Sonia Mehta scored her first collegiate goal and
Kassidy Lawrence made 34 saves, but the sixth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions scored with 31.1 seconds left in overtime to edge the St. Lawrence University women's hockey team 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at Appleton Arena.
A physical first period at Appleton remained scoreless after the first 20 minutes, with the Saints leading in shots on goal 6-5.
Mehta put the Saints on the board first, scoring her first collegiate goal at 11:26 of the second period.
Jaylee MacKinnon played the puck off the boards and Barbora Juříčková split the defense and found Mehta on the other side of the crease, giving the Saints a 1-0 lead.
The Nittany Lions led in shots on goal 20-12 after 40 minutes of play, but SLU held onto their lead on the scoreboard.
Penn State evened the score on the power play with 5:52 to play in the third, as Megan Hosman fired a shot from the blue line to tie the game 1-1.
Grace Outwater scored the deciding goal with 31.1 seconds left in overtime, she collected the puck behind the goal line, circled and beat a Saints' defender in the slot to give Penn State the weekend sweep.
"Another hard fought game today," said head coach
Chris Wells. "Lots to like as we were able to do some things that we weren't able to yesterday, which led to a cleaner game with the puck. Our athletes deserved a much better fate than what they got on the scoreboard this weekend. If we keep working and improving the way we have been we will start to see some better results."
"Penn State was a great test for us to measure up to as we finished up our first stretch of non-conference games," Wells added. "It was a physical series and we have plenty of bumps and bruises from it so we will enjoy a day off tomorrow and get back at it as we head to Dartmouth and Harvard."
Lawrence made 34 saves for the Saints, while Morgan Stickney made 19 for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State led 63-38 in shots and 35-20 in shots on goal, while both teams won 31 faceoffs each.
St. Lawrence fell to 2-8-0, while the Nittany Lions improved to 7-3-0.
The Saints will hit the road to open ECAC Hockey conference play at Dartmouth and Harvard next weekend. SLU opens the weekend with their third school day game at Dartmouth on October 30 at 11 a.m.
