Feb. 25, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team (9-20-5, 8-10-2 CHA) closed out the 2016-17 regular season with a 2-0 loss to the Syracuse Orange (15-12-5, 14-4-2 CHA) in a College Hockey America (CHA) contest Saturday afternoon at the Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions close out the regular season in fourth-place in the CHA standings with 18 points.
"It was a hard fought 60-minute game today," interim head coach Dean Jackson said. "I thought we played extremely well, and it's just one unfortunate event that got us down. We had some opportunities, we executed the game plan extremely well. I give their goaltender credit, she made some big saves when we had those opportunities. I'm proud of our team we really limited their opportunities, and grade A chances, so I thought it was a great game."
With 27 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Savannah Rennie put the Orange up 1-0 on her ninth goal of the 2016-17 campaign. After a scoreless second period, Syracuse held a 1-0 lead heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the closing minutes of regulation, the Nittany Lions pulled junior netminder Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) in favor of the extra attacker. With the PSU net empty, Syracuse made it a 2-0 contest on Emily Costales' ninth tally of the season with 55 seconds left on the clock.
Ehresmann finished the afternoon with 21 saves, while Abbey Miller tallied 14 saves for Syracuse.
The Nittany Lions will now travel to Buffalo, N.Y., for the 2017 CHA Tournament, which is held March 2-4 at the HarborCenter. No. 4 seed Penn State will take on No. 5 seed RIT Thursday, March 2, in the second game of the CHA First Round. Game time is slated for 60 minutes after the conclusion of the first game, which starts at 4 p.m.
Tickets can officially be purchased online through the KeyBank Arena Box Office.
Full tournament packages are available for adults and are $25. Single-session tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students with a valid ID and children.
NOTES: Syracuse leads the all-time series against Penn State 18-1-3...Syracuse outshot Penn State, 23-14...Penn State went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Syracuse went 0-for-4...Sarah Nielsen and Amy Petersen each skated in their 144th career game Saturday, which ties Shannon Yoxheimer for the second-most appearances in program history...Emily Laurenzi holds the program record in games played with 145.