Oct. 21, 2017
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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - Freshman Katie Rankin (Kanata, Ontario) netted her first career game-winning goal at 1:50 into overtime to lift the Penn State women's hockey team to a 4-3 victory over the Merrimack Warriors Saturday afternoon at Lawler Rink.
Natalie Heising (Maple Grove, Minn.) opened the scoring for the Nittany Lions (2-5-1) with her second goal of the weekend at 10:52 into the contest.
Trailing 1-0, Merrimack (3-4-2) netted its first goal of the afternoon less than three minutes after the Heising strike, as Jessica Bonfe tied the contest at 1-1 at 13:48.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first period, Kelsey Crow (Minnetonka, Minn.) tallied her first goal of the 2017-18 campaign off an assist from Bella Sutton (Shoreview, Minn.) to put PSU in front 2-1 at 18:14.
The second stanza of action saw Merrimack take a 3-2 lead into the third period, as the Warriors recorded goals from Paige Voight and Dominique Kremer at 11:31 and 17:42, respectively.
The Penn State offense got back on the scoreboard at 7:08 into the third period on Sutton's first goal of the season to knot things up at 3-3.
On the game-winner, Meike Meilleur (Winnipeg, Manitoba) forced a turnover in the Merrimack end of the ice and then Rankin picked up the loose puck and fired a shot past Merrimack goaltender Samantha Ridgewell for her second career goal at 1:50 into the overtime period.
In net, Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) finished the game with a 29-save outing, while Ridgewell tallied 27 saves for Merrimack.
Penn State returns home to the Pegula Ice Arena to open its 2017-18 College Hockey America slate against the No. 10 Robert Morris Colonials, Oct. 28-29. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m. each day.
NOTES: The two teams split the first-ever series this weekend...Merrimack outshot Penn State, 32-31...Penn State went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Merrimack went 0-for-4...Heising has netted goals in back-to-back games...Sutton has posted an assist in back-to-back games...Sutton tallied her sixth career multi-point game and her third career one-goal and one-assist outing.