Pittsburgh, Pa. – For the third time in five seasons under head coach Paul Colontino and the tenth time in program history, the Robert Morris University women's hockey team is headed to the College Hockey America Tournament semifinals following a First Round Game Three  5-1 victory over the number five seed Lindenwood Lions Sunday afternoon at 84 Lumber Arena.
 
The number four seed Colonials (17-15-5) will travel to Buffalo, N.Y., to take on top-seeded Mercyhurst (17-10-5) in the semifinal round of the CHA Tournament at the HarborCenter.
 
Senior captain Ashley Vesci ignited the Colonials offense and recorded a new career-high four points on two goals and two assists. Freshman defenseman Maggie LaGue scored her second career goal and chipped in with an assist to post her fifth career multi-point game. Junior assistant captain Rikki Meilleur tallied two assists, while junior Mackenzie Johnston and sophomore Amanda Pantaleo accounted for the remaining Robert Morris goals. In her second consecutive postseason start and win, freshman goaltender Lauren Bailey made a career high-tying 34 saves.
 

With a 2-1 lead in tow, Robert Morris piled it on in the third period. It all started with a Vesci redirect on a Welsh wrist shot over the blocker of senior Lions goaltender Nicole Hensley into the high corner to put the Colonials back up by two. Ten seconds later, Johnston extended her current goal streak to four games with a shot  to a wide open corner of the Lindenwood net on a perfect feed from junior Maeve Garvey, and forced the Lions to call timeout in an attempt to disrupt RMU's scoring streak.
 
Lindenwood pulled Hensley and added the extra skater in a final attempt to close the gap, but Vesci sealed the deal with an empty-net goal to make it 5-1 at 18:37 in the third period. The Colonials bench erupted, as Robert Morris was less than two minutes away from a trip to Buffalo to take on the top team in the conference in the CHA Tournament Semifinals.
 
The momentum shifted back and forth between both squads in an action-packed second period. Vesci took a shot that bounced onto the stick of LaGue and into the net on Hensley's glove side. After official review, the goal was confirmed and RMU extended its lead to two. The Lions immediately responded as senior Shara Jasper cruised to the left side of Bailey, clear of any Robert Morris defenders, and put one past the rookie goaltender to get the Lions on the board.
 
The Colonials carried momentum from yesterday's win right into today's game and it was evident from the opening faceoff. Thirty-two seconds into the first period, Lindenwood committed a costly penalty and RMU capitalized. LaGue took a shot with multiple Colonials available up front to help it to the net. Pantaleo deflected the puck past Hensely and helped RMU to an early 1-0 advantage just 2:19 into the game.
 
Immediately after the initial Robert Morris goal, Lindenwood began firing shots at Bailey with urgency. Bailey stood tall in net and made some stand up plays, including a complete shut down of a two-on-one Lions rush that transpired following an RMU turnover. The key save kept the Colonials ahead and continued to frustrate the Lions' attack.
 
After an even opening period in shots on goal, Lindenwood eged Robert Morris in the second, 16-5. The Colonials went back on top in shots in the third, 11-10.
 
Robert Morris' special teams continued to shine, as the Colonials went one-for-two on the power play and held the Lions scoreless on both of their man-advantage opportunities.
 
Quoting Head Coach Paul Colontino
On getting the first goal on the power play…
It's huge. You get a little bit of confidence right off the hop. You're in a single elimination game, and your first shift is on the power play, and you know you're not going to get that many power plays throughout the game. So the fact that we go out there and, again, the first shift for a few of our players, we get going right with things, it's huge. Momentum is huge. You have to limit your opponent and maximize your own team and I think we did a nice job of that tonight.
 
On maintaining pressure on Lindenwood…
I really like to think that over time you're able to wear them down, or however you want to phrase it. They just had a phenomenal second period and we got some massive saves from our goaltender. We had some great box-outs and some great blocked shots. We were fighting the momentum there and trying to get it back. We had players come up with huge plays.
 
On Lauren Bailey's performance…
Phenomenal. She had some absolutely huge saves in the second period. Looking at it, shots were 16-5 [in favor of Lindenwood] in the second period, and I have to think ten or eleven of them were Grade A scoring opportunities for them. It wasn't like they were perimeter shots. She was just making some huge, huge saves. She held us in when we didn't have momentum and when we got it back, she went back to being steady.
 
 
Making History
Robert Morris became the first team to force and win a third game in a College Hockey America Tournament First Round in conference history. Since 2013, the tournament format has made it so that the top two teams receive a first round bye, with the remaining four squads competing for the two open semifinal spots.
 
Answering the Call
In two consecutive postseason starts, just the third and fourth starts of her career, goaltender Lauren Bailey helped RMU to wins that forced a deciding game three and eventually helped the Colonials to a CHA Tournament semifinals appearance. In two starts, Bailey made a combined 59 saves and allowed just two goals in 120 minutes played.
 
Hot Streaks
Junior Mackenzie Johnston has scored a goal in her last four consecutive games. Junior Maeve Garvey has posted at least one point in her last three outings.
 
Hot Line
The line made up of junior Rikki Meilleur, sophomore Amanda Pantaleo and senior Ashley Vesci combined for five goals, five assists and 10 total points in the three-game postseason series against Lindenwood.
 
 
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