No. 4 Penn State Women’s Hockey (26-4, 19-1 AHA) took down Robert Morris (10-18-2, 6-12 AHA) 5-2 in a comeback win.

Five different Nittany Lions found the back of the net, and Katie DeSa made 20 saves as Penn State battled back from an early 2-0 hole.

How It Happened

Halfway through the opening period, Robert Morris’ Taylor Storey forced a turnover in the defensive zone and found herself one-on-one with Katie DeSa, burying her shot to give the Colonials a 1-0 lead.

Just 14 seconds into the second period, Robert Morris would add to its lead after Jessica MacKinnon stole the puck and passed it to Powyn Rignor, who finished the point-blank chance to double the lead.

But, less than 20 seconds later, Danica Maynard sent a feed to Taya MacDonald, who found Grace Outwater skating down the left side. Outwater snapped a shot top-shelf to cut the lead to 2-1 32 seconds into the period.

Two and a half minutes later, Mya Vaslet won a battle along the boards and pushed the puck across to Abby Stonehouse, who ripped home the equalizer to make it 2-2.

9:03 into the middle frame, Outwater pushed the puck ahead to McKenna Walsh, who stuffed a backhand shot into the back of the net, giving Penn State its first lead at 3-2.

With five minutes left in the period and on the power play, Vaslet moved the puck to Kendall Butze. Butze slid it over to Maynard, who spun off her defender and tucked the puck inside the left post, extending Penn State’s lead to 4-2.

Penn State carried its two-goal lead into the third period, and with 8:45 remaining, Butze fired a shot from the point that was stopped, but Katelyn Roberts crashed the crease hard and hammered home the puck to seal the 5-2 win.

Takeaways

• Penn State fell behind 2-0 early in the second period, something this group almost never does. The Nittany Lions didn’t panic and responded with five unanswered goals to close out the season sweep.
• Even without Tessa Janecke and Nicole Hall due to the Olympics, Penn State continues to adjust on the fly. Lines have been shuffled, and Mya Vaslet has been getting extended time up on the top line.
• Penn State scored its first four goals in a span of 15 minutes, completely flipping the game on its head in the second period before adding another one late to seal the deal.

What’s Next?

Penn State will hit the road next week to take on Lindenwood in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The first game is set for 5 p.m. Friday and will be streamed on FloHockey.