UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – RIT women's hockey (8-14-3, 2-8-1 CHA) dropped its second consecutive contest, falling by a score of 3-1 Penn State (12-9-3, 7-4-1 CHA) on Sunday afternoon from Pegula Ice Arena.
Laura Bowman opened the scoring at the 8:49 mark in the second period to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead. Bowman scored off an intercepted pass in RIT's defensive end during a Tiger power-play. Bowman picked off the pass and skated in, placing her shot off of goaltender
Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs)'s pad and in.
Amy Peterson and Hannah Hoenshell both scored in the third period to secure the win for Penn State. Peterson tipped Bella Sutton's slapshot past Binnington from the top during a power-play 9:16 into the period. Hoenshell netted the third goal with just over six minutes left on the clock from Shannon Yoxheimer in a 2-on-1.
Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) scored RIT's only goal with 7:29 left in regulation after
Lindsay Grigg (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Hornets) blasted a shot inside. Grigg took a shot causing a rebound to be mishandled by a defender for Clayton corral the loose puck and score from in close.
Neither team scored in the opening period, as RIT held a 13-2 shot on goal advantage. RIT attempted 27 shots overall to 22 for Penn State, but the Nittany Lions defense did a good job holding RIT off the scoreboard until late in the period.
The Tigers were 0-for-7 with the man-advantage, while the Nittany Lions were 1-for-5.
Binnington made 21 saves in the loss, while Celine Whitlinger made 27 for the win.
Today was the fourth and final regular season meeting between the two schools this year, as the two teams met previously on Nov. 14-15 at the Gene Polisseni Center. In the last series, RIT earned a 3-0 shutout on Nov. 14 and Penn State won 3-2 in overtime the following afternoon. Yesterday,
Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy) had the Tigers' only goal, while Binnington made 25 stops in net, as Penn State won, 3-1.
RIT is 11-3-2 all-time against the Nittany Lions and 2-2-2 from Pegula Ice Arena.
The Tigers return home on Friday for a single contest against Syracuse with a 7:05 p.m. puck drop from the Gene Polisseni Center.
