Friday, Nov. 21

Mercyhurst 4, RIT 1

In their first meeting since RIT’s championship game shocker back in March, the host Lakers had little issue getting revenge. Mercyhurst limited the Tigers to 13 shots and used second-period goals from Emily Janiga, Jenna Dingeldein and Caroline Luczak (the latter two on the power play) to cruise to the finish. RIT did pull within two through Celeste Brown with 5:50 left, but a Jillian Skinner empty-netter removed whatever doubt may have existed. Tigers coach Scott McDonald, never a guy to mince words, said of the loss: “Our team did not compete today and that’s on me as the head coach. We were out-coached the entire game. It starts and ends with me. I have to have this team prepared a lot better when facing a team like Mercyhurst.” | Box Score | HurstAthletics.com Recap | RITAthletics.com Recap

Penn State 3, Lindenwood 0

The Nittany Lions, awful enough in their first two varsity seasons that a near-.500 finish (which seems fairly likely right now) qualifies as one of the nation’s biggest surprises, climbed to 7-5-3 overall and 2-2-1 in the CHA with a shutout of Lindenwood. The elder half of PSU’s goalie rotation, Celine Whitlinger, outdueled Lindy’s Nicole Hensley, and got a mid-second period goal from Laura Bowman followed by third-period power play markers from Hannah Bramm and Shannon Yoxheimer in support. Bramm’s score was her first at Penn State following two seasons (and four goals) at Minnesota-Duluth. | Box Score | GoPSUSports.com Recap | LindenwoodLions.com Recap

Proud of the resilience @PennStateWHKY showed tonight. Good effort and looking forward to tomorrow. #WeAre #HTR

— Josh Brandwene (@CoachBrandwene) November 22, 2014

Robert Morris 2, Syracuse 2 (OT)

RMU has struggled all season, but a matchup with tie-machine Syracuse at least allowed a chance for a couple league points. The Colonials went ahead with a first-period power play goal from Rikki Meilleur (who has a team-high six this year) and a second-period score from Mackenzie Johnston, but Melissa Piacentini tied things back up 1:02 after Johnston’s goal and goalies Jessica Dodds (30 saves) and Jenn Gilligan (20 saves) locked things down the rest of the way. With an assist on the Johnston goal, Rebecca Vint notched her 123rd career point, topping Thea Imbrogno (who graduated last year) for a new program record. | Box Score | RMUColonials.com Recap | Cuse.com Recap

Saturday, Nov. 22

Mercyhurst 4, RIT 1

In more or less a carbon copy of the series’ first game, Mercyhurst held RIT to 15 shots and used a diverse offense (the Lakers had seven different goal scorers over the weekend, with only eventual CHA player of the week Janiga, who became the 17th MU player with 100 career points, netting twice) to re-assert their league dominance against the defending champs. The Tigers now – rather shockingly and alarmingly, if you’re a fan – sit in dead last with a 1-4-1 conference mark, part of a 6-7-3 overall, although the absence of star goalie Ali Binnington due to injury this weekend certainly didn’t help. MU has a quick turnaround from the series, as they host Colgate on Tuesday and Wednesday. | Box Score | HurstAthletics.com Recap | RITAthletics.com Recap

Lindenwood 2, Penn State 1

Perhaps the truest sign that Penn State is still a work in progress: even with their steps forward this season, they’re still capable of laying down an 11-shot clunker of a loss at home against Lindenwood. Shannon Yoxheimer put the Nittany Lions up just 1:12 into the game, but she was outweighed by Shara Jasper and Alyssa West, the latter scoring a power play winner 4:10 into the third period and setting a new program record with her 61st career point. With the win, the Lions jumped to second in the standings at 3-2-1, ahead of PSU, struggling powers RIT and RMU (who are LU’s other two league wins), and can’t-do-anything-but-tie Syracuse. Box Score | GoPSUSports.com Recap | LindenwoodLions.com Recap

Robert Morris 1, Syracuse 1 (OT)

The Orange is now 3-6-7 overall after drawing with RMU for the second consecutive day, as this series joined the Mercyhurst-RIT one in having remarkably comparable pairs of games. This time, it was the Colonials who tied things up thanks to Johnston, after Julie Knerr put the Orange – who outshot the Colonials 35-21 – ahead. But as on Friday, the second period marked the conclusion of offense thanks to goalies Dodds and Gilligan. Appropriately enough, the all-time series between the two teams now sits at 9-9-8. Box Score | RMUColonials.com Recap | Cuse.com Recap