ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women’s hockey team (4-15-0, 0-7-0 CHA) remained winless in College Hockey America play, falling to visiting Lindenwood University (4-11-2, 2-3-2 CHA) by a score of 4-1 from the Gene Polisseni Center on Friday afternoon.
Sarah Bobrowski and Shara Jasper scored goals 5:24 apart in the second period, while Carrie Atkinson and Carla Goodwin added third period tallies. Shannon Morris-Reade and Brittania Gillanders recorded two assists apiece. In goal, Nicole Hensley made 33 saves, earning first star honors.
Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) scored a first period goal for the Tigers, while Jetta Rackleff (Bend, OR/Summit) returned from injury to make her first start since Oct. 11, stopping 28-of-31 shots, keeping RIT in the game over the final two periods.
The two teams combined for 13 power-play attempts. Lindenwood was 1-for-7 with the man-advantage, while RIT was 0-for-6.
The Tigers held a 34-32 edge in shots, although Lindenwood out-shot RIT 30-17 over the final 40 minutes.
“We played such a fantastic, very smart first period,” said Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach Scott McDonald. “When you come out for the second period, you have to be ready for the visiting team to respond, as they are going to come out fired up. We came out and we were stuck on our own end for a few minutes. It was deflating for us, and that carried through the rest of the game. That was the turning point of the game for us.”
The Tigers dominated the opening period, out-shooting Lindenwood 17-2, but only held a 1-0 lead.
Just 1:44 into the game, Paton tallied her third goal of the season, taking a feed from Carly Payerl (Kitchener, Ontario/Resurrection Catholic) in front and jamming a shot past Hensley for the goal. Both Paton and Payerl showed hard work on the goal, taking pucks away from Lindenwood defenders behind the net before combining on the tally.
Moments later, RIT looked to have a 2-0 lead on the power-play, as Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) swatted a loose puck past Hensley, but Maddie Grisko (Buffalo, NY/Buffalo Bisons) was called for slashing the stick out of a Lindenwood player’s stick after the initial shot by Reagan Rust (Southaven, MS/Moon Area) was stopped, negating the goal.
Hensley made her best two saves of the period on Rust while RIT was shorthanded. Rust came into the zone with Clayton on a 2-on-1 and fired a high, hard shot from the left face-off circle that Hensley snagged. Rust got her own rebound, going to the net, and once again, Hensley deflected the puck just wide of the net.
For as much as RIT dominated play in the first period, Lindenwood equaled that in the second period, scoring twice and out-shooting the Tigers 19-7 to take a 2-1 lead.
Rackleff had to come up big early in the period, with several key saves as Lindenwood came out firing with the first seven shots.
The Lady Lions would knot the game at 1-1 halfway through the period, as Bobrowski took a feed from Katie Nokelby after Morris-Reade broke up a clearing attempt and ripped a shot between the legs of Rackleff for her third goal of the year.
With 4:23 left, Jasper gave Lindenwood its first lead of the game, taking a feed from Gillanders on a power-play and ripping a shot over the shoulder of Rackleff from the slot for her team-best 12th goal of the season.
Atkinson gave Lindenwood a commanding 3-1 with 7:35 left in regulation, firing a high shot through traffic past Rackleff for her second goal of the year. Goodwin put the game away with an unassisted, empty-net tally with 1:52 left.
RIT is 5-4-4 all-time against the Lady Lions, including a 3-2-2 record in Rochester. RIT also heads to Lindenwood for a pair of games on Feb. 5-6, 2016.
Tonight is the ninth of 10 home contests in an 11-game stretch for RIT.
The two teams conclude the weekend series on Saturday from the Polisseni Center, also at 2 p.m. After Saturday, RIT is off until Jan. 8-9, 2016 at Providence College.
