Women's Hockey | 1/13/2015 3:24:00 PM

Click here for RIT Game Notes --- Click here for Penn State Game Notes

ROCHESTER, NY - The RIT women's hockey team heads out on the road this weekend for a pair of College Hockey America contests at Penn State University. The Tigers and Nittany Lions begin the weekend series from Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday at 12 p.m. and wrap up play Sunday at 2 p.m.
 
RIT (8-12-3, 2-6-1 CHA) comes into the series looking for consecutive wins for the first time since Oct. 24-25. Last weekend, the Tigers split a weekend series at home against Robert Morris, falling 2-0 on Friday and winning 3-2 on Saturday. On Saturday, Marissa Maugeri (Ajax, Ontario/Durham West Lightning), Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School), and Carly Payerl (Kitchener, Ontario/Resurrection Catholic) scored for the Tigers. Goaltender Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs) made her return to the lineup and stopped 58 of 61 shots over the weekend.
 
Freshman Darcy Henderson (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Barracudas), who assisted on Payerl's game-winning goal on Saturday, was named the CHA's Rookie of the Week on Monday. Binnington leads all of Division I with a .956 save percentage and is third with a 1.16 goals against average.
 
Lindsay Grigg (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Hornets) is two games shy of tying former RIT standout Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects) for the school record in games played. Grigg has appeared in 127 career contests.
 
Penn State (10-9-3, 5-4-1 CHA) enters the weekend looking to snap a two-game losing streak after getting swept at home by Ohio State on Jan. 3-4. Its opponents are outscoring Penn State, 56-47 this season. Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen each have a team-high 11 goals. Bowman leads the squad with 23 points, while Petersen is right behind with 22. In goal, Hannah Ehresmann and Celine Whitlinger have each played in 11 games. Ehresmann is 4-4-3 with a 2.40 goals against average and .923 save percentage, while Whitlinger is 6-5-0 with a 2.37 goals against average and .929 save percentage.
 
RIT knocked Penn State out of the CHA Tournament in each of the last two years and has an 11-1-2 all-time record against the Nittany Lions, going 5-0-1 in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Seven of the last ten meetings between the two schools have been decided by one goal or less. The two teams met at the Polisseni Center on Nov. 14-15, with RIT winning 3-0 on Nov. 14 and Penn State rallying for a 3-2 overtime victory the following day.
 
On Nov. 14, Mackenzie Stone (Kars, Ontario/South Carleton), Caitlin Wallace (Brantford, Ontario/Assumption Collegiate), and Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) scored, while Binnington stopped all 22 shots she faced for her third shutout of the season. The next day, Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy) and Paton scored less than a minute apart in the second period, but RIT could not hang on as Binnington made 28 saves in the loss. Bella Sutton scored a power-play goal in the third period to tie it for Penn State, while Caitlin Reilly won it 3:02 into overtime. Ehresmann made 26 saves in the win for the Nittany Lions.
 
Both games will be aired live here and have live stats Friday and Saturday. Free audio for Sunday's game will also be available here.