Pittsburgh, Pa. - Robert Morris University women's hockey used a pair of second period goals to power past Vermont for a 3-2 victory on Friday night. The Colonials (4-0-1) extend their unbeaten streak to five games, the longest unbeaten streak to start the season in program history.

The Colonials jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the team's second shift of the game. Brittany Howard raced up the left side of the ice, centering a pass to Jaycee Gebhard who fired a shot through traffic. The puck caromed off the pads of Catamounts goaltender Sydney Scobee and out to the feet of Amber Rennie near the right side of the crease before she tapped it home for her third goal of the season, giving the Colonials a 1-0 lead.

Lauren Bailey made several of her 12 first period saves during a Vermont power play near the end of the frame, stretching her right pad wide to keep the puck out of the net on a scoring attempt by the Catamounts Eve-Audrey Picard.

The one-goal lead held into the second period. This time, it was Vermont striking early with a goal by Victoria Andreakos.

Robert Morris worked their potent power play later in the second, with Gebhard tossing home her fourth goal of the season with the Colonials on the man-advantage. Gebhard's tally came off assists from Howard and Maggie Lague, marking RMU's eighth power play goal of the season.

With a 2-1 lead, the Colonials staved off a barrage of chances by the Catamounts. RMU found some balance in scoring with less than three minutes to play in the second period. Jessica Gazzola had her shot stopped by Scobee but was able to chip a rebound to Kirsten Welsh who fired the shot through traffic and past Scobee for her second goal of the season.



Vermont continued its early-in-the-period scoring trend with a goal by Rachel Khalouf 3:07 into the third, cutting the Colonials lead to one. Robert Morris controlled puck for much of the last stanza and held Vermont to just 6 shots during the final twenty-minutes of play.

Bailey finished the night making 28 saves, while the Colonials blocked 18 shots -- four, late in the game -- a pair by Rikki Meilleur and one from both Maeve Garvey and LaGue. Meilleur, LaGue, Garvey and Mikaela Lowater each blocked three shots.

Gebhard was named the game's third star, with a power play goal and an assist, the fourth multi-point game of her young five-game Colonials career. She's now Robert Morris' leading scorer with four goals and four assists for eight points. Howard dished two assists, her second multi-point game of the season.

Robert Morris handed Vermont its first loss of the season, making the Colonials one of just four unbeaten teams in NCAA Division I women's hockey. #1 Wisconsin remained undefeated with an overtime win over Clarkson. Other unbeaten teams Colgate and St. Lawrence are inactive this weekend.

The Colonials are back in action for the final game of the weekend with Vermont at 2:30pm at 84 Lumber Arena on Saturday.