Three goals in the first period powered the eighth-ranked St. Lawrence University Saints to a 4-1 win over seventh-ranked Penn State in the NCAA Regional Semifinals on Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio.

Abby Hustler opened scoring for the Scarlet and Brown, as she capitalized on a scramble in front of Penn State's Katie DeSa to put SLU up 1-0.

Just 15 seconds later, Kennedy Wilson picked off a turnover in the slot and beat DeSa's blocker for the 2-0 advantage.

With 1:17 remaining in the first period, Hustler tallied her second of the game with a rocket from the right circle for the 3-0 lead. Anna Segedi and Sarah Marchand assisted on the play, marking Marchand's 100th career point.

After the first 20 minutes, St. Lawrence led 3-0 and 11-8 in shots on goal.

With just about five and a half minutes to play, Emma-Sofie Nordström recorded back-to-back saves to keep Penn State off the board, keeping them scoreless after 40 minutes.
Following the second period, SLU held onto their three-goal lead, but the Nittany Lions picked up the pace a bit and led 25-24 in shots on goal.

With over eight minutes to play in the third, the Saints looked to fend off Penn State's 5-on-3 power play opportunity, but with five seconds left on the first power play, Kendal St. Butze scored to bring the game back within two.

With 4:42 to play, Penn State pulled DeSa for the extra attacker.

With 51 seconds left to play, Kristina Bahl lofted the puck down the ice to seal the win with the empty netter.

"We really felt like what happened in the first period, we were ready for that," said head coach Chris Wells. "We haven't had a game that just popped, and we've had so many one goal games, where every possession was so important."

"We feel like we've been playing really good hockey for the last two months and to be able to get on top of them early which was important," Wells added. "I think coming into the week, the way our players prepared to play, we were really able to get the game started on the right foot. There was a certain calmness about us the last three days, but the experience from last year really helped us prepare for this year."

Penn State ended with a 33-27 advantage in shots on goal.

"We executed when we needed to and really held it down in the third period when we needed to kill off some penalties," said Hustler. "Everything's clicking for us right now and we're just trying to have as much fun as possible."

"I think the big thing we talked about was using our speed and using that to our advantage and overwhelm them," says Segedi. "Everyone is really grateful for this opportunity and is really excited to be here, we're just trying to take everything in and play our best every day."



With tonight's win, the Saints improved to 22-11-5 on the season, while Penn State saw their season end at 31-6-1.

St. Lawrence advances to play No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday, March 15 at 6 p.m. EST