Box Score

Pittsburgh, Pa. – Senior forward Whitney Naslund (Bloomington, MN/Bloomington Jefferson) paced Rensselaer to a 5-2 non-conference victory over Robert Morris, tallying two goals with two assists in the win. The game marked the Colonials' 4th Annual Skate for the Cure. The Engineers improve to 5-7-4, while the host Colonials dropped to 4-10-1.

It did not take long in the first period before a score was made. At 3:08, an RPI Engineer sent the puck up the ice, which was deflected off the stick of a Colonial to Rensselaer's Amanda Castignetti (Anchorage, AK/Shattuck St. Mary's). She pushed the puck up to Allison Write, who skated towards the Colonial goal and fired a shot past junior goalie Daneca Butterfield's (Kronau, Saskatchewan / Notre Dame Hounds) left glove to take the 1-0 lead.

The Colonials evened things up at 14:00 when Brianna Delaney (Stittsville, Ontario / NCCP Raiders) sent the puck cross-ice to Jacki Gibson (Burlington, Ontario / Burlington Barracudas), who found freshman Kathleen McDonald (Kamloops, B.C. / Team BC & POE) waiting by the back door. McDonald took a hard shot into right-side of the net for her second score of the year to knot the game 1-1.

At 6:00 into the second period RPI's Naslund rifled a shot towards Butterfield's five-hole. Butterfield stopped the puck, but it bounced and trickled into the left side of the net to give Rensselaer a 2-1 lead.

Rensselaer quickly added to its lead at 8:42 when Laura Gersten (Queensbury, NY/Troy-Albany Ice Cats) ripped a shot into the top-right shelf of the net off assists from Naslund and Sierra Vadner (Apple Valley, MN/Minnesota Thoroughbreds). The goal was followed by an RMU goalie change with freshman Kristen DiCiocco (Niagara Falls, Ontario / Stoney Creek Sabres) entering the game.

The first half of the final stanza remained scoreless with both teams capturing a couple close calls. DiCiocco made several clutch saves, but at 11:50 RPI was able to get one through the rookie goalie when Kendra Dunlop (Granum, AB/Warner Hockey School) picked up the rebound off a shot made by Katie Daniels (Rockton, IL/Chicago Mission) and scored to give RPI a 4-1 advantage. Sierra Vadner added the second assist.

At 17:21 the Colonials cut into RPI's lead immediately following a face-off win. Maria Stoa (Bloomington, Minn. / Eden Prairie) sent the puck to Delaney, who flipped it over the shoulder of junior goalie Sonja van der Bliek (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) to set the score at 4-2. Kathryn Stack (Edmonton, Alberta/Edmonton Thunder) was also awarded with an assist.

Following the goal and with a little over two minutes left to play, the Colonials pulled their goalie to gain the extra-man advantage. However, Naslund found the empty net and scored with a minute left in regulation to finalize the game 5-3.

RMU outshot the Engineers 31 to 26 with the goalie duo of Butterfield and DiCiocco making 21 saves to van Der Bliek's 29. RMU capitalized on one-of-five power play opportunities, while the Engineers were held scoreless on just one chance.

Robert Morris returns to the ice tomorrow to take on the Rensselaer Engineers in game two of the series at 2:05 p.m. at the RMU Island Sports Center. Breast cancer survivor Patty Stevens will be honored prior to the game and will drop the ceremonial puck.