PITTSBURGH -- Starting down the possibility of losing two in a row before the winter break, the
Robert Morris University women's hockey team rallied back for a gut-check 3-1 triumph over rival Mercyhurst on Saturday evening, forging a tie atop the College Hockey America standings.
Junior
Anjelica Diffendal scored the game-winner in the second period, senior
Jaycee Gebhard picked up two more assists and sophomore
Arielle DeSmet stopped 24 shots as RMU (10-6-2, 5-1-0 CHA) prevented Mercyhurst from carrying solo first place into the holiday season.
Less than 24 hours after the Lakers (10-5-1, 5-1-0 CHA) came from behind to snatch a 5-2 decision on Friday night, turning the tables on their Interstate-79 rivals was particularly satisfying for the resilient Colonials.
"I just liked our overall game better," RMU head coach
Paul Colontino said. "All the things we talked about last night, from winning one-on-one battles, to making the easy plays, to simplifying the game, to being more thorough. Our power play, I think, was huge in getting a couple of goals there. Overall we were a little more consistent and it added up for us."
To Colontino's point, special teams did come through, with the nation's fourth-ranked power play connecting multiple times for the eighth time in 18 games, to go with a 4-for-5 night on the penalty kill.
Junior defender
Emily Curlett's eighth power-play goal (and her ninth tally overall) tied the game 21 seconds into the second period, then junior forward
Lexi Templeman banked in a PPG of her own four minutes into the third to stretch the RMU lead to 3-1.
But Diffendal's electrifying sprint to the goal ultimately gave the Colonials the advantage for good. With five minutes gone in the second frame, the 6-foot winger stretched to take a lead pass from sophomore
Mackenzie Krasowski, rushed past a Lakers defender and clipped a forehand shot past goalie Kennedy Blair.
Diffendal now has five goals on the year, a single-season NCAA best for the native of nearby Robinson Township. Three of them have been breakaway beauties, showing that her finishing practice is paying off.
"My speed is definitely helping me get those opportunities," said Diffendal, who played for the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite program prior to enrolling at RMU. "People don't realize I'm actually pretty fast. I think it's a big asset to me. ... I've been working really hard at (scoring) and it's finally coming to me. I've been focusing on bearing down on the breakaways."
More so than any of her previous four goals this season, Saturday's strike made a difference. It was also emblematic of how the Colonials rebounded from a couple of questionable officiating decisions -- one of which gave Mercyhurst its only fruitful power play of the evening.
In contrast to Friday's loss, however, RMU didn't allow the setback to turn into anything bigger. As the second period began, the Colonials converted a Mercyhurst roughing minor into Curlett's deflection of
Sarah Lecavalier's point shot, getting right back on level terms.
"We felt like we played a pretty good first period," Colontino said. "So we had a little bit of adversity, but I thought we were able to regain momentum and establish ourselves in that second period. I'm proud of the way our players stepped on the ice in the second and took control."
The Colonials' hold on the game stayed relatively consistent throughout, and it included three successful penalty kills in the third period when one more Lakers goal would've made things rather dramatic.
For a team that just came off an unbeaten November (7-0-1), responding to a negative outcome like Friday's provided one more boost of confidence in a first half full of them.
"It's tough after last night," Gebhard said. "We bounced back really well from their first goal. Got the PP goal, which was huge, and started rolling from there. At the end of the game, we just strung shifts together and everyone bought in.
"Everyone came to the rink excited to wipe the slate clean. We knew it was a big game going into break. We didn't want to be down four points. Everybody who got shifts was on. We were all excited on the bench."
That team effort included two more assists for Gebhard, who goes into the break with 35 points -- just 16 away from her single-season team record set last year.
And DeSmet came through with her fourth winning performance of the season, playing as solid as she ever has in her 10th appearance, matching her freshman year total. Her kick save on Summer-Rae Dobson midway through the third stood out as her best.
"We knew what we needed to get done," Diffendal said. "We executed very well. We knew that first place was on the line. We're really excited. Good to come back and have a nice finish to the first half. Looking forward to a good second half."
The new year will bring all manner of exciting matchups, from the inaugural Battle at the Burgh tournament on the first week of January -- including a showdown with No. 1 Wisconsin at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex -- to the final 14 CHA games as the Colonials try to make it four regular-season titles in a row.
But as for now, the Colonials can savor the feeling of striking back against their CHA archrivals.
"That was as big as it gets in the first half," Colontino said. "I thought the game was a great opportunity for us to end the first half doing things how we want to do it, top to bottom, start to finish. To our players' credit, they executed that. They earned kind of an early Christmas present in the sense that we get to feel good about what we were doing.
"Not necessarily the win, but how we were playing on the ice and how we were a team off the ice. Those things were key for us and I really like the way set themselves up heading into break."
RMU will return to competition on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020, with that aforementioned matchup against the defending national champion Badgers. The Colonials will conclude their tournament the following afternoon against either No. 3 Northeastern or Colgate.
