After falling behind 3-0 in the second period, goals from Stephanie Grossi and Allie LaCombe rallied the Orange to within one late, but a Penn State empty-netter sealed the win for the Nittany Lions and the Orange fell 4-2 in Saturday’s series finale.
The win was the first for Penn State (14-10-4, 8-4-2 CHA) in 12 tries against the Orange (6-13-9, 4-5-5 CHA).
The teams played to a scoreless first period in which each squad put eight shots on cage, but Penn State would break open the scoring quickly, lighting the lamp three times in 2:54 midway through the second to jump out to an early lead.
Hannah Hoenshell scored on the power play 6:31 into the second (with assists from Hannah Bramm and Caitlin Reilly), before Laura Bowman followed that up 56 seconds later with one of her own.
Exactly two minutes after Bowman’s goal the Nittany Lions again struck on the power play, with Bramm scoring on assists from Reilly and Hoenshell.
LaCombe got the Orange on the board with just under five minutes to go in the second after she deflected a feed from Kaillie Goodnough past Celine Whitlinger. Goodnough and Alysha Burriss were credited with the helpers on the play.
Grossi pulled the Orange to within one late in the third, when she scored on assists from Piacentini and Costales with 3:11 remaining, but the equalizer never came.
Instead, Emily Laurenzi tacked on an empty netter with 1:08 to go.
Syracuse once again outshot the Nittany Lions, this time by a 36-25 margin including 13-8 and 15-9 advantages in the final two periods respectively.
‘Cuse will now return home for five-game stretch beginning with a pair against Robert Morris. The first game of the two-game series will take place on Friday at 7 p.m.
It’s also going to be the Orange’s Skate For A Cure weekend, in which the team will be raising money for the Upstate Medical Cancer Center.
