Women’s Hockey Ties, Beats Syracuse in Weekend Series
The Penn State women's hockey team was resilient in its weekend series against the Syracuse Orange, finishing the series with one win and one tie. In a hard-fought game Friday night, the Lady Lions came back from a 2-1 deficit to tie the Orange 2-2 after regulation and a five-minute overtime. The Nittany Lions (14-10-4, 8-4-2 CHA) came out on top in the Saturday afternoon rematch, defeating Syracuse (6-13-9, 4-6-5 CHA) 4-2.
It was a physical and aggressive game from both teams on Friday, but Penn State jumped out to an early lead thanks to a Caitlin Reilly goal with 14:39 left in the first period. The goal, which was assisted by Sarah Nielsen, was Reilly's fifth of the season.
Syracuse tied it up 11 minutes later off an Alysha Burriss goal with 3:21 left in the period. The goal came with both teams down a player and was assisted by Jessica Sibley and Larissa Martyniuk.
Syracuse took the lead with 17 minutes left in the third period on a power play goal by Melissa Piacentini. But just over a minute later, Penn State tied it up again thanks to Emily Laurenzi's second goal of the season with 15:54 left in the game.
The Orange seemed to take the lead with 43 seconds left when they found the back of the net, but it was called a no-goal and the game remained tied at the end of regulation. Neither team was able to make anything happen in overtime and the game ended in the 2-2 draw. Syracuse finished the game with 42 shots on goal compared to 23 by Penn State.
"I thought our team defense effort was really good," said head coach Josh Brandwene. "We did a really good job battling corners, picking up people in front of the net. I was really proud of the effort of everybody from a team defensive standpoint."
The Lady Lions took that momentum into Saturday's game and completely dominated the Orange en route to a 4-2 win.
Penn State scored three goals in 84 seconds, a program best, to take a 3-0 lead in the second period. The goals came from Hannah Hoenshell, Laura Bowman and Hannah Bramm to give the Lions the commanding lead. Both Hoenshell and Bramm’s goals came on Penn State power plays.
Syracuse scored two goals to cut Penn State’s lead to 3-2. But at the end of the third period, with an empty net, Laurenzi tacked on Penn State’s fourth and final goal to seal the win. The goal was Laurenzi’s third in as many games after not scoring all season.
“It feels good (to see) hard work pay off, so I’m hoping to keep that going,” said Laurenzi.
The Nittany Lions are back in action on Friday when they travel to Lindenwood. The game is set to begin at 8 p.m.
Anna Pitingolo is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her please email anna.piting@gmail.com.
