PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Penn State women's hockey team had a tough day on the ice Saturday afternoon and fell to conference opponent, Robert Morris, 5-0 at Colonials Arena.
Despite outshooting RMU, the Nittany Lions (3-6-3, 0-2-0 CHA) were unable to find the back of the net for the game as they dropped their fourth-straight contest.
The Colonials (4-5-1, 2-0-0 CHA) used a two-goal opening period and a three-goal second frame to cruise to its second win of the weekend.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It took just 29 seconds for Robert Morris to take an early lead. Michaela Boyle slipped one past Cam Leonard to put the Colonials on the board with assists from Jaycee Gebhard and Lexi Templeman.
Penn State successfully killed an RMU power play in the middle of the period, but the Colonials kept the pressure on and added its second goal at 12:01 from Jaycee Gebhard unassisted. RMU took the 2-0 lead into the first break.
The Nittany Lions had a couple of opportunities on the power play in the second period but couldn't quite cash in. Instead, the Colonials took advantage of their scoring chances to build their lead.
RMU scored three goals in the second period with the first coming from Boyle at 8:12 in the period. A little over six minutes later, Emily Curlett stashed one home on the power play to make it 4-0.
Rachel Weiss ripped another one-timer to try and get the Nittany Lions on the board late in the second, but her blast shot off the crossbar and was shortly countered by Boyle's third of the game on another RMU power play at 17:30 to give them the five-goal lead.
Cam Leonard made ten of her 20 saves in the third period for the Nittany Lions and Penn State successfully thwarted three RMU power plays in the period. Penn State's best scoring chance came on a two-on-one when Katie McMillan nearly found Julie Gough for an open net, but RMU goaltender, Raygan Kirk, intercepted and froze the puck to preserve her shutout.
GAME NOTES
- The Nittany Lions outshot RMU 30-25 for the game but were unsuccessful on its four power play chances. The Colonials scored two power-play markers on seven attempts.
- Despite not scoring, Rachel Weiss was all over the ice for the Nittany Lions with 14 shots attempts, including seven on goal, to lead the team. Brooke Madsen was next closest with eight shots attempts.
- The blue-line trio of Morgan Rolph, Rene Gangarosa, and Jessica Adolfsson all led the team with three blocked shots each.
- After moving to center for the series, Natalie Heising won 17 of her 28 faceoffs to finished at 53.7 percent (29-for-54) for the two-game set.
- Olivia Villani dressed in her 100th career game for Penn State.
- The Nittany Lions have a two-week break before returning to Pegula Ice Arena to host Syracuse in another CHA conference series Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23-24. Both games are slated for 2 p.m.