen has tallied an assist on nine Bowman goals this season. Petersen has netted three goals this season on assists from Bowman.
IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Victoria Samuelsson ranks tied for eighth in the CHA in freshman scoring with 13 points (1g, 12a) and Hannah England ranks tied for 15th with seven points (2g, 5a).
11 IN 11 FOR 9
Heading into the series against Mercyhurst, junior Amy Petersen has netted 11 points (2g, 9a) over the past 11 games, which included six points over a four-game span.
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.
Penn State also recorded its first back-to-back overtime wins in program history. Penn State topped RIT 3-2 in OT on Jan. 16 and bested Robert Morris 3-2 in overtime on Jan. 22.
NCAA RANKINGS
Celine Whitlinger is fifth in save percentage (.945) and she ranks eighth in goals against average (1.55) in the NCAA this season.
SUTTON EXCELS ON THE POWER PLAY
Bella Sutton has netted two power play goals this season, which gives her seven in her career. The sophomore is tied for third all-time at Penn State in power play goals (Holdcroft). Bowman and Yoxheimer hold the program record with ten apiece.
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.
100 GAMES
Six 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 each skated in their 100th game against RIT on Jan. 29.
Kelly Seward is the 12th Nittany Lion to skate in 100 games. Seward, a junior, posted 100 games played on Feb. 6 against Syracuse.
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.
CHA HONORS
Four Nittany Lions have garnered weekly or monthly CHA honors this season.
Ehresmann was named the CHA Goalie of the Week after tallying 74 saves in the series against the No. 10 Princeton Tigers Dec. 11-12. Ehresmann made 38 saves in Friday's game and recorded 36 saves in the series finale.
Petersen was named the CHA Player of Week for the first time in her career after the Robert Morris series Jan. 22-23. In the series, Petersen tallied a team-leading four points on one goal and three assists. In Friday's 3-2 overtime win, Petersen dished out two assists and in Saturday's 2-2 tie, Petersen scored her fourth goal of the season and dished out her team-leading 13th assist of the 2015-16 season.
Samuelsson has been named the CHA Rookie of the Week twice this season. In the Union series, Samuelsson dished out two assists Saturday night and added one more in Sunday's game. Samuelsson was also named the CHA Rookie of the Week following the Robert Morris series Jan. 22-23. In the series, Samuelsson tallied her ninth assist of the season.
Whitlinger has been named the CHA Goalie of the Week three times 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. Whitlinger recorded her sixth career shutout in a 3-0 win over Lindenwood for her third weekly honor of the season. 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.
NEXT TIME OUT
The 2015-16 CHA First Round begins next weekend (Feb. 26-28) on campus sites. The match-ups are still TBD.