Penn State Women’s Hockey Opens the CHA Tournament Against Lindenwood
Penn State women’s hockey will take on Lindenwood in the semifinals of the CHA tournament this weekend at Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions are entering the tournament as the first seed, and are seeking their first CHA tournament championship after falling to Mercyhurst in the semifinal in 2022. Puck drop is set for 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon to kick off the series.
The CHA tournament will take on a new form this year, featuring two best-of-three semifinal matchups, followed by one game between the winners to determine the CHA’s 2023 postseason champion. For the first time, the tournament will feature just the top four teams in the conference, leaving out RIT. Mercyhurst will host Syracuse in the second semifinal matchup.
To finish up the regular season, Penn State swept the RIT Tigers with a 3-1 win and an 8-1 win. Victory has been a constant theme for the Nittany Lions as they haven’t lost a game since November 25 when Minnesota defeated them 5-1 in a dominant fashion. Their momentum has remained high since that loss, as they’ve given up two goals or fewer in all but one of their games in the new year.
This season, Penn State was dominant against Lindenwood, beating them in all four of their matchups and scoring a combined 22 goals across all the games. The blue and white only gave up seven. In conference play, the Nittany Lions ended with a 14-1-1 record, only losing to Mercyhurst earlier in 2022.
Lindenwood has not found nearly as much success as Penn State this season, finishing with a 5-25-0 record overall and a 5-11-0 record in the conference, and performing about the same at home and away. The Lions have only defeated RIT and Syracuse, with four of their five wins coming against RIT. Last year in the CHA tournament, Lindenwood lost a close game to RIT 6-4 despite only dropping one of four games to them in the regular season.
Heading into this weekend, three Penn State players earned CHA weekly awards. Courtney Correia was named Forward of the Week for the second time this season after tallying four assists in the blue and white’ series against RIT. Freshman Tessa Janecke earned Rookie of the Week for the seventh time this season after putting up a goal and three assists, and goaltender Josie Bohtun was named Goaltender of the Week after recording a GAA of 1.00 in Penn State’s final series.
Looking ahead to this weekend, the Nittany Lions will open the tournament with a game on Friday followed by on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. if needed. The final game of the tournament will take place the weekend of March 3/4 to determine the CHA tournament champion.
Cailey Thalman is a freshman broadcast journalism major. To contact her, email cmt6182@psu.edu.
