PITTSBURGH -- October was an exciting month for the
Robert Morris University women's hockey team, featuring three straight weekends against top-five competition.
But after close-call defeats to No. 2 Minnesota, No. 4 Clarkson and No. 5 Cornell, the Colonials grew increasingly hungry for what they earned Friday night at the RMU Island Sports Center, a 5-2 victory over College Hockey America foe Penn State.
Although RMU (3-5-1, 1-0-0 CHA) trailed 2-1 after one period in its conference opener, a three-goal second period set the narrative for the night. Defender
Emily Curlett continued a sizzling start to her junior year, putting up three more points, while senior captain
Jaycee Gebhard netted three assists as the Colonials snapped a six-game winless streak.
"The leadership we have in our locker room is huge," said RMU head coach
Paul Colontino. "I don't think anybody felt the first period was our best period. Heck of a job to turn things around. We had a few key plays and a couple goals that got us back into it. We got rewarded for the jump we had in the second."
The Colonials outshot Penn State (3-5-3, 0-1-0 CHA) by a remarkable 18-2 margin in the second period, but it took just over nine minutes into the frame to strike gold. After a long shift in the Nittany Lions' zone, Curlett let fly with a wrister that caromed home off sophomore
Mackenzie Krasowski, who now has three goals in nine games after scoring one in 21 games last season.
Curlett catalyzed the go-ahead goal as well, snapping a pass from the blue line onto the tape of
Courtney Kollman near the left post. The sophomore winger steered her first NCAA goal behind PSU goalie Cam Leonard to put RMU ahead for good at 11:33.
"To get some scoring spread around is important," Colontino said. "We had great momentum in the second. We were able to get long end-zone shifts ... and as a result we got some nice goals off them."
Kollman, a hard-charging player who had six assists in her first 44 RMU games, looked like a polished goal-scorer on the play. She said she locked eyes with Curlett earlier in the sequence, but plenty of traffic in front of the net led to her searching for open space around the goal.
"(Curlett) didn't have a lane to the net, so I just popped off to the side," said Kollman, a native of Alberta. "It was a hard pass and I had to be ready for it. Getting the monkey off the back is big. Now it's about getting the confidence to go get the next one."
The next one for the Colonials came with 2:10 left in the second, as junior defender
Emilie Harley wired a wrister past a few bodies and through Leonard during a power play. RMU's power play, which entered the night sixth of 41 Division I teams with a 26 percent success rate, converted two of its three chances Friday.
Curlett's been a big part of that effort, as eight of her 13 points have come on the advantage. Speaking of defenders, Harley added an assist on the night, giving her six points (1g, 5a) in her first nine games as a blueliner at this level; she played as a forward in her first two seasons on Neville Island.
"I'm a person who analyzes the game a lot, so I understand the position," said Harley, whose three brothers also play defense. "I do my best to move the puck forward when I can, and use my 'D' partner to get the job done."
Gebhard's return to the scoresheet was welcomed. RMU's No. 2 all-time scorer was bottled up in back-to-back shutout losses at Cornell last weekend, but she raised her season total to 17 points (6g, 11a) with her fifth multi-point performance of the season.
She bracketed her evening with two signature passes. The first was delivered to a backdoor-cutting Curlett on a first-period power play, setting up the defender's sixth goal; the last was slipped in front to sophomore transfer
Michaela Boyle midway through the third, putting the game out of reach.
The five-goal outburst provided more than enough cushion for freshman goalie
Raygan Kirk. The tall Manitoban responded to a two-goal PSU flurry over a two-minute span in the first period to earn her second college victory.
For a Colonials team that has won the past three CHA regular-season titles, rising up after a challenging month the way they did was important for reasons both tangible and intangible.
"We played a lot of tough non-conference games, but conference games are really important," Harley said. "We want every two-point win we can take. We really deserved that one after all the hard work we've put in in the past few weeks. We battled really hard against some of these other teams, but getting the win is what we're really after."
The Colonials can make it a four-point weekend with another home win over Penn State on Saturday. Faceoff on the Island is set for 3:05 p.m.
