ERIE, PA – The defending College Hockey America Champion RIT women’s hockey team (14-18-5) will compete for its second straight league championship after defeating top seeded Mercyhurst (23-9-3) 4-1 at the Mercyhurst Ice Arena in the CHA Semifinal on Friday afternoon. RIT will play the winner of the second semifinal between Penn State and Syracuse on Saturday at 3 p.m. for the league title. Saturday’s winner will advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Mackenzie Stone (Kars, Ontario/South Carleton) and Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) tallied a goal and an assist apiece to lead the Tigers, while Marissa Maugeri (Ajax, Ontario/Durham West Lightning) and Caitlin Wallace (Brantford, Ontario/Assumption Collegiate) also scored. In net, Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs) improved to 10-1 all-time in the postseason, stopping 26 of 27 shots. She also recorded her first collegiate assist.
Jillian Skinner scored Mercyhurst’s lone goal, while Amanda Makela stopped 14 shots in defeat.
RIT has now won four straight contests heading into the CHA Championship game. The Tigers won seven straight games to close out the 2013-14 season.
“Our team chemistry has really developed over the last few weeks,” said RIT head coach Scott McDonald. We were ready for today and excited for this matchup. We knew we were going to have to go through a really good team in Mercyhurst (during the postseason) and didn’t play afraid today. We played with a lot of jump and sacrificed everything for these 60 minutes for a great team win.”
Mercyhurst out-shot RIT, 27-18. The Lakers were 0-for-5 with the man-advantage, while RIT was 0-for-4. The Tigers defense did a great job limiting chances all afternoon, blocking 24 shots.
The Tigers played an excellent road first period, scoring the lone goal, while keeping Mercyhurst to the outside for a majority of the frame.
Maugeri got RIT on the board at the 8:52 mark of the first period, as the two teams were skating 4-on-4. Emilee Bulleid (Waterdown, Ontario/Stoney Creek Sabres) tipped a pass to Lindsay Stenason (Oakville, Ontario/Appleby Collegiate) in the RIT zone, and Stenason came bursting into the Mercyhurst zone on a 3-on-2 odd-man rush. Stenason deftly found Maugeri trailing and the senior ripped a hard wrist shot from the high slot that beat Makela to the blocker side for her eighth goal of the season and 31st of her career.
Binnington had to come up big late in the period, as she made the initial save on a shot from Emily Janiga, and then robbed Molly Byrne on the rebound attempt from in tight.
RIT almost made it 2-0 late in the period, as Makela juggled a shot from Haley Northcote (Cumberland, Ontario/Minnesota State) off the rush, but recovered just in time before a stuff-in attempt from Wallace.
Both teams scored once and had eight shots on goal in a very physical second period, as RIT took a 2-1 lead to the locker room.
Early in the second, Wallace was robbed by Makela off a clean face-off win in the Lakers zone. Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy) won the draw cleanly to Wallace in the slot, who unloaded a hard slap shot that the Mercyhurst goaltender just got a piece of with the knob of her stick.
The Lakers would tie the game at 1-1 at the 7:56 mark of the second period, as Shelby Bram threaded a perfect feed from behind the net to Skinner in the slot. Skinner took three strides in and calmly placed a perfect wrist shot just over the right pad of Binnington and inside the left post for her second goal of the season.
Binnington would have to come up huge on Bram less than a minute later on a Mercyhurst power-play, denying her twice from the doorstep. On that same Mercyhurst power-play, Maugeri got behind the Lakers defense and made a strong deke on Makela, but at the last second was not able to tuck the puck past the Lakers goaltender, putting it off the right post.
RIT would regain the lead with just 1:13 left in the period, as Morgan Scoyne (Drumbo, Ontario/Stoney Creek Sabres) made a nice move to elude a Laker just inside the line and instead of shooting, threaded a pass to Clayton at the side of the goal. Clayton would deflect the puck right to Stone in front, who made no mistake, sliding a low shot just inside the right post and past Makela for her sixth goal of the season, giving RIT a 2-1 edge.
Eight of Stone’s 11 career goals are game-winners.
The Tigers poured it on in the third period, as Clayton jammed home a loose puck at the side of the net with 14:53 left in regulation after Stone’s initial shot was stopped by Makela to make it 3-1. Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) carried the puck into the Mercyhurst zone before finding Stone alone in the slot. Stone’s initial stop was stopped, but Clayton went hard to the net was rewarded with her third goal of the season.
RIT’s defense frustrated the Lakers in the third period, allowing just seven shots on goal. Binnington stood tall with a handful of key stops and with Makela pulled for the extra attacker, Wallace picked up a loose puck after a save by Binnington and got behind the Mercyhurst defense for an empty-net goal with 54.7 seconds left in regulation, putting the game away.
RIT is now 23-12 all-time in postseason contests at the Division I and III levels, since women’s hockey was recognized as a NCAA Championship sport in 2001. Since Scott McDonald took over as head coach in 2006, RIT is 20-7 in the postseason, including a 9-1 mark at the Division I level, with six straight victories. The senior class of Scoyne, Kolbee McCrea (Wawa, Ontario/Burlington Barracudas), Maugeri, Bulleid, Lindsay Grigg (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Hornets), Brown, and Binnington has an impeccable 14-1 record in postseason play.
Binnington is now 10-1 in the postseason with a microscopic 0.92 goals against average and .968 save percentage.
It was the first win over the Lakers for RIT this season, as Mercyhurst had won the previous four meetings by a combined 16-3 margin. The four goals scored by RIT were the most they have ever scored in 14 contests against Mercyhurst. The Lakers lead the all-time series between the two schools, 11-3, but RIT has won both postseason meetings, both at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
The Tigers went 2-2 against Syracuse and 1-3 vs. Penn State in the regular season.
“We came here this weekend with one goal in mind and we will be ready to go tomorrow,” said McDonald.
