UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – The RIT women’s hockey team (6-20-1, 2-10-1 CHA) could not answer an early Penn State (8-14-5, 4-4-5 CHA) goal, falling 1-0 in a College Hockey America battle at the Pegula Ice Arena on Friday night.
Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) led the Tigers with three shots on goal. RIT goalltender Jetta Rackleff (Bend, OR/Summit) stopped 32-of-33 shots in defeat.
Amy Petersen got the lone goal of the game, a shorthanded tally off a Laura Bowman assist with 2:17 left in the opening period. In goal, Celine Whitlinger stopped all 14 shots she faced for the victory.
The Penn State victory marks the fifth one in the last six contests against the Tigers, who are meeting for the third and fourth time this weekend in a span of 15 days. RIT still holds a 12-5-2 all-time edge over the Nittany Lions.
The Tigers were the aggressors early, getting chances on net in the game’s first three minutes, getting the first three shots on goal. A power-play chance for the Nittany Lions changed the momentum, as Penn State turned it on offensively.
Penn State got its first good chance, on a rush midway through the period. Meike Meilleur took a shot that richoched off of an RIT player, and went through the legs of Rackleff for a certain goal, but Lindsay Stenason (Oakville, Ontario/Appleby Collegiate) swiped the puck away from the red line at the last second to keep the game scoreless.
Penn State eventually got on the board first while RIT was on the power-play.Bowman skated down along the right boards, firing a pass from inside the faceoff circle to a charging Petersen, who got the shot off in front of Rackleff, beating her high, with 2:17 left in the opening period.
From there, Penn State turned up the pressure defensively, limiting the Tigers to five shots on goal in the final two periods, including a season low one in the third.
Rackleff did everything she could to keep the Tigers in the game. With 10 minutes to go in regulation, Penn State got a shot on goal, turned away from Rackleff, and rebound found Bowman on the wing, with Rackleff making another save keep the score 1-0.
With just over a minute left in regulation, RIT had a few chances with Rackleff pulled for the extra attacker. Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) took a shot from just outside of the faceoff circle that deflected off of a Penn State defender. Haley Northcote (Cumberland, Ontario/Minnesota State) then fired a shot just wide. Taylor Thurston (Kanata, Ontario/All Saints Catholic) had another opportunity for the Tigers, but Peterson blocked it to preserve the shutout.
The Tigers and Nittany Lions will skate in the final game of the regular season series tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.
