ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women's hockey team (7-10-3) fell to visiting North Dakota (8-9-2) by a score of 3-1 on Friday afternoon from the Gene Polisseni Center.
Tied 1-1 late in the third period, North Dakota scored twice in a span of 1:33 to seal the win. Amy Menke scored a power-play goal with 2:40 left in regulation and Andrea Dalen added an empty-netter with 1:07 left for the insurance marker. In goal, Shelby Amsley-Benzie turned aside 17 of 18 shots for the win. Josefine Jakobsen added a goal and an assist to earn the game's first star.
Mackenzie Stone (Kars, Ontario/South Carleton) scored RIT's lone goal on a two-man advantage with 10:21 left in regulation to tie the game at 1-1. In net,
Jetta Rackleff (Bend, OR/Summit) was excellent in defeat, turning aside 33 shots, including several from point-blank range.
North Dakota outshot RIT, 36-18. The Tigers were 1-of-6 with the man-advantage, while UND was 2-of-3.
"I am pretty happy with how the game went," said RIT head coach
Scott McDonald. "We sat back a little too much, but our power-play finally came through."
Neither team scored in the opening period, as North Dakota held a 7-3 shot advantage. UND had quality chances but Rackleff was able to handle the shots.
RIT's best chance of the period came just under five minutes into the game when
Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) got around her defender in front of the net, ripped a shot past Amsley-Benzie, but off the crossbar and out.
Jakobsen scored her fifth goal of the season right before a North Dakota power-play was expiring with 1:15 left in the middle stanza. Tanja Eisenschmid fired a pass of the boards to Dalen, who came in with Jakobsen on a 2-on-1. Dalen calmly dished the puck in front to Jakobsen who whistled the puck past Rackleff.
At the 10:21 mark in the third period,
Mackenzie Stone (Kars, Ontario/South Carleton) scored the Tigers first power-play goal since Nov. 21 at Mercyhurst on a 5-on-3 to even the game at 1-1.
Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) got the puck down low to
Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) who made a perfect cross-crease pass over to Stone, who was all alone at the right side of the net to whack it in. It was Stone's third goal of the season.
North Dakota came back firing moments later, as Gracen Hirschy sailed a shot from the top of the circle past Rackleff, but luckily for RIT, off the right post. With 2:40 left in the game, Amy Menke scored the game-winning goal off a rebound from Halli Krzyzaniak and Hirschy on a UND power-play. Kryzaniak fired a shot from the point that Rackleff stopped, but Menke caught the rebound out of midair, placed it down and beat Rackleff to the far side for the eventual game-winner.
With Rackleff pulled for the extra-attacker, Dalen put in the insurance goal from Jakobsen with 1:07 left.
North Dakota is now 3-0-0 all-time against RIT, defeating the Tigers at home on Nov. 30 and Dec.1, 2012 by scores of 3-2 and 8-2.
The two teams wrap up the weekend series on Saturday from the Gene Polisseni Center at 3:05 p.m.
