Jan. 5, 2018
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Four Nittany Lions found the back of the net as the Penn State women's hockey team captured a 5-1 victory over the No. 6/7 Ohio State Buckeyes Friday night at the OSU Ice Rink. Freshman Katie Rankin (Kanata, Ontario) paced the Nittany Lion offense with her first career two-goal game.
The Blue & White (5-7-8, 2-2-4 CHA) struck first on junior Meike Meilleur's (Winnipeg, Manitoba) third goal of the 2017-18 campaign at 7:17 into the contest. With the score in favor of 1-0 for Penn State after one period of play, the Nittany Lions added to their lead on Rankin's first goal of the evening at 5:21 in the second stanza. After 40 minutes of play, Penn State held a 2-0 lead over the Buckeyes (12-5-4, 8-2-4 WCHA).
Rankin then captured her first career two-goal game as she tallied a power play goal at 8:18 into the third period to make it a 3-0 contest for Penn State. With 6:11 remaining in regulation, Julianna Iafallo tallied a power play goal to put the Buckeyes on the board.
During the final three minutes of regulation, Aly Hardy (St. Albans, Vt.) scored her first goal of the season at 17:11 and Christi Vetter (Lakeville, Minn.) tallied her sixth goal of the season at 18:22 to secure the 5-1 victory.
In net, senior Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) picked up the victory behind a 31-save outing, while Kassidy Sauve recorded 21 saves for Ohio State.
The two teams close out the series tomorrow, Jan. 6, at 3 p.m. at the OSU Ice Rink.
NOTES: Ohio State leads the all-time series against Penn State, 7-2-0…Ohio State outshot Penn State, 32-26…Penn State went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Ohio State went 1-for-4…Bella Sutton tallied a pair of assists Friday…Freshman Natalie Heising extended her point streak to four games with an assist Friday (3-3-6)…Rankin extended her point streak to four games with the two-goal outing (3-3-6)...Penn State extended its unbeaten streak to seven games (3-0-4).