BOSTON – The first day of 2026-27 with all seven Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) women’s teams in action did not disappoint, featuring as dramatic shootout win for second-year program Delaware, a milestone victory for Syracuse’s new head coach, and a seemingly unlikely natural hat trick for a Robert Morris junior who entered the season with three goals in her career.

SCOREBOARD
Merrimack 3, Lindenwood 0
Ohio State 2, Penn State 1
Clarkson 6, RIT 3
Delaware 2, Holy Cross 2 (Del. wins shootout, 1-0)
Syracuse 3, Stonehill 0
Minnesota Duluth 2, Mercyhurst 0
Robert Morris 8, Post 3
Recaps available below

MERRIMACK 3, LINDENWOOD 0
Box Score | Game Highlights
North Andover, Mass. – Merrimack salvaged a split in its series with Lindenwood and snapped the Lions’ longest winning streak to start a season with a 3-0 win Friday afternoon. Warrior freshman goaltender Machala Musty – who did not allow a goal in two periods of relief work Thursday – stopped all 20 Lindenwood shots she faced. 

The two teams battled through a scoreless first period and half of the second before Merrimack beat goaltender Eva Filippova (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia), making her first start with the Lions. The Bemidji State transfer finished with 32 saves.
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
Lindenwood	0-0-0–0	20	2/4	0/2	3-1-0 (0-0-0)
Merrimack	0-1-2–3	35	2/4	0/2	1-1-0 (0-0-0)

NO. 2/2 OHIO STATE 2, NO. 4/6 PENN STATE 1 
Box Score | Game Highlights
University Park, Pa. – For the second day in a row two top-five teams put on a show at Pegula Ice Arena and again Ohio State came away with a 2-1 victory, this time in regulation.

Grace Outwater (Picton, Ont.) scored Penn State’s goal for the second day in a row, giving the Nittany Lions the lead on a breakaway just 4:14 into the first period. The Buckeyes tied the score on the power play 4:08 later, then got the eventual game-winner late in the second period.

Outwater’s goal was the 42nd of her career, most among active juniors in college hockey. The AHA Preseason Player of the Year led the conference in scoring as a sophomore.
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
Ohio State	1-1-0–2	33	4/8	1/4	2-0-0 (0-0-0)
Penn State	1-0-0–1	12	3/6	0/3	0-2-0 (0-0-0)

SYRACUSE 3, STONEHILL 0
Box Score | Game Highlights
Syracuse, N.Y. – Syracuse opened its season generating 60 shots, posting a shutout of visiting Stonehill, and earning head coach Brian Idalski his first Orange win in his debut with the team.

Syracuse scored in each period, with sophomore Emma Gnade (Fenton, Mo.), junior Jessica Cheung (Ottawa, Ont.) and sophomore Jordan Blouin (Calgary, Alta.) providing the offense. 

Sophomore Ava Drabyk (Saskatoon, Sask.) stopped all 17 shots she faced to post the sixth shutout of her career. 
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
Stonehill	0-0-0–0	17	7/14	0/5	0-1-0 (0-0-0)
Syracuse	1-1-1–3	60	5/10	1/7	1-0-0 (0-0-0)

NO. 12/12 CLARKSON 6, RIT 3
Box Score | Game Highlights
Potsdam, N.Y. – Clarkson scored twice in the first 7:30 of the game and held off every RIT comeback attempt, earning a 6-3 win in the season opener for both teams in the first of their two-game series.

Sara Manness and Layla Matthew each had a pair of goals to lead the Golden Knight offense. Junior Zoe Ziotas (Markham, Ont.), senior Addie Alvarez (Rochester, N.Y.) and sophomore Laura Dyke (St. John’s, Newf.) accounted for the RIT goals.
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
RIT	0-1-2–3	21	3/6	1/4	0-1-0 (0-0-0)
Clarkson	2-1-3–6	42	4/8	1/3	1-0-0 (0-0-0)

DELAWARE 2, HOLY CROSS 2 OT (DELAWARE WINS SHOOTOUT, 1-0)
Box Score | Game Highlights
Worcester, Mass. – Freshman Morgan Link (Northbrook, Ill.) scored a dramatic game-tying goal and classmate Lily Myers (Crystal Lake, Ill.) had the only goal in the shootout as Delaware opened its second season as a varsity program in style. While the game goes in the record books as 2-2 a tie, the shootout advantage is more than symbolic for a program that went 2-31-0 in 2025-26. 

Holy Cross – one of the two teams Delaware beat last season – scored first just 4:04 into the game, but graduate defenseman Tiana McIntyre (Park City, Utah) tied the score just over five minutes later. Holy Cross reclaimed the lead within a minute.

Delaware pushed for the equalizer until Link’s tying goal with just 13.7 seconds left with goaltender Charlotte Payne (Oakville, Ont.) pulled for the extra attacker. Payne finished with 33 saves, adding three stops in the shootout.
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
Delaware	1-0-1-0–2	31	3/6	0/3	0-0-1 (0-0-0)
Holy Cross	2-0-0-0–2	35	3/6	0/3	0-0-1 (0-0-0)

#9/9 MINNESOTA DULUTH 2, #15/14 MERCYHURST 0
Box Score | Game Highlights
Duluth, Minn. – Minnesota Duluth’s Ève Gascon outdueled Mercyhurst junior Magdalena Luggin (Vienna, Austria) in goal and the Bulldogs added an empty netter to open the teams’ two-game series with a 2-0 UMD win Friday night. 

UMD’s Caitlin Kraemer notched the first goal 6:27 into the second period, a tally that would stand as the only scoring until Rae Mayer added the empty netter with just 47 seconds remaining.
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
Mercyhurst	0-0-0–0	26	3/6	0/4	2-1-0 (0-0-0)
Minnesota Duluth	0-1-1–2	45	4/8	0/3	1-0-0 (0-0-0)

ROBERT MORRIS 8, POST 3
Box Score | Game Highlights
Moon Township, Pa. – A wild, seven-goal first period was followed by a natural hat trick in the second, allowing Robert Morris to pull away from Post, 8-3, in the Colonials’ first game of the season. 

Junior Greta Brezenski (Waunakee, Wis.) – who entered the season with three career goals in 52 games played – accounted for all three goals in the second period to build what had been a 4-3 Colonial lead after 20 minutes to 7-3.

Brezenski added two assists to record a five-point game, while redshirt junior Alaina Giampietro (Strongsville, Ohio) had four points (two goals, two assists) and junior Jessica MacKinnon (Clarks Harbour, N.S.) added three (one goal, two assists). Senior Maggie Hatch (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) stopped all 11 shots she faced after the first period.
 

	Scoring	Shots	Pen/Min	PP	New Record (Conf.)
Post	3-0-0–3	16	1/2	1/4	0-3-0 (0-0-0)
Robert Morris	4-3-1–8	31	4/8	0/1	1-0-0 (0-0-0)

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Saturday, September 26
Delaware at Holy Cross, 2 p.m. ET
Post at Robert Morris, 3 p.m. ET
RIT at No. 12/12 Clarkson, 3 p.m. ET
Stonehill at Syracuse, 3 p.m. ET
No. 15/14 Mercyhurst at No. 9/9 Minnesota Duluth, 3 p.m. CT

Friday, October 2
Robert Morris at No. 4/6 Penn State, 6 p.m. ET
Syracuse at No. 15/14 Mercyhurst, 6 p.m. ET
No. 13/15 Colgate at RIT, 6 p.m. ET

ABOUT ATLANTIC HOCKEY AMERICA
Atlantic Hockey America is in its third season in 2026-27 following the merger of the Atlantic Hockey Association and College Hockey America. The conference fields nine Division I men’s teams and seven women’s teams representing 14 institutions. For more information, visit atlantichockeyamerica.com or follow the conference on X (@Atlantic_Hockey), Instagram (@atlantichockeyamerica) and Facebook (Atlantic Hockey America). Watch Atlantic Hockey America home games on FloHockey.