Penn State Completes Sweep of Robert Morris, Reaches 11-1-2

Story posted February 6, 2021 in CommRadio, Sports by Jacob Cheris

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The top two teams in the CHA battled it out on Saturday as the No. 8 Penn State Nittany Lions took on the Robert Morris Colonials, winning 4-2.

With the win, it is the first time in program history that Penn State has beaten Robert Morris four times in a row. Furthermore, the Nittany Lions remain undefeated at home and move to 11-1-2 on the season. Coming into the contest, Penn State won six of its last seven games.

Similar to yesterday’s game, the Nittany Lions started off slow, going down 1-0. Penn State started to simplify its game by putting pucks on net and scoring the dirty goals, which led to the first two scores, coming from Julie Gough (4) and Amy Dobson (5).

“We were trying to get the puck to the point, whether our [defensmen] can walk to the middle or pass to the middle and then just filter the puck into the area in front of the net,” head coach Jeff Kampersal said.

The game-winning goal belonged to Olivia Wallin (8) after Robert Morris was caught on a line change. Wallin handled a rolling puck off of a clear from Lyndie Lobdell and ripped it short side past Robert Morris goaltender Raygan Kirk.

Midway through the third period, Rachel Weiss took a five-minute major penalty for an illegal check to the head, which put a lot of pressure on the Penn State penalty killers. A minute later, Jessica Adolfsson took a tripping minor that put Robert Morris on a long 5-on-3 power play.

Penn State’s penalty kill is third in the CHA (86%), and it was able to come out of the long power play unscathed.

Izzy Heminger was on the ice for the majority of the penalty kill and had two assists.

“You just try and stay in position and make sure they don’t get any shots off or any back-door deflections,” Heminger said. “I think we all worked collaboratively very well and we were able to keep it out.”

Josie Bothun stopped 36 of the 38 Colonials shots, and seven of those came on the long penalty kill.

“You want your goalie to be your best penalty killer, and she was,” Kampersal said.

Penn State will have two days off before its next series against RIT.

 

Jacob Cheris is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jacobcheris19@gmail.com.