MOON TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania – The Penn State women's hockey team completed the road sweep of Robert Morris with a 4-1 victory Saturday afternoon at Clearview Arena.
The series win marked Penn State's (6-1-1, 6-1-1 CHA) first-ever sweep of the Colonials (4-2, 4-2 CHA) and first back-to-back wins against RMU since the 2015-16 season.
Junior defender Jessica Adolfsson (Linkoping, Sweden) scored twice in the second period for her first-career two-goal game. Freshman Maeve Connolly (West Roxbury, Mass.) started the scoring with a first period marker.
Freshman Kiara Zanon (Fairport, N.Y.) capped the game with an empty-net goal.
Freshman goaltender Josie Bothun (Wyoming, Minn.) continued her record-setting pace in goal with 25 saves to improve to 6-1-1 on the season.
Robert Morris's lone goal was scored by Wasyn Rice and goaltender Arielle DeSmet made 37 saves.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Nittany Lions wasted little time applying pressure in the offensive end and were rewarded with the game's first goal at the 8:13 mark of the first period. Connolly ripped a great shot through traffic to the far post from the right circle for her second of the season to give PSU the early edge.
Just 33 seconds into the second period, Penn State doubled its lead thanks to Adolfsson's first blast through traffic with assists to Zanon and Mallory Uihlein (Edina, Minn.).
Robert Morris did manage to cut the lead back to one with Wasyn Rice's goal less than two minutes later, but the second period was controlled by the Nittany Lions. After back-to-back penalties on RMU put Penn State on the power play, Adolfsson slapped a one-timer past DeSmet to at 10:05 to give the Nittany Lions a 3-1 lead.
Penn State held a 18-9 shots on goal edge for the second period and had the majority of puck possession in the offensive end.
While Penn State continued to manage the puck most of the time in the third, the Colonials did have a couple of chances to come back that the Nittany Lions were able to stop. RMU appeared to score a goal to cut the lead to 3-2 with just under eight minutes to play, but the goal was waved off after review as Bothun was contacted in her crease.
The Colonials also had power-play chance late the in period after back-to-back PSU penalties, but Zanon scored from a sharp angle on the empty net to seal the win.
GAME NOTES AND STATS
- With the win, Penn State now has 13 points in the CHA standings with five points separating the Nittany Lions from the second-place Colonials.
- Adolfsson became the first PSU defender to score twice in a game since Rene Gangarosa (Rochester, N.Y.) on Oct. 18, 2019 at Providence.
- Freshman Carrie Byrnes (Eden Prairie, Minn.) finished the weekend with three assists.
- Penn State six wins in eight games is by far the fastest the program has ever reached six wins in a season, shattering the previous mark of 14 games.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions have another road series at RIT against former assistant coach Celeste Brown and the Tigers Jan. 15-16.