Women’s Hockey Swept by Syracuse

Story posted October 15, 2012 in CommRadio, Sports by Tom Zulewski

The Penn State Nittany Lions (1-3-0, 0-2-0 CHA) suffered their second consecutive loss Sunday as the Syracuse Orange (2-2-0, 2-0-0 CHA) beat the Nittany Lions 6-0 at Greenberg Ice Pavilion. 

The Orange came out strong in the first period dominating play for the first three and half minutes. Syracuse used their size advantage over Penn State wearing the Lions down and creating scoring opportunities in front.

Syracuse would break through on the scoreboard with a Laurie Kingsbury unassisted goal at the 3:58 mark of first period. Kingsbury broke through the Penn State defense and beat Penn State goaltender Celine Whitlinger one-on-one with a shot that trickled through her five-hole.   

Whitlinger stood tall in net the entire game despite being bombarded with shots from Syracuse. Whitlinger made 38 saves while facing 44 shots. After the game, Penn State head coach Josh Brandwene had high praise for his goaltender.

“She’s got tremendous work ethic,” Brandwene said. “She’s got tremendous technical skill, great work ethic. That’s something all of our kids are brought into.”

Syracuse would extend their lead after Melissa Piacentini took advantage of a Micayla Cantanzariti two minute hooking penalty. Syracuse converted on the power play after a Shiann Darkangelo shot was stopped by Celine Whitlinger and Piacentini was there on the doorstep for the rebound putting the Orange up 2-0.

The Orange would continue to dominate the Nittany Lions as Margot Scharfe beat Whitlinger five-hole with a backhand shot three minutes into the third period. Three minutes later the Orange would convert on the power play, as Holly Carrie-Mattimoe scored on a one-time shot set up by Caitlin Roach and Nicole Renault. Carrie-Mattimoe’s goal was Syracuse’s third power play goal of the game.

Kingsbury and Scharfe would each score their second goals of the game late in the third period to put the game away for Syracuse.

Brandwene called this game a tale of two different parts of two hockey games.

“I was really pleased with the rhythm and intensity and the poise and patience we had early,” Brandwene said. “I think out young team learned a little bit of lesson late in terms of the importance of staying with that patience. They really battled hard for two periods.”

Freshman forward Jenna Welch acknowledged after the game that it was a rough weekend  of play but it’s all a learning process.  

“We are all new to this," she said. "We are new to league play and we’re going to keep building off of it.”

Penn State travels to Sacred Heart next weekend to take on the Pioneers and return home to Greenberg Ice Pavilion two weekend’s from now as they square off against RIT.

Tom Zulewski is a senior majoring in Journalism. You contact him at trz5013@psu.edu.