ROCHESTER. NY – Junior captain Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) scored on a rebound 30 seconds into overtime to lift the RIT women’s hockey team (2-3-1) to its first win of the season on home ice, 2-1 over visiting Yale University (1-1-0) on Saturday afternoon at the Gene Polisseni Center.
Mallory Rushton (Amherst, Nova Scotia/New Hampton Prep) fired a hard shot from the high slot that Brooke Baker (Saline, MI/Saline) deflected, leading to a save from Yale goaltender Gianna Meloni. Cornine was in the right place to corral the rebound and slip into the open net for her third goal of the season.
Rushton and Baker assisted on both RIT goals. Tori Haywood (Pickering, Ontario/St. Mary’s Catholic) also added her first goal of the season in the first period.
RIT goaltender Terra Lanteigne (Hatchet Lake, Nova Scotia/Charles P. Allen) was tremendous in her first start of the season, stopping 40 of 41 shots to earn the win. She was especially strong in the third period, making a handful of big saves to keep the game tied as Yale held an 18-2 advantage in shots.
Julia Yetman scored Yale’s lone goal, a power-play marker in the second period. Meloni took the loss in net, stopping 18 of 20 shots.
Yale out-shot RIT, 41-20 in the contest. The Bulldogs were 1-for-6 on the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-7.
“I thought it was a credit to our team showing poise today when we needed it to get a needed win,” said Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach Scott McDonald. “Terra (Lanteigne) was fantastic, she gave us a great spark in net today.”
RIT scored the lone goal in an evenly played opening period in which shots were 10-9 Tigers.
Haywood would open the scoring for the Tigers just past the halfway point of the period, as she jammed home a rebound for her first goal of the season. Haywood started the play with a good chance in front that Meloni stopped. The puck came back to the point, where Rushton fired a shot that was stopped. Baker had two cracks at the rebound and was denied, before Haywood made good on the third attempt in close.
Lanteigne stood tall on a Yale power-play late in the period, stopping a handful of chances, including a flashy glove save on a shot by Mallory Souliotis.
The Tigers had a great chance to go up 2-0 late in the period as the puck was loose in the crease after a shot by Stella Haberman (Golden Valley, MN/Minnesota Whitecaps), but a Yale defender cleared it away just before Kandice Sheriff (Brampton, Ontario/) could get to it.
RIT would open the second period with a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:36, but Yale’s penalty-killing did a great job limiting any quality chances.
The Bulldogs would tie the game at 1-1 at the 7:23 mark of the second period, as Yetman fired a shot from the high slot through traffic on a power-play that eluded Lanteigne for her first goal of the season.
Yale nearly took the lead a few minutes later on a different power-play, but it was ruled that Emma Vlasic kicked in a loose puck at the side of the net.
Lanteigne stood tall in the third period, as Yale controlled play with an 18-2 edge in shots. She made a handful of big saves on quality chances to get RIT to overtime.
Cornine’s overtime winner was the first for RIT as a program, since Carly Payerl tallied on Feb 20, 2016 at Robert Morris.
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 5-3-0. Yesterday, Yale scored two quick goals early in the period to snap a 1-1 tie and defeat RIT, 3-1.
RIT is back in action next weekend, opening College Hockey America play with a pair of home games against Lindenwood University. Friday’s game starts at 6 p.m., while Saturday’s gets underway at 1 p.m.
