5 Ohio State (14-9-1, 4-5-1-0 B1G) |
Columbus, Ohio • Value City Arena • Attendance: 5,771 NEXT SERIES: Feb. 7-8 vs. Michigan | 2 Penn State (4-17-1, 0-8-0-0 B1G) |
Feb. 1, 2014
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Freshman forward Dylan Richard (Sherwood Park, Alta.) recorded his first career multi-point game as the Nittany Lions jumped out to a two-goal, first-period lead, but the Penn State men's hockey team fell to Ohio State, 5-2, at Value City Arena Saturday afternoon.
The Sherwood Park, Alta., native scored his second goal of the season less than three minutes into the contest and assisted on sophomore forward Casey Bailey's (Anchorage, Alaska) first-period strike to give Penn State (4-17-1, 0-8-0-0 Big Ten) the 2-0 advantage. The Buckeyes (14-9-1, 4-5-1-0 Big Ten) responded with five unanswered goals during the final two frames en route to the 5-2 victory.
The Nittany Lions out shot their opponent for the third straight game and fifth time in a six-game span as they held a 26-24 edge in the category. Penn State finished 0-for-4 on the power play, while Ohio State went 2-for-4 with the man advantage. Sophomore goaltender Matthew Skoff (McKees Rocks, Pa.) turned aside 19 shots, while Ohio State netminder Christian Frey made 24 saves.
The Nittany Lions jumped out to their first two-goal lead since Dec. 1 against then-No. 15 Union with two markers in a 4:16 span. Just 2:31 into the affair, Richard netted his first goal since the fourth game of the season when he took defenseman Connor Varley's (Lansdale, Pa.) pass in the slot and wristed a high shot past Frey.
Bailey doubled the Penn State advantage with 13:36 left in the frame. Forward Jacob Friedman's (West Bloomfield, Mich.) shot ricocheted off Richard in front of the cage, but Bailey wristed the loose puck through traffic for his third goal of the season.
Ohio State scored three times, including a pair of power-play markers, in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. While on the power play, Tanner Fritz, who assisted on the Buckeyes' second goal, completed a tic-tac-toe play with Nick Schilkey and Ryan Dzingel 2:07 into the frame to make it a 2-1 game.
Dzingel evened the score just 1:29 later with another power-play goal after his slap shot from the top of the left circle reached the back of the net.
With 1:07 remaining in the stanza, Ohio State skated to its first lead. After Penn State failed to clear its defensive zone, Dzingel passed to Nick Oddo, who located Anthony Greco at the bottom of the right circle for the go-ahead tally.
In the third period, Max McCormick extended the Buckeye lead after his wrist shot from inside the blue line eluded Skoff. Schilkey and Drew Brevig collected assists on the play.
With 1:27 left in the game, Darik Angeli added an empty-net tally to account for the 5-2 final.
Penn State will return to Pegula Ice Arena next weekend when it hosts a two-game series against No. 12/12 Michigan. Opening faceoff in the series opener Friday, Feb. 7 is set at 7 p.m.