Ice Hockey

Syracuse pushes past Penn State 2-1 in overtime to sweep weekend series

Phil Bryant | Staff Photographer

Syracuse celebrates a goal earlier in the season.

Syracuse (8-14-2, 7-4-1 College Hockey America) beat Penn State (6-11-8 3-5-4 CHA) 2-1, in overtime on Saturday at Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pennsylvania. SU outshot the Nittany Lions 34 to 17, but took until overtime to produce any points after a second-period goal. The Orange finishes the weekend in third place in the conference with 15 points, one spot ahead of Penn State.

Despite dominating puck control in the first period (11 shots on goal to six) and earning three power-play opportunities to the Nittany Lions’ two, the Orange could not capitalize offensively. Instead, it was Penn State getting on the board first behind a Natalie Heising goal with 13:36 left in the period. Her team-leading eighth score of the year, Heising’s goal came during a power play off assists from Brooke Madsen and Katie Rankin.

Syracuse wasted no time attacking Nittany Lions goaltender Hannah Ehresmann in the second period, attempting three shots in the first two minutes and putting two of them on goal. With 16:40 left in the frame the Orange finally broke through as Allie Munroe tallied her second goal of the year. The Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, native’s first score of the year came against Penn State back in November during SU’s home series against the Nittany Lions. Ehresmann stopped the Orange’s other nine shots in the period while PSU’s offense also faltered, and the teams entered the final period tied at one.

After seven scoreless minutes to begin the third period, an Orange slashing penalty granted the Nittany Lions a power play. The scoring opportunity was negated, however, as was a second man-up advantage for PSU three minutes later. With five minutes left it was SU with a power-play chance, but it was killed as well and, knotted at one, the teams entered overtime.

A sixth power-play for the Nittany Lions was killed with 1:36 left in the extra period, and the Orange didn’t wait long to attack PSU on the other end. After a Penn State shot deflected sharply off of Abbey Miller’s pads, Logan Hicks corralled it and shuffled it up the ice for Savannah Rennie. Rennie got behind the Nittany Lions’ defense and had a one-on-one opportunity with Ehresmann, and she made the most of her chance. Her second goal of the year with 1:06 left in the game gave SU the win and the weekend series sweep.



Next up for Syracuse is conference-leader Mercyhurst next weekend, as the Orange return home to Tennity Ice Pavilion for a series against the Lakers. SU dropped both games to Mercyhurst when the two teams met earlier this season in December.





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