Wentzville, Mo. – The No. 9 Robert Morris University women's hockey team secured the 2016-17 College Hockey America (CHA) Regular-Season Title outright, when they shut out Lindenwood, 3-0, to sweep the regular-season finale road series in Lindenwood Ice Arena Saturday afternoon.
 
RMU (22-4-6, 15-3-2 CHA) wraps up the regular season CHA champions, and sits atop the CHA standings to secure the No. 1 seed in the 2017 CHA Tournament.
 
Junior forward Jessica Gazzola, senior captain Rikki Meilleur, and sophomore forward Amber Rennie tabbed the three goals of the day. Rennie recorded a multi-point effort with an assist on Meilleur's goal. Junior defenseman Natalie Fraser, freshman forward Jaycee Gebhard, redshirt junior forward Brittany Howard, junior defenseman Katherine Murphy, and sophomore defenseman Kirsten Welsh each added an assist. Senior goaltender Jessica Dodds made 35 saves and earned her 13^th career shutout, and second in four games.
 
Just over three minutes into the third period, Gazzola scored to increase the Colonials advantage to two, 2-0. Just past the halfway point of the period, the Lions earned a power play chance, but could not capitalize. The Colonials, however, did just that on an advantage opportunity shortly after their successful penalty kill, and Rennie was credited with RMU's third goal of the day to give the Colonials a commanding lead with less than five minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Lindenwood's defense held Robert Morris to 11 shots in the second period, and despite the Lions' 15 shots on goal in the frame, and a power-play opportunity for both teams, the squads went scoreless for 20 minutes.
 
The Colonials carried the momentum from last night's victory right into today's game, as Meilleur opened the scoring at 2:01 in the first frame.
 
Despite the shutout, Lindenwood outshot Robert Morris, 35-28.  RMU went 1-3 on the power play and held Lindenwood to a 0-2 mark on the advantage.
 
Robert Morris embarks on its journey to a conference championship title on Friday, March 3 in the 2017 CHA Tournament semifinals at 4 p.m. in the HarborCenter in Buffalo, N.Y. The Colonials will face the lowest remaining seed following the quarterfinals, which kick off Thursday, March 2.
 
 
2016-17 CHA Regular-Season Champions!
For the first time in program history, the Colonials earned the CHA Regular-Season Championship title. In doing so, Robert Morris secured the No. 1 seed in the CHA Tournament. With today's win, RMU claimed the regular-season title outright.
 
Where They Stack Up
The Colonials currently lead the CHA standings by two points, ahead of Syracuse (15-12-5, 14-4-2) and Mercyhurst (14-17-2, 10-8-1).
 
Leading the Way
Top-line trio Amber Rennie, Brittany Howard and Jaycee Gebhard have combined for 116 points through 32 games, averaging 3.62 points per game.
 
Shut It Down
Senior goaltender Jessica Dodds earned her 13^th career shutout victory and second of the season in today's win.
 
Rookie Records
Freshman forward Jaycee Gebhard is one point shy of setting a new Robert Morris record for single-season points by a rookie.
 
Milestone Watch
Redshirt junior forward Brittany Howard is five points away from being crowned the new all-time points leader in RMU history.
 
Trending
Redshirt junior Brittany Howard has posted a point in 26 of 32 games on the season. Freshman forward Jaycee Gebhard has points in her last seven outings to match her career-best seven-game point streak.
 
Making Their Mark
The 2017 squad ranks second all time in wins (22) in a season in RMU lore. They are the winningest team in CHA contests in program history (15-3-2 CHA).
 
The Postseason Approaches
The Colonials secured the No. 1 seed in the 2017 CHA Tournament. The tournament central page includes a game schedule and link to ticket sales for the event, which is set to be held at the HarborCenter in Buffalo, N.Y., March 2-4.
 
 
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