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Saints win overtime thriller

Posted 3/15/24

Kristina Bahl scored 10 minutes and 25 seconds into overtime to lift the No. 7 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team to a 1-0 win over No. 14 Penn State in the NCAA Regional Semifinals on …

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Saints win overtime thriller

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Kristina Bahl scored 10 minutes and 25 seconds into overtime to lift the No. 7 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team to a 1-0 win over No. 14 Penn State in the NCAA Regional Semifinals on Thursday night in Madison, Wisconsin.

The win marked the first tournament win for the Scarlet and Brown since 2007, including the first tournament win for head coach Chris Wells, and the Saints will move on to face No. 2 Wisconsin in the quarterfinal round on Saturday, March 16.

"We have so much respect for Penn State, they played a great game," said Wells. "It stayed tight the entire time and Emma kept them off the board and made saves when they counted. We've gotten some good bounces as of late and tonight we got the bounce that got us the win. We got a great effort from Kiley and Kennedy on the forecheck, and Lumer with a great screen on Bahler's shot to get the win."

Emma-Sofie Nordström kept the Nittany Lions at bay, with two breakaway stops in the first period.

Penn State held a slight 8-7 advantage in shots after the first.

The Saints came out firing in the second, pinning Penn State in their defensive zone on multiple occasions.

Midway through the second, Penn State's Lyndie Lobdell was called for body checking and the Saints peppered Nittany Lions' goaltender Katie Desa on the power play, but unfortunately came up empty handed.

After a period of sustained pressure, Nordström continued to keep the Nittany Lions off the board, as she robbed Tess Janecke on a one timer with 16.2 seconds to play in the second.

St. Lawrence led 27-22 in shots on goal after two periods of play.

The third period saw it's fair share of chances for both teams and more key saves for both Nordström and Desa to send the game to overtime.

Penn State edged the Saints 10-9 in shots, but after three frames the Scarlet and Brown led 36-32 in shots.

As the game headed to overtime, there was only one shot that mattered and that came off the stick of Bahl. Anna Segedi sent the puck up to Katina Duscio at the point, Duscio sent a cross-ice pass to Bahl, who fired a rocket from the left point for the win.

Bahl's overtime game winner was her first ever overtime goal in all her time playing hockey.

The Saints finished with a 44-36 advantage in shots on goal and Nordström finished with 36 saves for the shutout, while Desa made 43.

St. Lawrence improved to 28-10-0 overall, while Penn State closed their season at 22-12-3.

"We're incredibly grateful to still be in the fight right now, this tournament is so hard to get into and we're excited to still be playing, and keep the season going."

St. Lawrence will play No. 2 Wisconsin on Saturday, March 16 at 3 p.m.