ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women's hockey team (1-3-2) fell to Union College (2-5-1) by a score of 3-2 Saturday afternoon from the Gene Polisseni Center.
 
Grace Heiting scored the game-winning goal with 5:26 left in regulation to snap a 2-2 tie. Rachel de Perio and Arianna Kosakowski also scored for the Dutchwomen. Goaltender Coco Francis picked up her first win of the season, stopping 25 of 27 shots.
 
Hunter Barnett (Caledon, Ontario/Mississauga Jr. Chiefs) scored her first two collegiate goals for the Tigers, while Terra Lanteigne (Hatchet Lake, Nova Scotia/Charles P. Allen) made 25 saves.
 
Union out-shot RIT, 28-27. The Dutchwomen were 1-for-2 on the power-play, while RIT was 1-for-3.
 
"We are disappointed in the result," said Bruce B. Bates Women's Hockey Coach Chad Davis. "We have to battle back from adversity. We have played in several tight games, but now need to find a way to win those games."
 
Neither team scored in an opening period that featured 18 total shots on goal, 10 from RIT and eight by Union. RIT's best chance came when Brittney Gout (Caledon, Ontario/Brampton Canadettes) got around a defender and tried to find Jordan Marchese (Mississauga, Ontario/Brampton Canadettes) cutting to the net, but the pass just failed to connect.
 
Union would out-score RIT, 2-1 in a wild second period that featured a no-goal called goal on a replay and a replay challenge.
 
With 8:30 left in the frame, de Perio fired a shot on a power-play that originally was called no-goal, going off the crossbar and out. Play continued and Barnett came out of the penalty box and was denied by Francis on a breakaway. Play continued for nearly two more minutes before a whistle. At that point, the shot by de Perio was reviewed and deemed a good goal, as it went in the net and bounced off the back bar and out, as Union grabbed the 1-0 lead.
 
RIT would respond with a power-play goal 2:21 later, as Burnett would bury a loose puck in front of the Union net for her first collegiate tally, tying the game at 1-1. Taylor Baker (Toronto, Ontario/North Toronto Collegiate Institute) fired a shot from the point that bounced to Mallory Rushton (Amherst, Nova Scotia/New Hampton Prep) at the right side of the Union net. Rushton's shot went across the crease to Brittney Gout (Caledon, Ontario/Brampton Canadettes). Gout slid a pass out to Barnett who fired it into the open net for the goal.
 
Union would regain the lead in the final minute of the second period, as Kosakowski fired a shot over the shoulder of Lanteigne and under the cross bar for her second goal of the season.
 
Barnett tied the game for the Tigers with 12:47 left in regulation, swatting in a rebound in front after Francis made the initial save on a shot by Jade Mancini (Burlington, Ontario/Bishop Tonnos). Baylee Trani (Huntington Beach, CA/New England Hockey Club) also assisted on the goal, Barnett's second of the game.
 
Heiting would score the game-winner with 5:26, left, beating Lanteigne to the far side with a wrist shot from the right side.
 
The Tigers had a power-play with less than five minutes remaining, but could not get the tying goal.
 
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 10-6-3. Last night, the two teams skated to a 1-1 draw. Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) scored for RIT, while Lanteigne made 29 saves.
 
RIT is back in action next weekend, Oct. 26-27 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of the ECAC. Both Friday and Saturday's games start at 3 p.m.