Women's Hockey | 11/2/2018 6:23:00 AM
PITTSBURGH -- The
Robert Morris women's hockey team visits one of its College Hockey America rivals, the Tigers of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Friday and Saturday. RMU enters November on a three-game unbeaten streak after taking three of four points from Lindenwood in its first home CHA series of the season.
The opening faceoffs from the Gene Polisseni Center in Rochester, New York are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. EDT, respectively. Both games can be seen live on the CHA Digital Network (subscription required).
Robert Morris (4-5-1, 2-1-1) at RIT (1-4-3, 0-0-0) - Nov. 2-3
Fri., Nov. 2 (6:00 p.m.) - LIVE STREAM ($) | LIVE STATS
Sat., Nov. 3 (1:00 p.m.) - LIVE STREAM ($) | LIVE STATS
COMPLETE NOTES PACKAGE: Robert Morris at RIT (Nov. 2-3, 2018) (PDF)
The Colonials swept their 2017-18 regular-season series with the Tigers. They outscored RIT by a combined 23-7 last season. Their last meeting at the Polisseni Center was a come-from-behind 4-3 overtime win on Jan. 20.
RMU is 17-10-3 all-time against RIT, having won eight straight meetings and 11 of the past 12 from the Tigers.
Jaycee Gebhard (4 G, 4 A) and
Amber Rennie (3 G, 5 A) each put up eight points against RIT in 2017-18.
Key Notes
The Colonials are coming off a 2-0 victory over Lindenwood at the RMU Island Sports Center Oct. 27.
Jaycee Gebhard scored the game-winning goal exactly two weeks after notching her first GW of the season against RPI.
Gebhard was named the College Hockey America Player of the Month for October. It was her first monthly award from the conference since winning CHA Rookie of the Month for all five months of the 2016-17 regular season. Gebhard ended October on a three-game goal streak and atop the CHA chart with 13 points (6 G, 7 A). She shares that spot with Natalie Heising of Penn State, and the two are tied for sixth in the NCAA scoring race.
In addition, Gebhard was the only player in CHA to score multiple game-winning goals last month, and her seven power play points (2 G, 5 A) tied her with Loren Gabel of Clarkson for the national lead. She scored two PPG's, including the one that forced overtime, in her last visit to RIT.
Furthermore, Gebhard has maintained the overall Division I lead with her 139 faceoff wins. Her .572 faceoff win percentage ranks seventh in CHA entering Friday. RMU comes in with the most faceoff wins in Division I (324).
Lauren Bailey was named the CHA Goalie of the Week for the first time in her career after leading the conference with a weekend GAA of 0.96 and a final save percentage of .952 against Lindenwood. She earned her first-ever shutout with 17 saves Oct. 27 and has allowed only three even-strength goals altogether over her past five starts.
Maggie LaGue provided the game-winning goal, the third GW of her career, 2:03 into the extra period at the Polisseni Center Jan. 20. Two of LaGue's game-winners have come in that building.
Kirsten Welsh led all CHA defenders with a plus-5 rating in the month of October. Her two PPG's and three tallies overall also led all CHA blue-liners.
Lexi Templeman has points in four of her last five games. She buried her second power play goal of the season versus Lindenwood Oct. 26, and her five as a rookie in 2017-18 put her in a three-way tie for the team lead.
An "A" for Effort
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Jaycee Gebhard led College Hockey America with her 25 assists in 2017-18, tying for 14th nationally. She ended last season with assists in four straight games, including the CHA Tournament Final, and she earned one in three of her first four games this season. Gebhard, with her 56th career assist versus Lindenwood Oct. 26, passed former teammate
Katherine Murphy '18 for sixth in program history. Murphy was an assistant captain in 2017-18 before Gebhard took on that role this season.
Worth The Wait
• Robert Morris went 3-0-4 in overtime in 2017-18. After its 2-2 tie with Lindenwood Oct. 26, the Colonials are unbeaten in their last 14 sudden-victory finishes (5-0-9), dating back to a 3-3 tie on Oct. 22, 2016 at Merrimack.
Chasing History
• With her third-period goal at No. 1 Clarkson Oct. 6,
Jaycee Gebhard moved past longtime teammate and fellow Saskatchewanian
Amber Rennie for the lead in their career goals race. Gebhard's 41 goals put her alone in seventh place in Robert Morris history, leaving Rennie in eighth, with 37, entering Friday. In addition, Gebhard took sole possession of seventh place all-time from Megan Picinic '09 with her power play goal in that game, the 14th of her career.
They Are "Soph"
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Emily Curlett matched her career high with six blocked shots versus St. Lawrence Sept. 29 and fell just shy with five against both RPI (Oct. 12) and Lindenwood (Oct. 26). Curlett led CHA defenders in 2017-18 with 70 blocks and now leads D-I with 34 after finishing second as a rookie.
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Lexi Templeman finished the 2017-18 season with a .559 faceoff win rate that ended up third among CHA rookies. Her .675 faceoff win percentage is second only to RIT's Brittney Gout in CHA and ranks eighth in the NCAA. She went 10-for-13 from the dot against Lindenwood Oct. 26-27.
You Can Go Home Again
• Pittsburgh native
Anjelica Diffendal scored her first NCAA goal in her second-ever home game Nov. 11, 2017 vs. RIT after playing in seven road contests. Diffendal joins Chelsea Burdzy (2011-12) and current Pens Elite assistant coach Ashley Vesci (2012-16) as the third "Steel City" citizen to play for the program.
You Feel Shame For Two Minutes, And Then You Get Free
• Robert Morris went a perfect 19-for-19 on the penalty kill in last year's season series with RIT. In 2017-18, RMU reached 88.5% on the PK in regular-season conference games, ranking ninth in the NCAA.
R.I.T.es Of Passage
• The Colonials touched the program record book in their series with RIT last season. On Nov. 10, 2017, RMU registered 65 shots on goal in a 6-1 win over the Tigers at the Island Sports Center, the most ever taken by the team in a single regular-season game. In a 12-1 blowout at the Polisseni Center Jan. 19, the Colonials scored their most single-game goals under
Paul Colontino, tied for their largest margin of victory under Colontino and also the second-most in a single game in program history.
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