Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's hockey team dominated in their home opener, beating the Saint Anselm Hawks, 6-1. The Colonials improve to 2-1-0 on the year and the Hawks fall to 0-3-0.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
It didn't take long for RMU hockey fans to cheer as the Colonials opened the game with a goal 74 seconds in.
Alaina Giampietro kicked the puck over to graduate forward
Shailynn Snow on the right side. Executing a perfect, backdoor pass, Snow found senior
Mya Neugent to slam home the first goal of the year on home ice.
Continuing on in the period, both sides continued to pepper shots at goal. Sophomore
Maggie Hatch stood tall, keeping the lead as RMU headed into the locker room for the first intermission, ahead 1-0.
Entering the second period, alternate captain
Madison Primeau was called for a penalty. The Colonials killed it off. Immediately after getting out of the box, the home side got right back to work on the offense. Primeau hit a shot wide. Following the shot,
Morgan Giannone scooped up the loose puck finding
Janelle Evans. In the corner, Evans found Primeau in the left circle, releasing a shot quickly between the goalie's legs for a 2-0 advantage.
Halfway through the second period, Saint Anselm got on the board. That would be the last and only point for the visitors as RMU turned on the gas even more for the final period.
"We battled through some adversity throughout the first two periods," said
Alaina Giampietro. "We really found ourselves in the third period."
Early on in the third, freshman
Kaitlyn Schooley sniped a shot five minutes into the third for her first career goal.
Moments later, Schooley dished out her first assist, finding her line mate
Gillian Thompson who connected with
Janelle Evans on the goal.
Ahead 4-1, the Colonials kept up their powering performance. Scoring the game-winner against Union,
Morgan Giannone added another goal for herself to extend the lead later in the game.
And, collaborating on the first goal, Giampietro and Neugent did once again with a minute remaining to finish off an impressive end result, winning 6-1.
SIX MULTI-POINT PLAYERS
On the day, six players produced multi-point efforts along with three other members of the roster posting a point.
Alaina Giampietro,
Mya Neugent,
Kaitlyn Schooley,
Madison Primeau and
Morgan Giannone all each recorded one goal and one assist. For Neugent, she slotted in her first career goal. Schooley, on her birthday, made her day even more special, sniping in her first collegiate goal along with her first assist. Coming to RMU already with 21 goals and 11 assists, Primeau paced for her first goal and assist in a Colonials uniform, bringing her career totals to 34 points. And, Giannone keeps up her pace of averaging two points per game, as she did tonight again against the Hawks on home ice.
Freshman
Janelle Evans in her third career game already has five points now. With a three-point effort today, she's made an impact early in her career, including scoring the teams opening goal of the campaign on the road at Union.
Also, producing points today,
Gillian Thompson and defenseman
Thalia D'Elia passed out one assist each from the blue line. Thompson now has 23 career points at RMU.
FIRST WIN FOR HATCH
Starting in her second career game and first at Clearview arena, sophomore
Maggie Hatch played remarkable in net, making 31 saves. She only allowed one goal on the day and picked up her first career win in front of a home crowd.
QUOTABLE
"Game days have always been a special thing here. It's a really exciting time to come back and play in front of the fans. It was electric out there and an emotional day."
– Head Coach Logan Bittle
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