No. 8 Penn State Takes Down Robert Morris 2-1
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The No. 8 Penn State Nittany Lions and Robert Morris Colonials had a great goalie duel on Friday night at Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Colonials after trailing 1-0 late in the second period. Gillian Thompson scored the only goal of the night for Robert Morris four minutes into the second period.
Olivia Wallin had the answer for Penn State, as she put the puck top left into the back of the net with 9:17 remaining in the second period. It was all knotted at one until Kiara Zanon scored the game-winning goal with 13:12 left.
Josie Bothun was outstanding in the net for the Nittany Lions, notching 27 saves on the way to her 10th win of the season. Raygan Kirk also had a very solid game for Robert Morris with 28 saves on 30 shots.
Neither team had very many chances on the power play. Robert Morris had two opportunities on two tripping penalties, but the Colonials couldn’t convert any goals on either of them. Penn State had only one opportunity at the beginning of the second period, but it couldn’t make anything out of it either.
Nittany Lions’ head coach Jeffery Kampersal talked after the game about how the year has gone so far.
“With the challenges of the year, there’s been a lot of positives for us obviously,” Kampersal said. “A lot of my approach has changed. We really singularly focus on a day, good habits, things like that.”
Kampersal also talked about some of the things he thinks his squad could improve on.
“We could’ve done a better job in terms of four diagonals towards the net,” Kampersal said. “Sometimes we’re taking it wide and dying in the corner, so we’ve got to do a better job of using their defense as screens.”
The Nittany Lions improve their record to 10-1-2 on the season, while Robert Morris falls to 9-4-1.
The two teams meet again tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Pegula Ice Arena once again.
Trevor Grady is a junior majoring in management information systems and minoring in journalism. To contact him, email tmg5685@psu.edu.
