Jan. 28, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior Laura Bowman (Minnetonka, Minn.) posted a two-assist effort to become the first Nittany Lion in program history to record 100 career points, but the Mercyhurst Lakers topped the Penn State women's hockey team, 4-3, in a College Hockey America (CHA) contest Saturday afternoon inside the Pegula Ice Arena.
"It's always difficult to walk away from a weekend 0-for-2," interim head coach Dean Jackson said. "We always wish a better fate; I think yesterday we definitely didn't deserve that, but I think today we played well enough to be on the other side of the column. Certainly some things we need to clean up and we're really looking forward to tackling that on Monday."
The Lakers (10-16-2, 6-7-1 CHA) took a 2-0 lead midway through the first period on goals from Jillian Skinner at 5:34 and Brooke Hartwick at 11:47. The Nittany Lions then made it a one-goal game, on freshman defenseman Katie McMillan's (Minnetonka, Minn.) fourth career goal. On the McMillan goal, Amy Petersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) recorded the primary assist for her 94th career point and Bowman tallied the secondary assist for her 99th career point.
The Nittany Lions (6-17-5, 5-7-2 CHA) wasted little time in the second period tying the game at 2-2, as Brooke Madsen (Eagan, Minn.) netted her sixth career goal just 26 seconds into the second stanza. Madsen's power play goal came on assists from classmate Abby Welch (East Amherst, N.Y.) and Petersen.
The game remained tied at two goals apiece for a little more than three minutes before Mercyhurst's Maggie Knott put the Lakers up 3-2 at 3:42 into the second stanza.
With almost four minutes to play in the second period, the Lakers made it a 4-2 contest as Hartwick scored her 14th goal of the season at the 15:55 mark of the second period.
The Nittany Lions then made it a one-goal game at 7:06 into the third period on Petersen's 12th goal of the season, which was her 96th career point. On the Petersen goal, Bowman was credited with the primary assist, which gave her 100 career points, and Welch was credited with her second assist of the game and the sixth of her young Nittany Lion career.
Following the Petersen tally, Mercyhurst netminder Sarah McDonnell made a lunging save on Petersen with 7:00 minutes left in regulation to keep it 4-3 Mercyhurst and then with 5:51 left on the clock, Meike Meilleur (Winnipeg, Manitoba) fired a shot past McDonnell, but she hit the crossbar.
In net, junior Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) recorded 29 saves for the Blue & White, while McDonnell posted a 30-save performance for the Lakers.
Following a bye week next weekend, the Nittany Lions return to CHA action at Lindenwood on Feb. 10-11. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and 2 p.m. (EST) inside the Lindenwood Ice Arena.
NOTES: Mercyhurst leads the all-time series against Penn State, 15-3-2...Shots were tied at 33 apiece...Mercyhurst went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Penn State went 2-for-6...Penn State netted its 21st power play goal of the season, which is one goal shy of the program record set back in 2014-15...Petersen netted her 25th career multi-point game, which is a program-best...Bowman tallied her 24th multi-point game...Welch posted her second career multi-point game...Petersen's 12 goals this season are a career-best...Bowman and Petersen are tied with classmate Kelly Seward for the team lead in assists with 13 apiece...Petersen tallied her 12th career two-assist game...Petersen recorded her 11th career game with at least one goal and one assist.