Penn State Wins Eighth Straight, Blanking Syracuse, 4-0.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – No. 9 Penn State completed the weekend and season-series sweep against Syracuse, capturing a 4-0 conference win at the Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday, Jan. 18.

Penn State (21-4-1, 12-0-0 AHA) spent most of Saturday’s contest in the offensive zone, creating scoring chances. The Nittany Lions outshot the Orange 31-25.

In the first period, freshman forward Grace Outwater opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal. Outwater stole the puck from Syracuse freshman defenseman Jessica Cheung and capitalized on the breakaway for her fifth goal in eight games.

Junior forward Tessa Janecke doubled Penn State’s lead less than three minutes into the second period. With her 17th goal, Janecke became the career points leader in Penn State women’s ice hockey program history with 138 points.

Freshman forward Nicole Hall scored her fourth goal of the year to make it 3-0 Nittany Lions with 1:43 remaining in the second period.

Early in the third period, Outwater scored her second goal on an assist by junior forward Maddy Christian. Christian led all players in the season series with six points.

Junior goaltender Katie DeSa made 25 saves and secured her sixth shutout victory of the season.

In its four wins this season, Penn State outscored the Orange 13-4 and won two of the four games in overtime. On Saturday, Penn State picked up its eighth straight win and remained the only undefeated team in the AHA.

Syracuse and Penn State are warming up before puck drop. Photo credit: Rich Rosa

The Nittany Lions have won 11 of the last 12 meetings against Syracuse, but the Orange lead the all-time series 31-16-8.

The Orange (7-19, 5-7 AHA) blocked eight shots and won 25 faceoffs. Syracuse graduate forward Tatum White, again impressive in the faceoff circle, won 10 of 19. Sophomore forward Nea Tervonen won 8 of 16 faceoffs for the Orange. Penn State’s Janecke won 10 of 16 faceoffs.

The Orange were 0 for 9 on the power play in this weekend’s two games, but Syracuse head coach Britni Smith said she didn’t feel the team struggled with the man advantage.

“I thought we were better today than yesterday on our power play. We had more opportunities and more pucks to the crease. So we’ll just build on that,” Smith said.

Smith said every conference game going forward is important.

“It’s going to be a battle. Every single point is going to be a battle. So another week of practice and right back to it,” Smith said.

Syracuse will have a home-and-home series next weekend against RIT. On Friday, Jan. 24, they will head west to Rochester, New York, for a 3 p.m. puck drop. Syracuse returns home to the Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday, Jan. 25, with puck drop at 3 p.m. The Orange look to snap their seven-game losing streak.