ROCHESTER, NY – Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs) stopped all 31 shots she faced to record her sixth shutout of the season, leading the third-seeded RIT women’s hockey team (18-15-3) past six-seed, visiting Penn State University (4-29-3) 3-0 in game two of the College Hockey America First Round series at Ritter Arena on Saturday afternoon. RIT wins the series 2-0 and advances to face Second-seeded Robert Morris in the CHA Semifinal from Mercyhurst next Friday at a time to be determined.
Leading 1-0 in the third period, RIT broke the game open with a pair of goals 8:07 apart to put the game away. Melissa Bromley (Aurora, Ontario/Aurora Panthers), Erin Zach (Elmira, Ontario/Cambridge Fury), and Emilee Bulleid (Waterdown, Ontario/Stoney Creek Sabres) scored for the Tigers. Binnington stopped eight shots in the first period, 15 in the second, and eight in the third for her 14th career shutout. She is now 14-9-2 with a 1.82 goals against average and .940 save percentage this season.
Nicole Paniccia made 39 saves for the Nittany Lions. Jill Holdcroft led the way with nine shots on goal.
RIT out-shot Penn State, 42-31. The Tigers were 1-for-4 with the man-advantage, while Penn State was 0-for-3.
Today’s game was the final contest at Ritter Arena for the women. RIT will move into the 4,200-seat Gene Polisseni Center in time for the 2014-15 season.
“It’s a great feeling to finish (Penn State) off in two games and play for a league championship next weekend, which is the ultimate goal,” said RIT head coach Scott McDonald. “I thought we controlled play for much of the first period and (Melissa) Bromley’s goal really sparked us for the third period.”
Neither team scored over the opening 20 minutes, with RIT holding a 17-8 edge in shots. The Tigers held the majority of play in the period, but were unable to get on the board.
Penn State out-played RIT for several stretches during the second period, but Binnington was the best player on the ice, keeping the Nittany Lions off the board. She made a great save on a hard shot by Yoxheimer early in the frame and then moments later, robbed Holdcroft on a tip-in from point-blank range.
Bromley would get RIT on the board with 37.8 seconds left in the second period, circling the net and centering a pass attempt that went off a Penn State defender and through the legs of Paniccia for her fourth goal of the season. Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects) and Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy) assisted on the goal.
RIT pulled away with two third period goals. Zach made it 2-0 Tigers on a 4-on-3 power-play, taking the puck deep in her own zone, rocketing up the ice and cutting to the outside. Zach fired a shot from in close on the left side that snuck through the pads of Paniccia for her seventh goal of the year.
Bulleid tallied her first goal of the season with 3:46 to put the game away, taking a drop feed from Mackenzie Stone (Kars, Ontario/South Carleton) in the slot and fired a shot that Paniccia got a piece of but trickled past into the goal. Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) also assisted on the goal.
RIT is 19-12 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 McDonald took over as head coach in 2006, RIT is 15-7 in the postseason, including a 15-3 mark at Ritter Arena. The Tigers are 14-1 at home in the postseason over the last four seasons, including a 5-0 mark en route to winning the 2012 NCAA Division III National Championship. Last season, the Tigers advanced to the CHA Semifinals, defeating Penn State in a two-game sweep in the first round, both by one-goal outcomes, before falling to Syracuse in overtime of the semifinals.
Today was the sixth meeting between the two schools this season, as RIT won the series 5-0-1 edge this far. RIT won a pair of one-goal games against Penn State at Ritter Arena on Nov. 15-16. The two teams skated to a 2-2 tie at Penn State on Jan. 31, while the Tigers skated to a 3-1 win the next day. RIT is 10-0-2 all-time against the Nittany Lions. Six of the last seven meetings between the two schools have been decided by one goal or less.
Last night, Brown scored 10:15 into overtime to give RIT a 3-2 win over the Nittany Lions in game one.
RIT went 1-3-0 against Robert Morris, who is ranked No. 10 nationally, RIT defeated Robert Morris in the last meeting between the two schools, 1-0 on Feb. 15 at Ritter Arena.
