PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's hockey team dropped the first game of a two-game set against Syracuse Friday night at Clearview Arena, 3-1.
Lexi Templeman scored the lone goal for RMU in the loss, her seventh of the year.
A few close calls for Robert Morris kicked things off Friday as both teams went end to end for the opening ten minutes, though neither was able to sustain much zone time despite the pace.
Marah Wagner's rip off the post from the left circle just narrowly stayed out after beating Allison Small blocker side. Ellie Marcovsky just missed connecting on a great chance of her own too, overshooting a rebound off the left pad of Small on an odd-player rush.
The top line finally came through near the ten minute mark after a perfect feed from Michaela Boyle found Lexi Templeman open on the backdoor for an easy tap-in and a 1-0 lead.
A chance to make it 2-0 on an early power-play came and went for RMU, and soon after Syracuse struck back, banging in a second-chance opportunity in the slot after DeSmet made the initial stop on a shot from Tatum White.
A tripping call on Ellie Marcovsky to start the second put RMU in a precarious position as the Orange player-advantage buzzed around DeSmet in goal, working a number of passes from behind the net into the slot for dangerous looks that the junior was able to handle.
Syracuse did well to keep the pressure up on RMU, utilizing an aggressive forecheck to keep the Colonials breakout bottled up in their own end for long stretches of time in the middle frame.
They finally cashed in on that pressure with a power play goal with just over five minutes to play, another dirty goal in the crease off of a second-chance opportunity to make it 2-1 courtesy of Abby Moloughney.
The Colonials flipped the script with some great pressure of there own in the final frame, nearly cashing in on a mad scramble in front of the net after Emilie Harley's blast from the point snuck through traffic, but the effort bounced clear of danger before RMU could cash in.
Hannah Johnson scored the insurance tally for the Orange with 4:50 left to hand RMU the loss.
SCORING PLAYS
Templeman, 10:29, 1st - Assists: Boyle, Marcovsky
Leschyshyn, 15:27, 1st - Assists: White, DiGirolamo
Moloughney, 14:22, 2nd (PP) - Assists: Klimek, Bellefontaine
Johnson, 15:50, 3rd - Assists: Bellefontaine, Leschyshyn
QUICK HITS
Templeman now leads RMU with 25 points…RMU finished with 40+ shots on goal for the fourth straight game
QUOTABLES
"We generated a lot of odd-man rushes, but we generated scoring chances that were one-and-done. There were rebounds there on alot of them and we just didn't get to them, we just have to get better at anticipating and getting tougher and going after those." - Head Coach Paul Colontino
NEXT UP
RMU closes out the regular season tomorrow with one final game against Syracuse at 2:00 p.m. at Clearview.
