Drew University Athletics

SCRANTON, Pa. – The Drew University hockey team blanked No. 22-ranked University of Scranton in the first half, but the Royals scored four goals in the second half to hand the Rangers a 4-0 setback in the regular season finale for both teams in a Landmark Conference affair Tuesday evening.
 
The Rangers (8-9, 5-4 LC) finish in fifth place in the conference standings and will now visit No. 4-seeded Elizabethtown College in the first round of the Landmark Conference Championships on Saturday at a time to be decided.
 
Freshman Vanessa Pennella made 10 saves – her second-highest total of the season – for Drew while facing a 33-shot attack from Scranton.
 
The Royals (15-2, 9-0 LC), who concluded the regular season undefeated in Landmark Conference play, received two goals from Shana Goldsmith, who broke open a scoreless game with the first two tallies of the night.
 
Pennella made four of her stops in the opening half, including three in the second quarter, to help keep the score deadlocked through the opening two quarters. Goldsmith broke up the shutout three minutes into the second half, but Pennella turned aside two more shots in the period and the hosts led just 1-0 heading into the final period.
 
Goldmith made it a 2-0 game two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter, and it stayed a 2-0 game until the Royals tacked on a pair of goals in the final three minutes. 
 
Drew will be making its third consecutive appearance in the Landmark Conference Championships.