UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State University women's hockey team scored a pair of second period goals and made them stand up in handing the #6-ranked Mercyhurst University women's hockey team a 2-1 setback Friday night. The Nittany Lions won for the first time against Mercyhurst in ten meetings and improved to 9-7-3 overall and to 4-4-1 in College Hockey America (CHA). The Lakers, who entered play 7-0-1 in their last eight contests, fell to 16-3-2 overall and to 7-2-0 in the conference.
Penn State's goals came in 4-on-4 and 4-on-3 situations, and within a span of 62 seconds. Amy Petersen gave the home team a 1-0 lead with her eleventh of the season at 7:18 of the middle frame and Bella Sutton followed suit with an unassisted power play goal, her second of the campaign. Meanwhile, PSU junior netminder Celine Whitlinger (6-4-0) kept the Lakers off the board the first 40 minutes by stopping all 22 shots she faced.
Despite outshooting the Nittany Lions 15-2 in the third, only junior forward
Emily Janiga solved Whitlinger when she tallied her team-leading 15th goal of the season at 17:24. Senior defender
Caroline Luczak assisted. The Lakers pulled senior goaltender
Amanda Makela (16-3-2) in the last 90 seconds but could not get the equalizer.
Mercyhurst nearly doubled Penn State's shots on goal, 37-19, and won 37 of 67 faceoffs. Both teams were assessed four minor penalties in the game.
The Penn State power play goal was just the fifth allowed by the Lakers in 88 opponent chances this season. Janiga's goal was the 49th of her career. Junior forward
Jenna Dingeldein and senior forward
Shelby Bram were both held pointless and sit on 99 and 96 career points respectively.
Mercyhurst still holds first place in CHA with 14 points, three more than second-place Syracuse. Penn State moved into a tie for third place, with Lindenwood, with nine points.
The two teams will conclude the weekend series on Saturday afternoon from the Pegula Ice Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
