UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's hockey team had another shutout performance from goaltender Jenna Brenneman and tallied a season-high 51 shots on goal in their 3-0 blanking of College Hockey America rival RIT Tuesday evening at Pegula Ice Arena.
Brenneman stopped 23 shots in her second shutout in three games. Penn State's goals were scored by Natalie Heising, Shea Nelson, and Anna Promersberger.
Christi Vetter, Rene Gangarosa, and Brooke Madsen all tallied their first assists of the season to help the Nittany Lions capture their first CHA victory of the season (6-7-2, 1-4 CHA).
"I thought it was a good, solid overall effort from our group," Head Coach Jeff Kampersal said. "We've run into a little adversity playing a few games in a row, but they hung together, showed good habits, and got some timely goals.
"The team is playing really well in front of me," said Brenneman. "We're figuring things out defensively and that's helping out lot."
Penn State pieced together a nice passing sequence spanning the whole ice to score its first goal of the game. Gangarosa moved the puck forward to Vetter in front of the Nittany Lion bench, who quickly relayed the puck to Heising down the middle of the ice. Heising lifted the puck past Lanteigne for her eighth of the season at 13:46 in the first period.
RIT put together a string of solid scoring chances in the second period, but Brenneman came up with timely saves to keep the Tigers off the board.
"She played well," Kampersal said of Brenneman. "There were a couple of times when RIT put pressure on us. Jenna did a good job of holding her group and making some big saves.
The Nittany Lions took advantage of an RIT mistake in the Tigers' zone to double their lead. Madsen swept up a loose puck near the blue line and connected with Nelson on a saucer pass. Nelson scored on the open cage for her third goal of the season at 13:43 in the second.
As was a developing theme for the entire game, Penn State continued to pressure RIT by putting pucks on goal and forcing the Tigers to defend their own zone. The Nittany Lions fired double-digit shots on goal in every period, including 17 in the third to keep RIT at bay.
RIT pulled Lanteigne with 2:45 left for an extra attacker, but the strategy backfired when Promersberger netted the empty-net goal, her second of the season, to put the game to bed at 3-0.
GAME NOTES
- Penn State fired 51 shots on net, their highest single-game shot total since the Nittany Lions tallied 71 on Jan. 5, 2013 in a 4-0 win over Chatham.
- Tonight marked the first game in program history Penn State finished a game with 50-59 shots on goal.
- Loli Fidler led the Nittany Lions with eight shots on goal. Heising followed with seven.
- Penn State blanked RIT on the power play all five times. The Nittany Lions' penalty-killing percentage for the season improved to 84.3% (43-of-51)
- Brenneman has now allowed just one goal over the last three games since the Nittany Lions' bye week. She's now tied for eighth in the country with two shutouts and tops all CHA goalies with a 1.71 GAA.
- Heising now has at least one point in ten of the Nittany Lions 15 games this season.
- Penn State improves to 6-1-1 on the year when leading after two periods of play.
- Freshmen defensemen Gangarosa and Heminger were on the ice for all three of Penn State's goals and finished with +3 ratings.
- Nelson has set a new career high with three goals after tallying two in her freshman season. She also set a season high with five shots on goal.
The Nittany Lions host the Tigers again tomorrow beginning at 3 p.m. at Pegula Ice Arena.