Box Score |
RPI FanshopTROY, N.Y. - Senior forward
Alexa Gruschow had a hat trick, including the game-tying goal with just 1:13 left in the third period, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's hockey team came back to tie the University of New Hampshire (UNH) 3-3 in a non-league game at the Houston Field House. The contest was the first of a two-game series, which concludes on Saturday at 4pm in Troy.
Gruschow pulled the Engineers to within one, 3-2, at 15:47 when she scored from the bottom of the left faceoff circle. She collected a pass from
Taylor Schwalbe near the boards, skated in and shot through a screen.
Mari Mankey, who was instrumental in the game's first goal, had the second assist, Grushchow knotted the score with an extra-attacker goal from nearly the same spot 21 seconds after RPI pulled its goaltender. She tied the game after taking a feed from sophomore
Shayna Tomlinson and wristing the puck from just off the goal line to the goalie's right and into the back of the net. She now has seven goals on the season.
RPI got on the scoreboard first when Gruschow scored her first of the game off a give-and-go with classmate Mankey just 2:56 into the contest. Gruschow and Mankey continuously battled for the puck along the side and end boards with Mankey eventually finding Gruschow as she cut toward the goal. Gruschow slipped the puck past the netminder from just outside the crease for the early lead. The Wildcats needed less than a minute to tie the game when Jonna Curtis took a pass in the neutral zone from Sara Carlson, broke in alone on Rensselaer's goaltender and made a move to her backhand, sliding the puck into the net at 3:19. Amy Boucher, who won a defensive zone faceoff to start the play, had the second assist.
UNH took the lead 10 minutes later thanks to a goal from Cassandra Vilgrain, who beat Rensselaer goalie
Lovisa Selander with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle on a two-on-one situation. Boucher, who picked up the puck after an RPI turnover, had the only assist on the goal.
Amy Schlagel scored the only goal of the second period when she tallied a power play goal at 2:46. The Wildcats maintained possession in the offensive zone and Curtis sent a pass from the left point to Schlagel, who one-timed the puck from the bottom of the right faceoff circle into the cage. Carlson had the secondary assist.
Both Selander and UNH's Kyra Smith made solid saves to keep the game at 3-1 before Gruschow earned her second and third goals of the contest. Selander finished with 30 saves, including 12 in the first period and nine in the third, while Smith made 23 stops with five coming in the third and two in overtime.
RPI is now 4-7-2, while the Wildcats are 3-13-1.
