PITTSBURGH -- On Saturday afternoon, the only shot fired in overtime landed its taker, Brittany Howard, in Robert Morris women's hockey folklore, just in case the one she made 16 minutes earlier hadn't put her there already.

The top-line center, set up by Maggie LaGue, beat Kassidy Sauve with a snap shot from between the circles 1:36 into the extra period to give the No. 9 Colonials (10-2-2, 4-0-2) a 3-2 win over No. 5 Ohio State (11-3-2, 8-2-2-1) at the RMU Island Sports Center.

With the Buckeyes under mounting pressure from Robert Morris, Sauve made a phenomenal, close-range glove save on Howard to preserve a 2-1 lead in the third period. Howard promptly exacted revenge with 14:42 left in regulation, re-entering the offensive zone, faking a slap shot and waiting for just the right moment to roof the puck over the Ohio State netminder for her 70th career goal.

The St. Thomas, Ontario native is only the second RMU player to amass that many all-time goals. Howard now needs only two more tallies to equal the 73 by former teammate Rebecca Vint that stands as the school's all-time record.

She did, however, break one of Vint's other records by achieving her 13th career multi-goal game.

"I've played with a lot of great players, from freshman year to senior year," said Howard, now riding a five-game goal streak. "It's obviously a great honor, but I couldn't do it without my teammates."

"She works so hard, and being able to witness a special player like that go through their college career is a lot of fun," head coach Paul Colontino said. "You see how hard she works every day for those goals, and all she needed was a couple opportunities. She is just a clutch player. It's incredible."

Howard's team-leading fourth game-winner of the season and 16th lifetime, not to mention her second sudden-victory goal of the year, gave the Colonials their first triumph over a ranked opponent since taking down then-No. 10 Quinnipiac Jan. 18, 2014. It is the first time RMU has beaten a top-ten team at home since defeating Mercyhurst, its next opponent, Nov. 9, 2013.

Furthermore, Howard helped the snake-bitten Robert Morris power play find salvation on the final second of the front end of a two-player advantage. The Colonials looked sharp on the PP throughout the series, including previous five-on-threes earlier Saturday and in the second period Friday, but puck luck eluded them until the assistant captain's well-placed snipe.

"I trust Brit a lot with that stuff, because I know she's going to come up big in these kind of games," LaGue said of the pivotal PP. "We just had to trust our process. We've practiced it a lot, and we knew what we needed to do."

The ominous call came in the waning moments of regulation, when Grace Zarzecki was sent off for cross-checking. After a subsequent tripping call went the hosts' way in OT, Colontino used his timeout to set up his special teams.

"We talked a little bit about the five-on-threes we had already had, and about rolling out and just finding some shooting lanes," he said. "It was just about keeping it simple and doing what we were doing, because we had had a ton of looks.

"It's huge to get that goal, with overtime, with the pressure, with everything, and it was a heck of a shot, too."

"We just wanted to quickly get a few pucks on net before [Zarzecki] came out for the 5-on-4," Howard explained. "Maggie [LaGue] just tapped it to me, and I was able to find a lane in the slot and went top left."

"Coming out of the timeout, Coach just said, 'Feed Howard,' so I said, 'Okay.' That's usually my job anyway," LaGue said with a laugh.

Kidding aside, the junior defender did more than just that. Her first-period blast from the right point caught the blade of Lexi Templeman for the rookie's fifth goal of the season and a 1-1 tie with eight minutes left, and, playing top-pairing minutes, she aided a stifling defensive effort that helped Robert Morris force overtime.

The Colonials outshot OSU 41-26 and 74-56 for the series, and their 19 goal margin in third periods remains the best in Division I. The defense, in addition, did well to support Elijah Milne-Price, who bounced back impressively from Friday's loss with 24 saves to collect her ninth win as a senior.

It is one Robert Morris can and should savor, as the College Hockey America (CHA) flag-bearer heads into that next home series, next Friday at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday at 5:05 p.m., against the arch-rival Lakers having shown its mettle to another of the nation's top squads.

"It's definitely one of the more memorable wins this season," said LaGue, who has taken a 49-48 lead over Katherine Murphy in the race to become the program's all-time assist champion among defensemen.

"It shows what a talented team we have in that locker room. We just want to bring it every time we can, whether it's a top-ten opponent or not, and we know we have the ability to," Howard said. "It's nice to see us finally capitalize."

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