Penn State falls to Mercyhurst, 3-0

Story posted February 28, 2020 in CommRadio, Sports by Sean Barron

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State women’s hockey team hosted Mercyhurst Friday Night at the Pegula Ice Arena. The 19-9-5 Lakers defeated the 11-14-8 Nittany Lions by a score of 3-0.

Mercyhurst was led by senior forward and Finnish National Team player, Emma Nuutinen. She has 39 points this season with 21 goals and 18 assists in 31 games played. Nuutinen tallied a goal and an assist in Friday's matchup against the Nittany Lions. She is currently tied for 19th in points in the league.

Penn State was 0-for-5 on the power play bringing their season power play percentage to a 16.8%. The Nittany Lions struggled to hold onto the puck as turnovers were a key factor in their loss. Coach Jeff Kampersal mentioned his teams struggle in his post-game comments.

“The bottom line is that I was proud of the effort,” Kampersal said. “There’s too many self-inflicted wounds in terms of the goals.”

Some of the self-inflicted wounds Kampersal mentioned were penalties. Penn State also committed five penalties in tonight’s tilt. Mercyhurst scored one of its power plays, which helped to increase its lead. Kampersal was happy with the penalty killing effort but upset with his team’s tendency to take penalties.

“Had a lot of heart and so on some penalty kills,” said Coach Kampersal. “Too many bad penalties…we need to fix that, but that’s been our Achilles heel all year”.

It will be a quick turnaround for the Nittany Lions as they suit back up at 3 p.m. in their last home game of the season. Mercyhurst will be playing for the chance at a league championship tomorrow.

Following tonight’s game, the seniors were honored at a ceremony as they approach their last home game as a Nittany Lion.

 

 

Sean Barron is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email stb5311@psu.edu.