ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women’s hockey team (5-8-4, 3-4-0 CHA) won its second consecutive contest, defeating College Hockey America rival Lindenwood University (3-11-2, 1-6-1 CHA), 3-2 from the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers wore special blue jerseys to honor the Rochester Ice Cats organization and bring awareness to Rochester Special Hockey. The game-worn jerseys will be auctioned off at a later date.
Ellie Larson (Hutchinson, MN/Hutchinson Tigers) scored two second period goals 3:12 apart to break a 1-1 tie. Hunter Barnett (Caledon, Ontario/Mississauga Jr. Chiefs) also scored for the Tigers, while Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) added a two assists. Terra Lanteigne (Hatchet Lake, Nova Scotia/Charles P. Allen) picked up her fifth win of the season, stopping 21 of 23 shots.
Hannah Alt and Courtney Ganske scored power-play goals for Lindenwood. Sophie Wolf made 22 saves in the loss for the Lions.
RIT out-shot Lindenwood, 25-23. The Lions were 2-for-4 on the power-play, while RIT was 1-for-3.
“This was a great weekend for us,” said Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach Chad Davis. “I liked that we were able to grind out a win and get the sweep today. We are becoming more confident as a group and have a good test next weekend to close out the semester.”
RIT and Lindenwood traded power-play goals in an evenly played first period, in which the Tigers held a slim 8-7 edge in shots on goal.
Barnett opened the scoring with her second goal in two days and fifth of the season, 7:13 into the contest, redirecting a shot from Mallory Rushton (Amherst, Nova Scotia/New Hampton Prep) past Wolf. Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) also assisted on the goal.
Lindenwood answered back with 2:16 left in the frame, as Alt fired a shot from the high slot through traffic and past Lanteigne for her fifth goal of the season. Kirsten Martin and Alexandra Larson assisted on the goal.
Larson would score a pair of goals 3:12 apart early in the second period to give RIT a quick 3-1 lead.
Just 47 seconds into the frame, Larson took a feed from Cornine and fired a high, hard shot through traffic from the left point past Wolf for her second goal of the season to give RIT a 2-1 lead. Jordan Marchese (Mississauga, Ontario/Brampton Canadettes) also assisted on the tally.
Larson would make it 3-1 Tigers with a shorthanded goal at the 3:59 mark. The two teams were playing 4-on-4, when Tori Haywood (Pickering, Ontario/St. Mary’s Catholic) chipped a pass over to Abby Davies (Ashton, Ontario/Ottawa Lady Senators). Davies fired a shot that was blocked right to Larson who was crashing the net, right as a Lindenwood player exited the penalty box. Larson would get her first shot stopped by Wolf, but was able to bury the rebound from in tight for her third goal of the year.
The Lions would get to within 3-2 with 9:28 left in the period, once again on the power-play, as Ganske fired a shot through traffic and past a screened Lanteigne for her second goal of the season.
Lanteigne was called upon to make two key saves in the final two minutes of regulation to secure the win.
RIT defeated Lindenwood yesterday in the series opener, 5-2. Taylor Baker (Toronto, Ontario/North Toronto Collegiate Institute) had a career-high three assists to lead the RIT offensive attack, as five different players scored goals. RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 12-9-5. The two teams will also meet for two games at Lindenwood on Feb. 8-9, 2019.
RIT earned its first weekend sweep since Jan. 27-28, 2017, also against Lindenwood. The Tigers finished the month of November 4-4-1.
The Tigers wrap up the fall semester and 2018 calendar year next Friday and Saturday, Dec. 7-8 with a home series versus non-conference foe Boston University. Friday’s game starts at 2 p.m., while Saturday’s contests begins at 12 p.m.
