Feb. 27, 2016
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team advanced to the College Hockey America (CHA) Semifinals with a 3-2 victory over RIT Saturday afternoon inside the Pegula Ice Arena. Amy Petersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) scored a goal and an assist in the contest.
The No. 3-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions improve to 12-18-6 on the season, while the No. 6-seeded RIT Tigers close the 2015-16 season with a record of 8-27-1.
"Well if you're going to knock off the two-time defending CHA champs, you've got a pretty good sense you're going to take a pretty big punch in the third period," head coach Josh Brandwene said. "I give RIT a ton of credit for their competitiveness, they've got a world class coaching staff, great people running that program. They gave us everything we could handle in the third period. I'm extremely proud of our team for their response, especially after the timeout in the third period. It took a tremendous amount of poise to hit the reset button and right the ship. And they did an outstanding job, and it feels really good to close out the series. I'm really proud of this program for moving on to the CHA Final Four."
The Nittany Lions struck first in the game just 2:26 into the opening frame on Laura Bowman's (Minnetonka, Minn.) team-leading 16th goal of the season and 42nd goal of her career. On the play, Petersen brought the puck into the RIT zone from the neutral zone and found Bowman in front of the RIT goal for the 1-0 strike.
Penn State added a pair of goals in the second period to build on its one-goal lead. Senior Shannon Yoxheimer (Jackson, Mich.) tallied her eighth goal of the season and her 42nd career goal at 10:49 to bring the score to 2-0 in favor of Penn State. Yoxheimer picked off a RIT pass in the neutral zone and brought the puck on goal and beat RIT goalie Jetta Rackleff for the 2-0 tally. Petersen also added her eighth goal of the season during the second period.
The Nittany Lions moved the puck around the RIT zone before Hannah Bramm (Tampa, Fla.) connected on a pass to Petersen in front of the wide-open RIT net for the 3-0 tally with 5:19 left in the second stanza. Following the Petersen goal, RIT called a timeout and replaced Rackleff in favor of freshman netminder Jenna de Jonge.
RIT responded to the three-goal deficit with a pair of goals in the third period to make it a one-goal game down the final stretch of regulation. Caitlin Wallace tallied her second goal of the season at 2:16 and Darcy Henderson made it a one-goal contest with 8:48 remaining in regulation.
With 2:19 left in regulation, RIT pulled de Jonge in favor of the extra attacker, but the Nittany Lions were able to hold off the RIT attack and secure the 3-2 victory and weekend sweep.
In net for Penn State, sophomore Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) picked up the win with a 24-save performance. RIT goalies Rackleff (16 saves) and de Jonge (nine saves) combined for 25 saves.
Penn State tallied 28 shots on the afternoon compared to 26 by RIT. Penn State went 0-for-4 on the power play, while RIT went 1-for-2.
With the win the Nittany Lions advance to the semifinals of the CHA Tournament next weekend inside the Harbor Center in Buffalo, N.Y. Penn State will take on Syracuse on March 4 with puck drop TBD.
NOTES: Penn State improves to 8-2-0 against RIT since the beginning of the 2014-15 season...Laura Bowman tied a program-best 16 goals this season (Bowman - 2014-15)...Bowman's goal was the 42nd of her career, which was the program record until Shannon Yoxheimer netted her 42nd goal in the second period...Amy Petersen has scored 16 points over the past 15 games...She has posted a career-best 27 points this season (26 - 2014-15)...Amy Petersen has tallied an assist on 11 Laura Bowman goals this season...RIT eliminated Penn State in the CHA First Round in 2013 and 2014...Penn State lost 2-0 against Syracuse last year in the 2015 CHA Semifinal.