Women's Hockey | 12/4/2017 5:18:00 PM
PITTSBURGH -- A November to remember for forwards
Brittany Howard and
Lexi Templeman of the
Robert Morris women's hockey team was commemorated by College Hockey America (CHA) Tuesday, as the conference declared them their November Player and Rookie of the Month, respectively.
This marks the first-ever monthly award for Templeman, who was also tabbed as CHA Player of the Week Nov. 6. The KW Rangers product led all rookies in the conference with three goals, four assists and seven points in November.
Among those four apples were a pair of game-winners in a Nov. 3-4 sweep of host Lindenwood that got the Colonials their first two conference wins of 2017-18 and concluded the most successful stretch of road games (7-1-2) in the
Paul Colontino era. Her setup of a decisive power-play goal by
Caitlyn Sadowy in the series opener gave the latter her first official goal since missing all of last season due to injury.
Templeman, who saw time on each of Colontino's first three lines this past month, carried a streak of five straight games with a point through Nov. 11. She scored the first of two tying goals for Robert Morris in its dramatic 3-2 upset of then-No. 5 Ohio State in overtime at the RMU Island Sports Center Nov. 25, its first victory over a ranked opponent since Jan. 18, 2014 and first on home ice since Nov. 9, 2013.
The Staffa, Ontario-born newcomer ended November leading CHA with three power-play goals of her own this season. She also wrapped up the month pacing all CHA rookies with five goals, six assists and 11 points this season.
Meanwhile, this is the second time in the illustrious career of Howard she has earned back-to-back CHA Player of the Month awards, having also done so last November and December. It is her seventh monthly CHA honor all-time, including six player-of-the-month nods.
The top-line center led CHA with eight goals and 11 points in November. Howard also led CHA with four power play points, two game-winning goals and a plus-9 rating, all while averaging a conference-best 7.33 shots on goal per game.
She ended November with a goal in five straight games, the most since she began the 2017-18 campaign on a career-high six-game goal streak, with one of the highlights of her career, let alone her redshirt senior year, coming in the signature win over OSU.
Howard announced her presence on a national level by scoring her 70th career goal in game-tying fashion and her 71st in overtime, becoming only the second RMU player with 70 all-time. The viral equalizer eventually made both No. 7 on the #NCAATop10 and No. 6 on the #espnWtop10 weekly countdowns.
One of the most decorated players in program history, Howard ended November with the second-most lifetime points (158) of any active NCAA player, and she concluded the month tied for second in Division I with 17 goals on the season and atop CHA with 26 points.
Howard, the reigning CHA Player of the Year, won last year's conference scoring title with 50 points (20 G, 30 A).
No. 10 Robert Morris (11-3-2, 5-1-2) concludes the 2017 portion of its schedule with a non-conference game at No. 4 Colgate Saturday at 3:00 p.m.
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