Jan. 22, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team used a four-goal third period to force a 4-4 tie against College Hockey America (CHA) opponent RIT Sunday afternoon inside the Pegula Ice Arena. Nine Nittany Lions tallied at least one point on the afternoon, all of which were recorded during the third period.
"It was a great weekend for us," interim head coach Dean Jackson said. "To get three of four points in league play this weekend is something to be proud of. Certainly today was not the result that we wanted, however to make a comeback and play as hard as we did is something very exciting. From a four-goal deficit, to squeeze out a tie is something the team can be very proud of. Overall it was a great weekend."
Trailing 4-0 with 16:36 left to play in the third period, the Nittany Lions (6-15-5, 5-5-2 CHA) netted four goals within a span of 15 minutes and 39 seconds to tie the game at four goals apiece with 57.1 seconds left in regulation. The game-tying goal for the Nittany Lions came on the stick of senior captain Laura Bowman (Minnetonka, Minn.). Bowman's goal Sunday was the 15th of her season and moves her one point closer to becoming the first Nittany Lion in program history to tally 100 points (97).
RIT (4-20-2, 2-8-2 CHA) opened the game with three goals on its first seven shot attempts over the first 13:43 of the game.
For the Tiger offense in the first frame, Madison Farrand netted the game's first goal at 3:29, followed by Mackenzie Stone at 10:09 and then Caitlin Wallace recorded her sixth goal of the season at 13:43. RIT took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. Kendall Cornine then extended the RIT lead to 4-0 with 9:57 remaining in the second period.
Despite holding a 20-16 advantage in shots on goal, the Nittany Lions trailed the Tigers 4-0 with 20 minutes remaining in regulation.
After an interference penalty to RIT's Cassie Clayton at 2:55 in the third period, the Nittany Lion offense began to find their stride.
The Nittany Lions got on the scoreboard at 3:24 on sophomore Victoria Samuelsson's (Leksand, Sweden) second goal of the season. On the Samuelsson goal, junior Aly Hardy (St. Albans, Vt.) netted her third assist of the year and senior Kelly Seward (Williamsville, N.Y.) picked up her 12th assist of the season.
Trailing 4-1 with under nine minutes left in regulation, freshman Kate Rydland (Eden Prairie, Minn.) scored her second goal of the weekend, and the fourth of her Nittany Lion career, with 8:35 left on the clock. Rydland's goal was assisted by classmate Amanda McLeod (Calgary, Alberta), who scored her first career goal in Saturday's contest, and senior Sarah Nielsen (Edina, Minn.), who tallied an assist in the series opener. Following the Rydland tally, RIT used its timeout.
Almost five minutes after the Rydland strike, classmate Brooke Madsen (Eagan, Minn.) found the back of the net for the fifth time this season with 3:42 remaining in regulation to make it a one-goal contest. Samuelsson and Seward each picked up their second point of the afternoon with assists on the Madsen goal.
After netting a power play goal early in the period, the Nittany Lions went back to work on the power play with 2:04 left in regulation, as RIT's Tori Haywood was called for checking.
Following the RIT penalty, the Nittany Lions called their timeout. The Nittany Lions then took to the ice with an empty net giving the Blue & White a 6-on-4 advantage on the ice for two minutes on the power play and with 2:04 left on the clock.
After a little more than a minute elapsed on the Nittany Lion power play, Bowman collected her 14th career power play goal after she beat RIT netminder Terra Lanteigne from near the left faceoff dot to even the game at 4-4 with 57.1 seconds remaining in regulation. Madsen and senior Amy Petersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) were credited with assists on the Bowman goal. Petersen's assist Sunday was the 11th of her season and the 92nd point as a Penn Stater.
Neither team could find the back of the net down the final stretch of regulation and in the extra frame sending the game to a 4-4 tie.
In net for the Nittany Lions, freshman Daniela Paniccia (Oakville, Ontario) recorded four saves before junior Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) closed out the game with 21 saves. For RIT in net, Lanteigne finished the day with 29 saves.
The Nittany Lions close out their four-game homestand against Mercyhurst, Jan. 27-28. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. and 2 p.m.
NOTES: RIT leads the all-time series against Penn State, 12-11-3...Penn State outshot RIT, 33-29...RIT went 0-for-1 on the power play, while Penn State went 2-4, which included a perfect 2-2 in the third period...The Nittany Lion freshman accounted for four of the seven goals in the RIT series this weekend...Following the game, Penn State is now tied for seventh in the nation in power play goals scored with 19...Penn State tallied eight assists Sunday, which is tied for the No. 6 performance in program history...Rydland netted her second-straight game with at least one goal...Seward tied a career-best two assists Sunday, which was the fifth time in her career...Seward tallied three assists on the weekend...Nielsen recorded at least one assist in both goals...The Nittany Lions were +5 in third period goal differential during the RIT series this weekend...Samuelsson netted three points on the weekend (1-2-3)...McLeod netted at least one point in both games (1-1-2)...Bowman's 15 goals this season rank third all-time at PSU, only to her 16 goals in 2014-15 and 17 goals in 2015-16...Seward's 13 assists this season are tied for sixth all-time at PSU...Madsen ranks second all-time in points by a Nittany Lion freshman with 17...Shannon Yoxheimer holds the record of 31 points set back in 2012-13...Madsen tied Samulsson Sunday for second-place in assists by a Nittany Lion freshman with 12...Sunday's game marked the first time Penn State rallied back from a four-goal deficit...The Nittany Lions committed only one penalty for the fifth time this season Sunday.