Nov. 11, 2016
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team scored three goals in the final 28:30 of play to rally past the Lindenwood Lions, 3-2, in a College Hockey America (CHA) contest Friday afternoon inside the Pegula Ice Arena.
"I think one of the signs of a team that continues to grow is a team that, after a stretch where we admittedly didn't have our best hockey, is able to in the middle of the period hit reset button," head coach Josh Brandwene said. "To come out and change the complexion of the game and continue to build on it and grow during the second half of the game says a lot about the student athletes on this team. I'm really proud of them for the adjustments they made during the second half."
With the victory, Penn State improves to 5-6-2 overall and 4-1-0 in CHA play, while Lindenwood falls to 0-9-0 on the year and 0-3-0 in CHA action.
For the Nittany Lion offense, eight Penn Staters posted at least one point, while Kelly Seward (Williamsville, N.Y.) tied a career-best two-point (0-2-2) effort. In net for the Blue and White, freshman goaltender Daniela Paniccia (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) recorded 18 saves en route to her fifth career win.
Lindenwood built a 2-0 lead midway through the second period on goals from Britannia Gillanders and Kirsten Martin. Gillanders netted her first goal of the season at 8:35 in the first period and Martin tallied her second goal of 2016-17 at 10:01 in the second frame.
After Lindenwood added to its lead at 10:01, Penn State called its timeout, and 1 minute and 29 seconds later, sophomore Meike Meilleur (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) netted her third career goal at 11:30 to cut the Lindenwood lead in half.
Trailing 2-1 heading into the final minute of play in the second period, Minnetonka, Minnesota, natives, Katie McMillan, Amy Petersen and Laura Bowman tied the game on McMillan's second career goal at 18:46. On the McMillan goal, Petersen was credited with the first assist and Bowman was tabbed with the second assist.
The two teams went into the second intermission tied at two with Penn State leading in shots, 18-10.
With the game tied at two early in the third period, Lindenwood's Katie Nokelby was called for body checking at 4:09, which sent the Nittany Lions to their third power play of the afternoon. On the power play, the Nittany Lions were only able to record one shot on goal, but they made it count.
With one second left on the Nittany Lion power play, Bella Sutton (Shoreview, Minn.) fired a shot past Lindenwood goaltender Jolene deBruyn to give the Nittany Lions their first lead of the game at 6:08 in the third period.
Down the final 13:52 of regulation, Paniccia kept the Lindenwood Lions off the scoreboard as she stepped up for eight saves, which included two saves on a Nittany Lion penalty kill. The Lindenwood Lions pulled deBruyn at 1:13 to bring on an extra attacker, but the Lindenwood Lions were unsuccessful in finding the game-tying goal.
Penn State and Lindenwood close out the series inside the Pegula Ice Arena Saturday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m. Saturday's game is THON Awareness Day and is also a Family 4 Pack game.
NOTES: Lindenwood leads the all-time series against Penn State, 9-8-2...Bowman extended her point streak to a career-best six games (4-5-9)...Bowman's assist on McMillan's goal was the 90th point of her Nittany Lion career...Petersen extended her season-best point streak to six games (5-5-10)...McMillan extended her career-best point streak to four games (2-3-5)...Meilleur scored her third career goal in the past four games...Seward tied a career-best two-assist game...Paniccia improves to 5-2-1 in her rookie campaign...Her five wins are a program-best by a Nittany Lion freshman goaltender...Sutton's game-winning goal Friday was the fifth of her career and the first this season...The two teams combined for five penalties...Penn State went 1-for-3 on the power play, while Lindenwood went for 1-for-2...Penn State outshot Lindenwood, 22-20.