Blowouts against Sacred Heart shows Penn State's depth

You can read my summary on ComRadio on their 6-0 victory from Friday night here. That will give you all you need to know about that game. But this will be more of what I took out of this very successful weekend for the ladies.

It looks like Nicole Paniccia will be an absolute wall in the cage and be that much-needed rock solid netminder. There is nothing else to say about the great job Nicole has been doing so far this season. After she stood on her head and made 59 saves and grabbed the #1 star in the 2-2 tie against RIT on October 26th at home, in my eyes that was the game that really showed her true talent and what she's capable of doing. She's been nominated twice for CHA Goalie of the Week and was a nominee for October's Goalie of the Month. Her resume coming in was strong as it is, but I've been nothing but impressed with what she has done. 

But this talk is all about the team's depth so let's start rollin'. We saw EIGHT different scorers in the 8-2 victory on Saturday afternoon against Sacred Heart (with each players season goal total is in parenthesis): Shannon Yoxheimer (9), Taylor Gross (3), Emily Laurenzi (1), Kendra Rasmussen (1), Jill Holdcroft (2), Jess Desorcie (1), Jenna Welch (1) and Madison Smiddy (1). This was obviously their most goals scored on the the season and tied their biggest margin of victory of +6. They showed a lot of secondary scoring this weekend, especially on Saturday, with five players grabbing their first goal of the season. All of this will only help them moving forward and all four lines made their play stand out. If that doesn't show a team has great depth, I don't know what does then! 

Alternate captain Jenna Welch mentioned how it "was great to see them get rewarded for their hard work" and "for us to be successful we need to work together and play like we did this weekend."

The usual suspects, the trio of Shannon Yoxheimer/Taylor Gross/Jess Desorcie (pictured right with Jeanette Bateman), continued to show up on the score sheet and made their contributions. Yoxheimer, the team's leading scorer, was her usual beast-mode self and found a way to find the cage and grab her 7th, 8th, and 9th goals of the season over the weekend. She's now scored a goal in SIX CONSECUTIVE GAMES and I don't think she will show any signs of slowing down. The jaw dropping moment from Shannon this weekend was the absolute bar down missile she ripped from the top of the faceoff circle IN TRANSITION on Friday night. Yes, impressive. It will be really fun to follow her progress throughout her collegiate career at Penn State. She's currently tied for second place in the CHA in goals with nine in what's only her freshman season. She was also a nominee for the CHA Rookie of the Month and Player of the Month for October. Could we potentially see her win either of those year-ending awards? Scary to think what she could be capable the rest of her career.

Yoxheimer's linemate, captain Taylor Gross, continues to rack up the apples (for all you schmucks, that means assists) with three over the weekend and nine on the young season.  I see her as the ol' Henrik Sedin of the Nittany Lions (or for some older folks, Adam Oates) with her leadership, great vision on the ice, and ability the rack up the assists. Her Division I experience coming from UConn made a great complement to this very young team. My comments on Desorcie will come later-ish.

But this weekend seemed to be all about the other players showing their true colors and showing exactly how deep this team can be down the stretch. First has to obviously be the emergence of Hannah Hoenshell as another offensive threat. As most already know (or if you read my Friday game summary), Hoenshell became the owner of the first ever hatty (once again people, that means hat trick) in Penn State NCAA hockey history on Friday night...Men or Women. She was flying all over the ice in the 6-0 win using her speed to create her own opportunities and finished the night with 11 shots on net and threw another five on net Saturday. But she was also suffering from extreme dangleitis with some disgusting stick handling. To quote one of my favorite sports media people John Buccigross, Hoenshell had some "frothy mitts" on Friday. She teamed up with Katie Zinn and Emily Laurenzi for a very efficient line in that 6-0 win.

The speedy hometown girl Jill Holdcroft was on a line with Micayla Catanzariti and Birdie Shaw on what may be the most energetic and fast line you will see. Catanzariti and Shaw have already shown this season what they can bring to the table and Holdcroft fittingly found a way to step up big at home (read my Friday game summary for more on that). That line is full of Energizer bunnies who aren't afraid to get in battles along the boards. All three see time on the penalty kill, which is definitely spot on for their styles of play they've shown so far. If getting in scraps were aloud in college hockey, my first two choices to drop the gloves would no doubt go to someone on this line. Seriously, this is such an awesome line.

But the key ingredient to come out of this was the emergence of the trio of alternate captain Jenna Welch, Kendra Rasmussen, and Tess Weaver. Their emergence as a great overall line will be key down the stretch as the ladies will be taking on a tough Robert Morris team in a two game home series coming up and then get a strong #5 ranked Mercyhurst at the end of November. Coach Josh Brandwene even addressed the Welch/Rasmussen/Weaver trio in his post game after the 8-2 victory stressing how great of a weekend they had. They have been the perfect example of a great "role player" line and this past weekend really showed how great those three together can do.

Also what stood out big time for me was the outstanding play by all four of the centers this weekend. As mentioned in my article, Emily Laurenzi and Jess Desorcie had themselves great all-around games in Friday night's 6-0 victory as Desorcie was 13 for 17 in the faceoff circle and collected assists on both of Yoxheimer’s goals. She continues to be that reliable top line center with great vision on the ice and great overall hockey tools (you can compare her to a five tool player in baseball). Her NCAA experience definitely has been showing. Laurenzi was a plus three, 11 for 16 in face-offs and most importantly a key contributor to Hannah Hoenshell’s historic hat trick on Friday night.  But Kendra Rasmussen was the center that had her "coming-out" game on Saturday with her first collegiate goal while also going 14 for 18 in the faceoff circle to continue being reliable in the dot clicking at a 54.2 percent (52 for 96) on the season.

One name we have surprisingly not heard much about this season who deserves a lot more attention is freshman defender Paige Jahnke. She finished BOTH games this weekend with a plus-4 and is now an impressive plus-8 on the season in 10 games played (which now puts her in the top 10 in the CHA in plus/minus). So far this season she has proven to be a very reliable puck moving defenseman in addition to being versatile getting playing time on both the power play and penalty kill. Cannot forget the 13 blocked shots on the season with three coming in Saturday afternoon's 8-2 win. Her and Jeanette Bateman have teamed up to make a great defensive pairing for the Nittany Lions with Paige being more of a two-way defenseman and Jeanette looking more like a solid stay at home blueliner. Bateman has a plus-6 on the season with 13 blocked shots like Jahnke, but she has only taken one penalty (unlike like Paige's four) and has shown great ability down low and clearing out in front of Paniccia.