Women's Hockey | 12/6/2013 9:32:00 PM

Box Score

MOON TOWNSHIP, PA – The RIT women's hockey team (9-8-1, 4-2-1 CHA) hung with CHA leader Robert Morris (15-3-1, 7-1-1 CHA) from start to finish, but two power play goals were the Tigers ultimate demise, as the Colonials handed RIT a 2-1 defeat. It was an impressive day for junior goaltender Ali Bininngton, who made 30 saves and did a terrific job of keeping the Tigers within striking distance throughout.

Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy), would score the lone goal for the RIT early in the second period, with the Tigers trailing Robert Morris 1-0. It was Brown's sixth goal of the season. Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects) and MacKenzie Stone (Kars, Ontario/South Carleton) earned assists on the play, giving them their sixth, and third assists on the season, respectively.

In the opposing net, Jessica Dodds faced just 19 shots, saving 18 of them, on way to the Colonials win. She had help offensively from Brittany Howard and Thea Imbrogno who each scored.

The first period was all Robert Morris as the Tiger offense came out of the gate flat. Through the first five minutes of the game Robert Morris had outshot RIT 7-2 and were in control. The aggressiveness would pay off for the Colonials who cashed in just over two minutes later on a power play goal from Imbrogno to jump out to the early lead. The Tigers would start to slow down the Robert Morris attack and headed into the break down just 1-0.

The second period was just the opposite of the first as RIT came out aggresively on offense, earning a power play chance just 40 seconds into the period. The penalty was killed off but the Tigers stayed on the attack and just 5:22 into the period, Brown would knock in a goal from out in front, to knot it up at 1-1.

Later in the period RIT would fall victim to another costly penalty as this time a shot by Howard on a delayed RIT penalty found the back of the net and gave the Colonials a 2-1 lead after two.

RIT had their work cut out for them at the start of the third, and picked up their offense quite a bit looking to score. Despite a few good scoring chances by Lindsay Grigg (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Hornets) and Caitlin Wallace (Brantford, Ontario/Assumption Collegiate) Robert Morris held tough and preserved their 2-1 lead.

In the closing minutes head coach Scott McDonald would pull Binnington to set up a 6-on-5, but could not get anything past Dobbs who sealed the Robert Morris 2-1 win.

The loss was the first time RIT has allowed two power play goals in a game since Oct. 19 against Colgate, a game they also lost by a 2-1 score.

RIT gets a shot at redemption tomorrow against Robert Morris, as they wrap up the two-game road series. The puck drops at 3 p.m. from 84 Lumber Arena.