Women's Hockey Starts Season With 3-0 Shutout of LindenwoodWomen's Hockey Starts Season With 3-0 Shutout of Lindenwood
PSU Athletics/Selders

Women's Hockey Starts Season With 3-0 Shutout of Lindenwood

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – A solid all-around team effort highlighted by a pair of big performances from freshmen Josie Bothun and Carrie Byrnes powered the Penn State women's hockey team to a 3-0 shutout win over Lindenwood in its 2020-21 season opener Sunday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.
 
Byrnes netted her first career goal halfway through the first period while Bothun made 23 saves to earn a shutout in her first career start for the Nittany Lions.

Senior Natalie Heising scored a pair of goals, one on the power play and the other on an empty net, to add to the scoring for PSU.
 
Junior defender Izzy Heminger had two assists for setting up Heising, while sophomore Mallory Uihlein and freshmen Maeve Connolly, Jess Ciarrocchi and Kiara Zanon also picked up helpers in the game.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a bit of a slow start between both teams, the Nittany Lions struck first with time expiring on a power-play. Connolly centered the puck from behind the goal line towards Ciarrocchi in the crease.
 
Ciarrocchi got a piece of it before Byrnes scooped up the loose puck and scored on her backhand, putting Penn State ahead 1-0 at the 9:36 mark in the first period. The goal marked the first career points for all three freshmen.
 
In the second period, another successful power play doubled the Nittany Lions lead 2:49 into the frame. Heising corralled a rebound and scored from her signature right-circle location for her first of the season. Heminger and Uihlein netted assists on the play.
 
Penn State put the clamps on the Lindenwood attack in the third period, allowing just five shots on goal for the final frame. One of them was a big one from Bothun early in the frame when the freshman netminder stopped a breakaway chance for Lindenwood's Meara Ryan.
 
Lindenwood pulled goaltender Annika Asplundh with 90 seconds remaining trailing 2-0, but the gamble backfired as Zanon and Heminger set up Heising for her second of the game on the empty cage, ending the game at 3-0.
 
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Jeff Kampersal

  • "It was very much a team win. Everyone did their job and they played great. They were supportive of one another…Again, each individual did their job and that's what made us play so well as a unit."
  • On the freshmen's performance: "They bring a lot of enthusiasm and energy. They are hockey players. They spend a lot of time at the rink. They try to improve their skill and they love to play…We're really excited for that group."


Freshman goaltender Josie Bothun

  • On finally playing this season and playing her first career game: "It was definitely emotional because I missed having that 'game' feeling so much and it didn't really hit me until this morning that I was playing a hockey game.


Freshman forward Carrie Byrnes

  • On playing and scoring in first career game: "I was so excited to play and when I scored that goal, I think a lot of the freshmen were out there, so that was really fun."

 
GAME NOTES

  • Bothun became the first Penn State goaltender to earn a shutout victory in her first career start.
  • Byrnes follows up sophomore Julie Gough as the latest Penn State freshman to score a goal in her first career game. Gough scored unassisted Sept. 27, 2019 at Holy Cross.
  • Heising upped her Penn State power-goal goal record total to 19 with her second-period score. Her multigoal game was the ninth of her career, putting her a tie for the most in Penn State history with Laura Bowman ('17).
  • Heminger's two assist performance was the fourth multipoint performance of her career and the second time she's done it against Lindenwood.
  • Penn State's season-opening victory is its first win to open the season since the Nittany Lion's inaugural season in 2012-13 (5-3 at Vermont, Oct. 6, 2012).  
  • Penn State led in shots on goal 41-23 in the game, with 20 shots coming in the second period alone.
  • Penn State's penalty-unit was very strong for the game going a perfect 6-6 on keeping Lindenwood's power play from scoring.

 
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