UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – The Penn State women's hockey team rallied behind a pair of goals from Natalie Heising to complete the series sweep of CHA-foe Lindenwood 2-1 Monday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Period
- Neither team found much of an offensive push in the first period, but the Nittany Lions still managed a couple of scoring opportunities. Meike Meilleur had a good wrap-around attempt that Lindenwood's goaltender, Wolf just managed to get a piece of. Katie McMillan also had a low shot that Wolf barely kicked out with the left pad.
- Penn State went to the box at 13:40 on an Amanda McLeod hooking minor, but the Nittany Lions killed its sixth-consecutive penalty in the past two days.
- End of First Period: Penn State 0, Lindenwood 0
- Shots on goal for the period: Penn State 12, Lindenwood 3
Second Period
- Despite the Nittany Lions outshooting Lindenwood by 14 in the second stanza, it was Lindenwood who scored the first goal of the game. Cierra Paisley netted her fourth of the season from in close with assists to Shannon-Morris Reade and Megan Wagner at 7:31.
- The Nittany Lions wasted little time tying the game. Heising picked up a Lindenwood turnover in the neutral zone and sped past the changing Lions. She put her shot in the low right corner which caught Wolf off guard for the unassisted goal.
- End of Second: Penn State 1, Lindenwood 1
- Shots on goal: Penn State 20, Lindenwood 6
Third Period
- The Nittany Lions had four of their six power-play chances come in the third period. They generated 14 shots on the first four tries but couldn't quite connect.
- Lindenwood also had a power play sandwiched between PSU's first four, but only managed one shot on goal.
- Heising's heroics came at 16:29 on Penn State's final power play of the afternoon. Kelsey Crow moved the puck to Jessica Adolfsson at the point who immediately moved towards the goal to draw the defense. She connected with Heising on a cross-ice pass in the left circle. Heising gathered and lifted her wrist shot just underneath the crossbar.
- Lindenwood pulled Wolf for the extra attacker with 50 seconds remaining, but Penn State allowed just one shot that was saved by Brenneman.
- Final Score: Penn State 2, Lindenwood 1
- Shots on goal: Lindenwood 20, Penn State 5
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Jeff Kampersal
- "To throw 52 shots on goal, that might be historical. It's a lot. We'll take the win and the sweep and overall, we are a game above .500 now. We're excited to head into Syracuse."
- "I think their goalie [Sophie Wolf] played well. We threw a lot of shots on her. We battled to the end. We switched up our power play on the very last one. Before then, I thought we were doing the same thing and it just was not working so it needed to change. Maybe we were trying to make it too complicated. Last year Natalie scored a bunch of goals where she scored that second goal. So, we needed to figure out a way to get Natalie in that spot, so she can rip pucks from there."
- On Heising's second goal: "That goal was like an NHL goa, a laser right underneath the crossbar. Considering the difficultly of the goal she scored with all the other shots we had on goal, just sports are funny like that. She was off-angle, put it under the crossbar. That was a tough thing to do and I thought we had other chances, that were easier and we didn't. But again, it wasn't for a lack of effort."
- On the five-game streak without a loss: "All of our games, from last year to this year are close battles. There are some things that we haven't been able to finish out. We are starting to win games and close out tight games, that'll help us. I still think we have a lot of work to go."
Sophomore forward Natalie Heising
- "Our whole team outshot them by a great amount, I think that is what we needed because their goalie made some pretty good saves. Anything we could do to get pucks on net, luckily we had some that went in and we won the game."
- On scoring on the final power play: "I think just switching things up when things aren't working lets everyone try something new and takes the other team off guard. We had an advantage on that, given that we just had a timeout and they didn't know what to expect from us. I think everyone was just able to play a little looser because we were just trying to get a goal."
GAME NOTES
- Penn State has now won four-straight games against Lindenwood and hold a 15-11-3 all-time advantage over the Lions.
- Heising's two-goal game was her second of the season (10/20 vs. Providence) and the sixth of her career which ranks third in Nittany Lion program history. Only one other Nittany Lion has a two-goal game in 2018-19 (Loli Fidler, 10/27 at Mercyhurst).
- Penn State's 52 shots on goal are a new season high, breaking the previous mark of 51 set against RIT Nov. 20, 2018.
- Heising fired ten shots on goal, which is tied for the most of any PSU skater in a game this season (Brooke Madsen, 9/28 at Colgate).
- After switching up lines, Heising was paired with Katie Rankin and Shea Nelson for much of the game. The trio combined for 25 shots on goal.
- With the late power play goal, Penn State has now scored eight power-play goals in the last eight games.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions head to Syracuse for another CHA series next weekend, Jan. 25-26. Friday's puck drop will be at 7 p.m. with Saturday's game time set for 3 p.m.