No. 11 Penn State women’s hockey (10-7-1, 3-1-0 CHA) was swept by No. 6 Yale (6-0-0, 4-0-0 ECAC) in New Haven this past weekend.

Penn State took a whopping 11 penalties in the series and scored only one goal on 50 combined shots between the two games. The Nittany Lions dropped the first game 3-0, as they were never really in it. The second game was a bit closer. It took overtime to decide the winner of that contest, but Yale came out on top 2-1.

How It Happened

Game One

Penn State started the game a little flat-footed on Friday. Goaltender Josie Bothun was forced to make multiple saves in the game to keep it scoreless.

With 8:08 left in the first period, Courtney Correia took the first penalty of the game for cross-checking, giving Yale the game’s first power play. However, Penn State killed the penalty.

Not long after the penalty kill, Yale’s Anna Bargman slipped one past Bothun to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead with 5:04 left in the first period. Penn State didn’t help itself from there, as the Nittany Lions took a kneeing penalty to go back on the penalty kill.

Yale then took advantage in the last seconds of the power play, scoring again to take a 2-0 lead with 1:12 left in the first period. Once again, Penn State got into more penalty trouble, as the Nittany Lions got called for two penalties at the same time to end the first period.

The second period began with Yale on the power play. After a few good chances that Bothun had to fight off, Penn State killed it off. The team then finally got its first power play of the night with 13 minutes left in the second period. The Nittany Lions couldn’t score, though.

They went back to the power play with 7:04 left in the second period and even got a brief 5-on-3 chance, but they couldn’t buy a goal. Then, with 20 seconds left in the second period, Yale added to its lead to make it 3-0.

The third period was pretty quiet. Both teams traded power plays, but nothing came of either of them. A final push by Penn State wasn’t enough, and the Nittany Lions were shut out 3-0.

Game Two

Penn State came out ready to rock in game two. After a frustrating loss the day prior, Penn State led 10-7 in shots on goal at the end of the first period with no goals to show for it.

The Nittany Lions got off to a hot start in the second period, as well. But, it was slowed by a Penn State hooking penalty to give Yale the game’s first power play with 12:56 left in the second period.

Of course, the Bulldogs took advantage of the opportunity and took a 1-0 lead with 12:05 left in the second period. Penn State’s Maddy Christian then took another penalty for the Nittany Lions, but they killed this power play. The two teams went into the intermission with Yale leading 1-0, as Penn State attacked the Bulldogs with 13 shots on goal in the period.

The third period also got off to a fiery start.

After the teams traded back-and-forth chances, Penn State finally got a power play chance with 10:46 left in the third period, but it couldn’t score.

At the 11:46 mark of the third period, Penn State led 13-7 in shots on goal.

The Nittany Lions took another penalty and were called for roughing, but they killed the Yale power play.

As time was ticking down, it became desperation time for the team. Eleri MacKay answered the call and finally broke through with a goal for the Nittany Lions, tying the game at 1-1 with 2:15 left in the game. Thus, it went to overtime.

The two teams battled hard in the extra period, but Penn State got itself into penalty trouble with 1:07 left on a slashing call. Then, it went down to 5-on-3 on a slashing call. Eight seconds later, Yale then scored its second power play goal of the game to end the game in a 2-1 victory.

Takeaways

• The Nittany Lions took 11 penalties throughout the weekend. That just can’t happen when you want to be a competitive hockey team. Yale went a combined 3-for-9 on the man advantage this weekend, as both goals scored in game two were on the power play. That’s something Penn State is going to have to clean up in the future.
• It was certainly a frustrating weekend on the offensive front, as well, for Penn State. The Nittany Lions only scored one goal on 50 combined shots between the two games (23 and 27, respectively). Unfortunately, they just didn’t have the puck luck this weekend.

What’s Next

Penn State is slated to take on No. 2 Minnesota at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 25 in Las Vegas in the Henderson Collegiate Hockey Showcase. The Nittany Lions will then play the winner of Boston University/Yale the following day.