Jan. 20, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team fell to the Syracuse Orange in overtime, 2-1, in a College Hockey America (CHA) contest Saturday afternoon at the Pegula Ice Arena.
"Our kids played hard, it is disheartening to lose twice the way that we did," head coach Jeff Kampersal said. "I wish we didn't put ourselves in the position to go into overtime this time around; we played with a lot of heart, we played hard, but we didn't get enough chances. Then we had flurries towards the end; I thought we had the better overtime, and then they made that nice play and we made a bad read. Those are the breaks, and we have to learn how to win."
The Nittany Lions (6-11-8, 3-5-4 CHA) took advantage of their first power play opportunity of the afternoon, as freshman Natalie Heising (Maple Grove, Minn.) put Penn State in front of Syracuse, 1-0, at 6:24 into the game.
On the Nittany Lion tally, sophomore Brooke Madsen (Eagan, Minn.) played the puck to Heising who then redirected the pass past Syracuse goaltender Abbey Miller and underneath the crossbar for her eighth goal of 2017-18.
With the score in favor of Penn State, 1-0, after 20 minutes of play, Syracuse (8-14-2, 7-4-1 CHA) knotted things up at 1-1 on Allie Munroe's second goal of the season at 3:20 into the second period.
Similar to Friday night's game, Syracuse would once again bring home the victory in overtime. In Saturday's contest, Savannah Rennie netted her second goal of the year with 1:06 left on the clock to capture the 2-1 win for Syracuse.
In net for the Nittany Lions, senior Hannah Ehresmann (Minnetonka, Minn.) tallied a 32-save outing, while Miller recorded 16 saves.
Penn State heads back on the road for a two-game tilt against Robert Morris in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 26 and 3 p.m. on Jan. 27 at the 84 Lumber Arena.
NOTES: Syracuse leads the all-times series against Penn State 21-1-4...Syracuse outshot Penn State, 34-17...Penn State went 1-for-6 on the power play, while Syracuse went 0-for-5...Penn State has played 12 overtime games this season (1-3-8)...Heising netted her team-leading eighth goal of the season...Madsen recorded her team-leading 11th assist of the year...The Penn State women's hockey team had its third-largest crowd in program history at the Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday (1,387).