TROY, N.Y. -- Senior captain
Jaycee Gebhard scored in the opening minute and freshman
Maggy Burbidge recorded her first multipoint collegiate game as the Robert Morris University women's hockey team returned from a bye week with a 3-1 win at RPI on Saturday afternoon.
Winners of five in a row, the Colonials (7-5-1) scored all three of their goals at even strength, the first time they didn't net at least one power-play goal in a win this season. But although one of the nation's finest PP units came up empty on five opportunities, RMU found different ways to get its offense at historic Houston Field House.
Burbidge factored in on both second-period goals, tripling a 1-0 RMU lead. Her second goal of the season, scored on a perfectly-placed one-timer at 11:02, completed an efficient counterattack started by junior defender
Emilie Harley and highlighted by sophomore
Courtney Kollman's accurate pass to the slot.
Five minutes later, Burbidge got the primary assist on junior
Anjelica Diffendal's net-front goal.
The Nova Scotian took a feed from senior defender
Sarah Lecavalier and one-touched it to Diffendal, who kicked it into RPI goalie Ena Nystrøm and buried the rebound.
"All our lines were clicking and getting things going," said Burbidge, who now has two goals and five total points in her first 13 NCAA games. "We had a lot of offensive-zone time, put pucks to the net and got some hard-working goals."
There was a good amount of flash, too, exemplified by Gebhard's ninth goal of the year. A 13-day layoff between games was no match for the nation's second-most prolific scorer, who put RMU on top just 48 seconds after puck drop.
Pulling in a long bank pass from Lecavalier, Gebhard burst behind the defense and finessed a backhand shot under Nystrøm for her team-leading 26th point. Harley picked up the secondary assist on that, giving her five multi-point games in her past nine.
Half the second period was played on special teams, as the Colonials had three power plays to the Engineers' two. Ironically, it was after the Colonials missed on a two-man advantage chance that they grew their lead from one to three
The only defensive blemish for RMU was Morgan Ondrick's power-play goal midway through the third period. Otherwise, freshman goalie
Raygan Kirk had a successful bounce-back game, stopping 22 or 23 in her first action since allowing three goals on 13 shots at Lindenwood. Kirk's save percentage on the season is now .916 in eight starts.
It added up to a convincing return to form as the Colonials now take on four straight games outside College Hockey America play.
"It's good that we came off the break strong and we were ready to get back to things," Burbidge said. "Everyone worked really hard to create opportunities to get pucks on net. We've been focusing on offense and we did a good job capitalizing on our chances."
Sunday's rematch against RPI (0-13-1) is set for 1 p.m. at Houston Field House.
