Box Score Pittsburgh, Pa. - November 28, 2009 - The Robert Morris University Colonials snapped a six-game winless streak and captured their first home victory of the season with a 3-1 win against the Rensselaer Engineers at the RMU Island Sports Center during RMU's annual Skate for the Cure Event. With the win the Colonials improved their record to 5-10-1 overall, while Rensselaer dropped to 5-8-4.
On top of a great game, the Colonials were able raise funds and awareness for breast cancer, one of the leading causes of death among women today. In honor of the event, breast cancer survivor Patty Stevens dropped the ceremonial puck to start the contest.
"I am very pleased with our effort today," said head coach Nate Handrahan. "We challenged everyone to do something better in today's game and everyone responded well to the challenge. It was nice to score goals by creating opportunities. It was certainly a special day with it being Skate for the Cure and it was great to have Patty Stevens here to drop the ceremonial puck. I hope we will be able to reach our goal of $10,000 raised this year with the sale of game jerseys, t-shirts and water canteens."
For the first time in seven games the Colonials captured the first score of the contest. At 6:59 senior Jacki Gibson (Burlington, Ontario / Burlington Barracudas) grabbed her second goal of the season when she lit the lamp from just inside the blue line during an extra-man advantage. Junior Sara O'Malley (Guelph, Ontario / Hamilton Hawks) was credited with the assist.
The Colonials added to their lead a little over five minutes later when O'Malley and junior Maria Stoa (Bloomington, Minn. / Eden Prairie) took off on a break-away and faced with only one Rensselaer defenseman. Stoa raced the puck up the ice and sent it cross-ice to O'Malley who beat RPI goalie Sonja Van Der Bliek with the back door goal to give Robert Morris a 2-0 advantage.
The Colonials and the Engineers skated through 20 minutes of scoreless action in the second period with each team sending off six shots apiece.
It looked like Robert Morris might finish the contest with a shutout, but Whitney Naslund was able to take advantage of a power-play opportunity and scored an unassisted goal at 14:11 in the third period to cut into RMU's lead 2-1.
In an effort to knot the score and force overtime, RPI pulled its goalie, but RMU's Brianna Delaney (Stittsville, Ontario / NCCP Raiders) found the open net to finalize the score 3-1. Gibson was credited with the assist.
Junior goalie Daneca Butterfield (Kronau, Saskatchewan / Notre Dame Hounds) finished the contest with 21 saves, while Van Der Bliek added 14 saves. Both teams were able to convert on a power-play advantage with RPI going one-of-three and the Colonials finishing one-of-four. Rensselaer outshot the Colonials 22 to 17.
The Colonials return to action on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6 to take on conference foe No. 1 Mercyhurst. The puck drops at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.
