WHKY: Boston Closes Weekend Series With Rout of Penn State
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – After a 3-3 tie on Friday, Oct. 14, the Penn State women’s hockey team fell 7-2 on Saturday afternoon to Boston University.
The Nittany Lions got the only goal of the first period on Friday night coming off of the stick of Bella Sutton, her first goal of the season.
“It’s not always something you can control,” Sutton said. “It was a lot of fun to get out there and get after it right away.”
The Terriers came out of the locker room flying, netting two goals in less than four minutes to give BU the 2-1 early in the second period.
Half way through the second period, Penn State captain Laura Bowman powered her way through the Terrier defense and scored to send the teams into the third period knotted at two apiece.
Amy Petersen gave the Nittany Lions their second lead of the night five minutes into the third period, ripping a shot from the bottom of the circle top shelf that got past BU goalie Erin O’Neil.
Less than four minutes later, the Terriers tied the game back up thanks to Maddie Elia dangling through the Nittany Lion defense and shooting five-hole past Penn State goalie Hannah Ehresmann.
After no other score from either side, the game headed to overtime.
Five-minutes of sudden death overtime went by with neither team being able to find the back of the net and the game ended in a 3-3 draw. The Lions finished the game with 35 shots on goal and the Terriers ended with 32.
“I think, overall, we executed our game plan how we wanted,” said Petersen. “We are really focusing on our game plan, the results will happen.”
Saturday afternoon, both teams got off to fast starts.
Boston’s Mary Parker scored 53 seconds into the game. Three minutes later, Aly Hardy scored her first goal of the season to tie the game up for the Nittany Lions.
Only 20 seconds after Hardy’s goal, Parker was left alone on the back door and put an easy one away to give BU the 2-1 lead after 3:25 of play.
Later on, Sammy Davis buried the rebound off of a shot from Sarah Steel to give the Terriers the 3-1 lead heading into the second period.
The second period saw the same results as the second with BU netting three goals and allowing the Nittany Lions only one. The Terriers went into the third period with a 6-2 lead.
The lone Nittany Lion goal in the period was from Abby Welch, her first of the season, after Kelly Seward diced through the Boston defense to bring the puck all the way into the Terriers zone. Welch got the puck right on the Big Ten logo and ripped a shot straight into the back of the net.
“The second period, it was in many ways one of our best periods of the year,” Penn State coach Josh Brandwene said. “We had great scoring chances, sometimes they fall sometimes they don’t.”
With only 15 seconds left on the clock, Mary Kelley gave BU their seventh goal of the game, winning 7-2 over Penn State.
Boston’s Mary Parker finished the two-game series with four goals and two assists.
“Today was a day of skating uphill,” said Brandwene. “When you get yourself down a little bit, you see what kind of hockey team you have and I was really pleased with the response.”
Bria Donnelly is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email bria.donnelly@yahoo.com.
