ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Penn State women's hockey team had its offense firing on all cylinders in its return to CHA conference play Friday afternoon, posting a 5-0 shutout win on the road at RIT.
Penn State (12-8-2, 5-2-0 CHA) has now won its last three games at RIT by the score of 5-0 all three times.
Senior forward Natalie Heising (Wayzata, Minn.) led the scoring charge with two goals on five shots. Heising was joined by senior Anna Promersberger (Fargo, N.D.), sophomore Kiara Zanon (Fairport, N.Y.) and freshman Mya Vaslet (Stittsville, Ontario) in the goal column.
Sophomore goaltender Josie Bothun (Wyoming, Minn.) stopped all 19 shots that came her way to record her sixth shutout of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Nittany Lions got off to a good start just over six minutes into the first period with the game's first goal. Alyssa Machado (Mississauga, Ontario) poked the puck off an RIT defender's stick at the RIT blue line and it landed right in front of Heising moving full speed ahead.
She corralled the puck and wristed a shot on goal with three Tigers defending her. Her 15th of the season put Penn State in front 1-0 at the 6:07 mark in the first period.
Penn State went to the penalty kill with 3:26 left in the first period and ended up doubling the lead on a shorthanded score by Zanon.
Zanon scooped up a loose puck in the defensive end and zoomed past the RIT defense down ice. She scored on her backhand for her third shorthanded score of the season and gave Penn State the 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
The scoring wouldn't stop for Nittany Lions, in particular their senior captain, as Heising added a second goal in the second period. At the 12:28 mark of the middle frame, Heising settled a bouncing puck, quickly turned and fired on goal for her second of the afternoon and extended Penn State's lead to 3-0.
Penn State continued with its two-goals-per-period trend by adding another score at the 16:20 mark. Rene Gangarosa (Rochester, N.Y.) entered the puck into the offensive end down the left wing and the puck snuck off the tape on her stick, but Vaslet dragged it in and picked her corner for the first-year center's third goal of the season.
Penn State took a 4-0 advantage into the second break.
The Nittany Lions continued to bottle up the Tigers in the neutral zone and made it tough for RIT to get anything going offensively. PSU added a fifth goal in with 5:01 remaining off the stick of Promersberger. Olivia Wallin (Oakville, Ontario) scooped up the puck near center ice and started a two-on-none breakaway.
Wallin tapped a pass right back to Promersberger who redirected it into the cage for her third of the season. Penn State maintained its five-goal margin for the 5-0 shutout win.
GAME NOTES AND STATS
- Heising continues to ride a goal-scoring hot streak with eight goals in her last eight games. The Wayzata, Minn. native also has five assists during the stretch for 13 points overall.
- It was also Heising's second three-point game in her last three outings, the last being her 1G, 2A effort against BU Jan. 2 at the Battle at the 'Burgh.
- Zanon is now tied for the program record in career short-handed goals with four, matching Amy Petersen's career mark. Her three shorties this season are a single-season record among all PSU skaters.
- Like Heising, Zanon has been on a point-scoring tear the last eight games, matching Heising's 13 points during the stretch on three goals and 10 helpers.
- With her sixth shutout of the season, Josie Bothun now has 10 for her career, becoming the first PSU goaltender to have double-digit shutouts as a Nittany Lion. She is one shy of tying the single-season shutout program record of seven set by Chantal Burke in 2019-20.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions and Tigers finish their two-game set tomorrow, Saturday Jan. 15, at 1 p.m.