No. 4 Penn State women’s hockey (18-1-0, 12-0-0 AHA) opened up the second half of its season with a bang on Tuesday night at Pegula Ice Arena, beating No. 10 Cornell (10-6-1, 6-4-0 ECAC), 1-0.

The Nittany Lions rode a spectacular game in net from Katie DeSa, who registered her seventh shutout of the season with a season-high 35 saves. The lone goal in the game by Matilde Fantin came on the power play in the final minutes.

How It Happened

The opening period of the game saw both teams, though predominantly Cornell, exchange chances at five aside for nearly 17 minutes until Penn State got the opening power play on a trip by Karel Prefontaine at 16:37.

After just 47 seconds, Cornell committed another penalty when Avi Adam went off for tripping at 17:25, giving Penn State a 5-on-3 for 73 seconds. Despite getting three shots on net throughout the next two minutes, a disciplined penalty kill and goaltender Annelies Bergmann kept Penn State off the board into the start of the second period.

The first penalty for Penn State came at 7:45 of the second, when Tessa Janecke went off for body checking. The Big Red attempted seven shots and even got four toward an unusually active DeSa, but she kept them all out of the net.

Penn State managed only 15 shots on net through two periods, but yielded 24. In the third period, the Nittany Lions exploded on offense, threatening over and over again on Bergmann, ultimately doubling their shot total in the period alone despite committing a pair of penalties.

Danica Maynard went off for interference at 6:42, and Fantin went off for tripping at 9:59. On those power plays, Cornell combined for five shots on goal, but they ultimately had a bunch of shots go wide and blocked.

It appeared that this game was destined for overtime, but Cornell’s Lindzi Avar was called for hitting from behind at 13:08, which was reviewed and upgraded to a five-minute major. Despite a few clears from Cornell, the dam eventually broke, as Maddy Christian fed Fantin for a rocket snapshot that got past Bergmann for her eighth goal of the season at 15:36 to break the ice.

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— Penn State Women’s Hockey (@PennStateWHKY) December 31, 2025

A few more shots over the next two minutes finished off the power play, leaving Cornell with just under two minutes to empty their net. They got two shots in quick succession with 1:10 to go, but ultimately ran out of time as Penn State finished off a 1-0 win.

Takeaways

• DeSa was locked in, notching her 20th career shutout to tie a program record. The senior netminder got back on track after a rough finish to the first half, where she allowed three goals twice in a three-start stretch, including being pulled twice. She still has an exceptional .928 save percentage.
• In years past, Janecke was the heart and soul of the offense, but it’s entirely reasonable to say that this is by far the deepest team Penn State has ever fielded. Fantin is the sixth player to notch eight goals through 19 games.
• Penn State has been exceptionally dominant most of the season, especially in AHA play. There have only been a few teams that have come close to outshooting the Nittany Lions this season, but none had done so until Cornell tonight. Penn State had outshot its first 18 opponents.
• Penn State is now 2-1 in the midst of its season-defining five-game stretch after splitting with Northeastern in late November. An upcoming weekend set against the Buckeyes will be their last true test.

Up Next

The women’s hockey team heads on the road for a huge weekend series against No. 2 Ohio State, starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, January 2. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.