Nittany Lions and Tigers set for pesky CHA Semifinal dog fight

Penn State is in the CHA playoffs for the second straight season after winning back-to-back CHA titles.

The series will take place at Pegula Ice Arena on Friday, Saturday and Sunday if necessary.

Penn State does lead RIT 33-17-7 all-time and is also 18-2-6 at home against the Tigers. The problem is, the playoffs are a different type of animal.

During the regular season, Penn State and RIT had a very close season series. Penn State did win the series but they went 2-1-1 which includes a 3-2 overtime loss on the road.

Last weekend, Penn State clinched the CHA title by beating these RIT Tigers 5-3 but tied the next game which ultimately clinched this playoff spot for RIT.

It is tough for any team to play four straight games against the same team and this series could even go to five games. The worry for Penn State is that they were able to slightly come out on top during the regular season.

Now, they are going to be playing two more games on top of the games last week and RIT seems very hungry and pesky after not getting a win.

Penn State seemed to have some weaknesses in both of those games and RIT sure knows about them. The question is can head coach Jeff Kampersal fix those spots before Game 1?

“There’s a few adjustments,” Kampersal said during his Wednesday press conference. “I thought we had a lot of times when we had entries that we needed to do a little bit better on and we need to make better decisions in terms of getting better scoring opportunities.”

Penn State has two key x-factors and it is probably pretty obvious. Tessa Janecke and Katie DeSa need to step up in this series if they want to win.

Penn State plays a style where a lot of stuff runs through Janecke and sometimes it causes defensive lapses. While the defense is very solid, DeSa must step in the times that the defense lacks.

“Tessa is definitely an all-star player,” Kampersal said. “All the little things that are necessary to win [Janecke] is doing those things as well as producing on the score sheet.”

Penn State managed to crack RIT’s backup goaltender Sarah Coe but only put up one goal on Sophia Bellina in Game 2.

Bellina’s record is 10-8-1 but her record does not say how good she is.

Bellina has played in 21 games and has an amazing save percentage of .935% along with a 2.03 GAA.

“[Bellina] is really good and aggressive,” Kampersal said. “We might try to capitalize on her aggressiveness and try to get traffic in front.”

Kampersal also mentioned putting someone like Alva Johnsson in front of the net due to Johnsson being one of the tallest players on the team.

Kampersal then noted that the team was trying to be a bit too perfect with plays and passing. That seems to have been a huge trend recently with this Nittany Lion team.

The talk around this team is usually about Janecke but all 18 players need to step up for this team.

“We have 18 skaters in our lineup to contribute,” Kampersal said. “Whether it is positivity or a chip out of the zone… we need good quality plays from secondary scorers.”

For Penn State, this is one step closer to making the NCAA tournament. For RIT, making it to the finals would be a huge accomplishment for a team that went 4-26-2 last year.

You can expect RIT to want it more than Penn State but all the Nittany Lions have to do is play their game. This series is Penn State’s to lose.

Matt Becker is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email mcb6250@psu.edu.