UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's hockey team went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the College Hockey America standings, but a third-period goal from Izzy Heminger wasn't enough to bring the Nittany Lions all the way back in a 3-1 loss to Robert Morris Friday evening at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State (10-11-6, 5-5-3 CHA) trailed by two in the third period when Heminger's goal from the point brought some life to the Nittany Lions' lineup.
Robert Morris (16-9-2, 10-3-0 CHA) was able to ice the game, however, with an empty-net goal with just under two minutes remaining.
"I thought we started off very strong in the first 10 minutes up until we started taking... well actually, I know we took a penalty early but we killed that off," said head coach Jeff Kampersal. "We had a specific plan in place to kill penalties and I thought it was working…We should have gotten out of that period even by taking too many penalties and not working smart. That was an issue that we've talked about for the last two weeks and it ended up being the nail in our coffin today."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first period featured a lot of back-and-forth, fast-paced action with the Nittany Lions generating the majority of the scoring chances early. The script changed with Penn State's first penalty, as Robert Morris went to its first of three power play where the Colonials generated 10 shots on goal.
RMU broke the ice at the 14:09 mark in the first on a power-play goal from Emily Curlett with assists by Lexi Templeman and Sarah Lecavalier and the Colonials took a one-goal lead into the first break.
Robert Morris continued its surge into the second period, outshooting Penn State 13-4 in the frame. At the 13:29 mark, the Colonials doubled their lead on an even-strength tip-in from Maggy Burbidge to cap off an extended offensive shift in the Nittany Lions' end.
Penn State finally turned things around in the third period on one of its two power-play chances in the period. After a successful zone entry on the advantage, Izzy Heminger received a pass at the point from Natalie Heising and let it rip on goal. It bounced around through some traffic between going through the legs of RMU goaltender, Raygan Kirk.
Izzy's shot bounced around and found the five-hole! It's a one-goal game!#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/wsZEQOnNmO
— Penn State Women's Hockey (@PennStateWHKY) February 8, 2020
Heminger's goal with helpers from Heising and Rene Gangarosa cut the Nittany Lions' deficit to just one at 2-1 with 12:24 left to play in the third.
Penn State outshot RMU 9-5 in the third and had a chance to pull Chantal Burke from goal for the extra attacker around the two-minute mark, but the Colonials quickly took advantage of the defenseless goal with an empty-netter by Burbidge, her second of the night, to put the game out of reach for the Nittany Lions.
GAME NOTES
- Junior goaltender, Chantal Burke, had another solid outing in net for Penn State with 29 saves, extending her streak of 20+ save starts to six.
- Heminger has six points (2G, 4A) in her last six games played.
- Gangarosa tied Heminger for the Nittany Lions' team lead with her tenth assists and blocked a game-high four shots.
- Penn State was 1-4 on its power-play chances with five shots on goal, while Robert Morris finished 1-5 with 12 shots on target.
NEXT UP
Penn State and Robert Morris conclude their regular-season series tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Pegula Ice Arena.