BUFFALO, N.Y.— Erin Gehen (West Seneca/W. Seneca West) netted her second hat trick of the season, including a pair of shorthanded goals, as Buffalo State tallied its seventh straight victory of the season and remained unbeaten with a 4-1 conference win over visiting Chatham on Friday afternoon.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Buffalo State 4, Chatham 1
LOCATION: Ice Arena – Buffalo, N.Y.
RECORDS: Buffalo State (7-0, 5-0 ECAC), Chatham (0-3, 0-3 ECAC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Chatham jumped out quickly in the opening minutes of the game. The Cougars launched five shots in the first four minutes of the game and found themselves on the scoreboard with a 1-0 lead at 4:10.
Less than three minutes later, Buffalo State evened the score with a power play goal. Bri Carroll (Peoria, AZ/Virtual Academy) took advantage of the man-up opportunity and tallied her fifth goal of the season with assists from Megan Reukauf (Depew/Lancaster) and Brooke Krantz (Penticton, BC/Penticton).
Gehen gave the Bengals the lead midway through the second period, one that they would not lose. Despite being short-handed, Gehen stepped up defensively, stole the puck off Chatham and raced down for a 1 on 1 with the goalie and ripped a shot into the net to put Buffalo State up 2-1 at 10:20.
In the third period, Gehen tallied her second goal of the game on a power-play to put Buffalo State in control, 3-1. Nikki Kirchberger (Buffalo/W. Seneca West) was credited with the assist.
The Bengals took advantage of an empty Chatham net in the final two minutes of the game. Gehen scored her third and the final goal of the game despite once again being short-handed.
Buffalo State finished the game with a slight 34-30 edge in shots and was 2 for 8 on the power play.
Justine Silva (Baldwin Park, CA/Arroyo) recorded 29 saves for the win.
FOR THE FOES
Erika Bronk scored the lone goal for Chatham.
Marissa Janiga finished with 30 saves.
UP NEXT
Buffalo State will return to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. for another matchup against Chatham. The Bengals will also be hosting their inaugural Gold Ribbon Game for Childhood Cancer Awareness. In lieu of paying admission, all spectators will be asked to make a donation to benefit Carly’s Club at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The game will also feature basketball raffles with all proceeds benefitting Carly’s Club.
