UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 8/9 Penn State women's hockey team pieced together several great plays on the offensive and defensive ends to come out with a thrilling 4-2 win over Robert Morris Saturday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.
The win for Penn State (11-1-2, 11-1-2 CHA) separates them from Robert Morris (9-5-1, 9-5-1 CHA) by two more points in the CHA standings and completes a season sweep in the matchup for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State also set a new program high with an eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1) dating back to their Jan. 8 win also against Robert Morris.
The Nittany Lions had offensive balance with nine different players recording a point, but perhaps the biggest moment of the game was Penn State stopping an extended RMU major power play that included a full two minutes of 5-on-3 in the third period.
"I don't think I've ever gone through a game quite like that," said head coach Jeff Kampersal. "I told our team at the end that they have a tremendous amount of heart. That's one of the core values that we have on our wall. To kill off that five-minute penalty which included that 5-on-3 was a pretty heroic effort by all of them."
Freshman goaltender Josie Bothun (Wyoming, Minn.) made seven of her 36 saves during that extended power play to extend a PSU goaltender record of eight unbeaten games.
Penn State had goals from Julie Gough (Newcastle, Ontario), Amy Dobson (Hamilton, Ontario) and Olivia Wallin (Oakville, Ontario) all in the second period and an empty-net score by Natalie Heising (Wayzata, Minn.) late in the third.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Robert Morris took advantage in the game first on a goal from Ellie Marcovsky at the 14:36 mark in the first period. Lexi Templeman made a great pass from behind the Penn State cage to Marcovsky crashing the net for her fourth goal of the season for the Colonials.
Penn State responded at 3:27 in the second period on Gough's fourth of the season after a solid offensive shift by Penn State. Izzy Heminger (Dublin, Ohio) ripped a shot from the point and Gough got her stick on the puck and redirected it past Kirk to knot the game 1-1.
The Nittany Lions weren't done there as Dobson cleaned up a loose puck in the crease to give Penn State the lead. Jessica Adolfsson (Linkoping, Sweden) made a great individual play to keep the puck in the offensive zone and then drove the net and fired a shot on goal that was stopped, but Dobson tapped in the rebound for a 2-1 lead at 9:58.
Just seconds later, penalties were issued to both teams and Robert Morris scored 4-on-4 to tie the game. Anjelica Diffendal scored less than a minute after Dobson's goal to make it 2-2.
With time winding down in the second period, Wallin banked the puck to herself in the neutral zone and spring free on a breakaway down the right wing. She lasered a shot bar down despite a rolling puck on her stick to regain the lead for Penn State 3-2 with 12 seconds left in the period.
Penn State's one-goal lead became heavily jeopardized in the third period after a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct was issued to Rachel Weiss (Calgary, Alberta) 6:22 into the final stanza, giving Robert Morris' potent power play an extended try.
To compound the disadvantage for Penn State, Adolfsson took a tripping minor less than a minute into the kill giving RMU a 5-on-3 opportunity for two minutes within their major power play.
Penn State's penalty kill was spectacular and was able to thwart the golden chance for the Colonials, anchored by Bothun's seven saves in the sequence.
That momentum allowed Penn State to keep RMU at bay for the rest of the period until the Colonials pulled Kirk with 1:33 to play.
After a face off in Penn State's end, Heising scooped the puck and carried to center before sliding the puck from the center red line into the empty net to give Penn State the 4-2 win.
GAME STATS AND NOTES
- Penn State has 24 points to lead the CHA standings, five ahead of Robert Morris in second place and 13 ahead of third place Mercyhurst. The top two seeds in the standings receive byes to the semifinal round of the CHA Tournament.
- Wallin leads the CHA with eight goals, the most scored by a Penn State freshman in a season since Heising's program-record 19 scores in 2017-18 (36 games).
- With her second-period goal, Gough has tallied eight points (3G, 5A) during PSU's eight-game run.
- Lyndie Lobdell (Aurora, Ill.) picked up an assist on Wallin's game winner giving her 10 helpers for the season. That sets a new PSU freshmen record by a defender and she leads all conference defenders in scoring.
NEXT UP
Penn State will play its third and fourth games in six days with a weekday series hosting RIT Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 9-10, at Pegula Ice Arena.