University Park, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University women's hockey team heads into the College Hockey America (CHA) Tournament with momentum as it completed a sweep of Penn State University this afternoon, 4-1, from Pegula Ice Arena.
The win moved Robert Morris (11-17-5, 8-8-4 CHA) to 11-1-0 against Penn State (15-15-4, 9-9-2 CHA) in its history. It also locked up the third seed in the CHA Tournament based on the season series tiebreaker over the Nittany Lions.
The Colonials put together the first dangerous scoring opportunity 3:40 into the first period.
Maddie Collias carried the puck into the offensive zone and lofted a perfect pass between two defenders across the slot.
Rebecca Vint caught it in stride, but her wrist-shot was gloved by PSU goaltender Celine Whitlinger.
The Nittany Lions struck first two minutes later when Caitlin Reilly slotted home a rebound from the doorstep.
RMU earned the game's first power play with 7:10 left in the opening frame. The visitors put together a good chance early on the man advantage as a
Mikaela Lowater shot from the point was redirected just wide of the cage by
Rikki Meilleur. However, with seven seconds left on the power play,
Katie Fergus took an interference penalty to give the hosts a two-minute five-on-four.
While PSU's mindset was to double its lead, Vint had other plans early in the penalty kill. The senior captain stole the puck from Bella Sutton at the blue line and skated alone towards Whitlinger, beating her five-hole for the seventh short-handed goal of her career and her 16th tally all-time against the Nittany Lions.
The middle stanza was a penalty-filled affair, with both teams combining for 14 minutes in the box. PSU burned its timeout after falling down five-on-three, but the extra rest was to no avail as
Amanda Pantaleo batted in a rebound from the doorstep to give the Colonials a 2-1 lead.
Katelyn Scott and
Katherine Murphy were credited with the assists on the freshman's third career goal.
RMU doubled its advantage less than a minute later on the following power play as
Mackenzie Johnston slotted home a loose puck. Meilleur and Scott earned the helpers on Johnston's 11th tally of the season.
Jessica Dodds continued her strong play in the third period with three big saves against the Nittany Lion power play unit. She stretched out her right pad early in the frame to push away a chance from Laura Bowman, then used her pad again to get enough of a Shannon Yoxheimer redirection from the slot. The third stop set up the contest's final goal as she stopped a one-timer attempt from Kelly Seward.
The aforementioned tally came late in the penalty kill as
Katie Fergus gathered the puck in the neutral zone and created a two-on-one breakaway. Fergus passed it across the slot to
Mikaela Lowater, who caught Whitlinger off-balance with a nice deke before tapping it into an empty net. Lowater's goal was her second of the season.
Dodds made 24 saves on the afternoon, 11 of which coming in the final 20 minutes.
Third-seeded Robert Morris will host sixth-seeded RIT in the CHA Quarterfinals next week. The first game of that series is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 27 at 7:05 p.m. from 84 Lumber Arena.
