UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's hockey team scored back-to-back goals 30 seconds apart to tie the game in the second period, but ultimately dropped its fourth-straight game in a 5-2 loss to Syracuse Sunday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.
The loss drops the Nittany Lions to 4-7-1 overall and 0-4 in College Hockey America play. Syracuse improves to 4-6-0, 4-2-0 in conference.
"I was proud of the team for coming back after being down two, that could've gone a little differently," Head Coach Jeff Kampersal said. "As it got going, when we got an overall picture it was going to get better. But we're finding ways to not win games by making inopportune changes or inopportune penalties."
The Nittany Lion goals were scored freshman defenseman Izzy Heminger, her first career goal, and Shea Nelson, her second of the season.
Jenna Brenneman had 29 saves for the Nittany Lions while Maddi Welch made 18 saves for Syracuse.
The Orange netted the first two goals of the game in the first period. Marielle McHale scored on at 3:53 in the opening frame followed by Emma Polaski's unassisted tally at 16:45.
Penn State came surging back early in the second period beginning with Heminger's first goal as a Nittany Lion. Heminger flagged down the puck in the defensive zone and carried it with speed through the neutral zone. When the Syracuse defense collapsed on her near the blue line, she fired an accurate wrist shot just underneath the cross bar to cut the deficit in half at 2:19.
Just 30 seconds later, the Nittany Lions knotted the game at two thanks to a great shift by Nelson, Loli Fidler, and Natalie Heising. Heising led the rush and put the puck on net where Fidler and Nelson crashed the crease. Fidler got an initial second-chance try that was stopped by Welch, but Nelson was there to put home the next rebound.
Syracuse retook the lead at 18:01 in the second period on Anonda Hoppner's score assisted by Lauren Bellefontaine and Allie Munroe. From there, the Orange would not look back, as Victoria Klimek extended the lead back to two at 9:17 in the third, followed by an empty-netter from Brooke Avery to put the game away with 1:03 left.
GAME NOTES
Syracuse had 34 shots to Penn State's 30…Hoppner led the game with seven shots…Heising, Nelson, and Heminger each had three shots to lead the Nittany Lions…Neither team converted on the power play (Penn State 0-for-6, Syracuse 0-for-5)…Penn State has a bye week next week before returning to action on the road Nov. 16-17 at RPI.
