Jan. 31, 2018
By Briana Zuccarelli, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Nittany Lions dropped a tough 3-0 loss against the Princeton Tigers in a nonconference matchup Tuesday evening inside Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State (6-13-9, 3-6-5 CHA) and Princeton (9-10-4, 7-8-1 ECAC) both had strong defensive games, but the Tigers were able to hold the Nittany Lions offensively.
"Princeton is a good team," head coach Jeff Kampersal said. "They're really well coached, super fast, and have super good habits. I thought we started slow and need to approach our games better at home, I thought we had a great second period where we controlled a lot, we got the puck behind their defense's feet, and we were kind of working there."
Senior goalie, Hannah Ehresmann finished the game with 27 saves to spearhead the Penn State defense who dominated Tuesday's game. This Nittany Lion defense is one of the best in the country when it comes to making the important stops and plays.
"We're one of the better defensive teams in the country," Kampersal said. "We've given up power play goals and short-handed goals and the random open net, but with five on five we don't give up much."
The strong defense has two shutouts on the year, and has allowed just one goal in six other games this season.
Penn State ended the game with a total of 23 shots and no goals, while Princeton had 30 shots and 3 goals.
While the team was unable to find the back of the net, multiple players made up those 23 shots on goal. Katie Rankin led the team with four shots, with Kelsey Crow and Christi Vetter close behind with 3 each
"We don't generate enough offensively," Kampersal said on what his team needs to improve. "We don't make good enough decisions to give ourselves a chance to score some goals.".
The Princeton game was a quick turnaround for the Nittany Lions. The team had just returned home late Saturday night after a weekend series at Robert Morris University, and had to start preparing right away for the midweek matchup against the Tigers. This was the team's second mid-week game of the season, the first being a 1-1 game at Cornell University.
"I would say it's tough," Kampersal said on playing midweek. "It's odd for us to play on a Tuesday night, especially at 5 p.m. Those guys (Princeton) just got through exams, so we should've been the better team from the get-go."
The Nittany Lions will be traveling to Erie, Pennsylvania, to play the Mercyhurst Lakers for a weekend series on February 9th and 10th. The puck will drop at 3 p.m. for the series opener.