Tigers Outskate Nittany Lions to 3-0 Victory
The Penn State Women’s Ice Hockey team got off to a slow start on Tuesday night against the Princeton Tigers at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.
In the first ever meeting between the two teams Penn State lost to Princeton 3-0 and now falls to 7-17-1 on the season. Princeton improves to 7-12-2.
Penn State had a quick turnaround from its games in Syracuse this past weekend, with only two days in between games. Princeton was in a completely different situation, coming off a 17-day break since losing to Dartmouth on January 12th.
The Nittany Lions found themselves allowing a goal in each period and could not find any kind of grove.
Tied for the first 15 minutes of the opening period, Princeton broke through first. Amid confusion off the faceoff in the Penn State defensive zone, Karen MacDonald knocked in the first goal for the Tigers at the 15:32 mark.
“What a fluky goal,” said Penn State coach Josh Brandwene. “I don’t think anyone saw the puck for 9-10 seconds anywhere in the rink. Time stopped there for a couple minutes.”
Penn State junior goaltender Nicole Paniccia had no idea where the puck was and didn’t see it go past her into the net.
“Honestly, I didn’t know the puck got shot off. It was in the back of the net, I did not see anything,” said Paniccia.
Princeton’s second period goal was scored 39 seconds in--a shot from Sally Butler that sailed past Penn State’s goalie Nicole Paniccia.
The Tigers capped off the win when Molly Contini used a nifty stick-handling move to fool Paniccia and place the puck in the net. Contini received help from Denna Laing and Olivia Mucha who dug the puck out of the corner and moved it to a wide-open Contini in the middle of the ice.
Penn State could only generate a prolonged offensive attack when they were on the power play, and even those came few and far between. There were a total of four penalties, with three belonging to the Princeton Tigers. Neither team was able to connect on the power play, with all three Princeton goals coming at even strength.
One of the few bright spots for the Penn State women was their power play. Ten of their 19 shots came while on the power play.
“The power play was really good today,” said freshman forward Shannon Yoxheimer. “We had lots of chances. Sometimes they go in, some days they don’t. Today just wasn’t our day.”
Progress and improvement continue to be themes with the Penn State women’s ice hockey team. Their play improved with every period they played, with coach Brandwene remarking the game was a tale of “three different hockey games.”
“Our job is to get better everyday. We want to learn from the mistakes we make, and make sure we improve, so we are playing our best hockey at the end of the season come playoff time,” said Brandwene.
The Nittany Lions are back in action on Friday Feb. 1st at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion against #7 Mercyhurst at 7:00 p.m.
Allie Rothman is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, e-mail aqr5139@psu.edu.
Megan Flood is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, e-mail mkf5100@psu.edu.
About the Contributors
Megan Flood
Senior / Broadcast Journalism
Megan has been an anchor and reporter for the Centre County Report, covering both news and sports. She traveled to Hong Kong to report on fitness and childhood obesity. She has also been a member of ComRadio for four years and started GALaxy, ComRadio’s only show dedicated to all women’s sports. She has interned in London and New York. Follow her on Twitter: @meganflood11.
Allie Rothman
Junior / Broadcast Journalism
Allie Rothman is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in kinesiology. She is from West Chester, Pa. and plays ice hockey for Penn State. Allie is a passionate Philly sports fan.
