Penn State women’s ice hockey returned to Pegula Ice Arena after 196 days on Sept. 27.
They split their home opening series with one win and one loss against Northeastern. The Huskies, ranked No. 13, won 3-1, and then the next day, No. 12 Nittany Lions rallied to win 2-1.
The first series showed Penn State where they need to tighten up.
Penalties were huge in the first game, as the teams combined for 13. The Nittany Lions had seven power plays and didn’t score on any. The Huskies, however, had six, and scored on one.
There’s some cleaning up to do during these opportunistic moments.
“I wouldn’t say personnel changes, just making the play that’s available to you instead of trying to make the play more difficult” Penn State’s head coach Jeff Kampersal said.
The first period was controlled by Penn State. They were awarded the first power play of the game, and attempted a goal with a 5-on-3 advantage, but the Huskies killed off both penalties.
Katelyn Roberts was first to light the lamp eight minutes into the game. The Nittany Lion was assisted by PSU captain Tessa Janecke. The goal happened immediately following a faceoff.
Less than a minute later, the Huskies found the equalizer. Northeastern’s Skylar Irving rang the puck off the iron, that flew past goaltender Katie Desa.
With 11 minutes remaining, Nittany Lion Lyndie Lobdell was sent to the “sin-bin” for cross-checking. Northeastern was given a power play. Lily Shannon was able to convert sending the puck right past Desa making it 2-1.
Passing was key in the score. Rylie Jones passed to Lily Yovetich, who sent it to Shannon.
Northeastern dominated the second period with 10 shots. They were also able to improve their passing game.
The Huskies almost had a two-goal lead with two minutes to go in the second as a pile up in the blue paint occurred, including DeSa, that led to the puck trickling into the net. The goal got reversed due to goaltender interference.
DeSa, who was making key saves on the Huskies, was later pulled and a sixth offender was added with a minute and a half to go. But that backfired as freshman ÉloÏse Caron skated through the defense and sent the puck to the empty net making it 3-1.
The Nittany Lions ended with 24 shots and could only capitalize on one of them.
“I think we just needed to put the puck away in some moments because we are not going to get a lot of them and I think that’s kinda where we fell short and we need to capitalize on it,” Janecke said.
During the second game, the Huskies scored first with 20 seconds remaining in the first period. Jaden Bogden sent the puck over to Caron. Caron then passed to Irving who buried the puck into the net making it 1-0.
Northeastern would hold on to the lead until 13 minutes into the second period. Karley Garcia and Roberts set up Janecke to tie it at one apiece.
Three minutes later, Maddy Christian got a shorthanded goal to put the Nittany Lions ahead, 2-1. The third period remained scoreless making it a win for Penn State.
Both teams resume action on Oct. 4. Northeastern plays Quinnipiac University and Penn State plays the University of Connecticut.
Kassie Vasellas is a Female Athlete News student-intern at Penn State University
Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Follow us on our social media pages or reach us at [email protected] with a story idea.
Photo: Penn State Athletics
By FAN – US
