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| Yost Ice Arena | Ann Arbor, Mich. | |
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Nov. 21, 2014
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The Nittany Lion men's hockey team used a three-goal spurt in the first period en route to a 3-2 win over Michigan at Yost Ice Arena on Friday night in front of 5,415 fans. Goaltender Eamon McAdam (Perkasie, Pa.) saved 38 shots for his second victory.
Penn State (7-2-2, 1-0-0-0 Big Ten) beat Michigan (4-6-0, 0-1-0-0 Big Ten) for the fourth time in the teams' last five meetings, improving to 4-2-0 against the Wolverines.
"The result is really all we're happy with right now," said head coach Guy Gadowsky. "We didn't play well. Luckily we had a tremendous goaltending performance, but I don't think anybody is happy in that locker room right now. Regardless of who we were playing, we didn't play well and we were lucky to win. There are three positives: we played with a lot better habits in the defensive zone, Eamon McAdam was fantastic and the result."
Michigan came out firing from the opening puck drop, nearly scoring 14 seconds into the game as David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) kicked a puck off the line, before cashing in 32 seconds later to grab a 1-0 lead. Max Shuart put home a Kevin Lohan effort that rebounded off McAdam.
The Wolverines maintained their pressure and opened an 11-5 edge in shots, in large part to two power-place chances, before U-M's Brennan Serville took a holding penalty with 6:16 left in the frame.
Just 22 seconds into the power play chance, Bailey ripped a one-timer through traffic that went off Max Gardiner's (Deephaven, Minn.) skate and into the net. After a review, the goal stood and Gardiner earned his second tally of the season with 5:54 remaining.
Only 22 seconds after that, Eric Scheid (Blaine, Minn.) stripped a Michigan defenseman at the blue line, made a sweet move past another Wolverine and went five-hole past Zach Nagelvoort for a 2-1 lead.
The Penn State momentum would continue with 2:52 left in the period as Bailey took a Michigan turnover from his own blue line in on a two-on-one break, dragging past a diving Wolverine to the slot and put one past Navelvoort on his gloveside for a 3-1 lead.
The second period was a scoreless 20 minutes, but not without its moments of action. With 9:11 left it looked like Michigan had cut the lead in half, but a goal by Tony Calderone during a delayed penalty was wiped out when it was ruled that he deflected the shot in with a high stick.
PSU would kill off the ensuing penalty. The Wolverines held a 18-7 advantage in shots, with McAdam upping his save total to 31 during the opening 40 minutes.
Michigan finally cut the lead in half when Michael Downing scored his second of the year from the slot just three minutes into the third period. That set up a chaotic final 17 minutes of the game, that saw Michigan out-shoot Penn State, 8-6, and had a two-minute power play in game's final minutes.
"One area where the guys do deserve credit is late in the game," Gadowsky said. "Their habits in the defensive zone were excellent, but they have to be because we were playing there all the time. And to kill a penalty late I think showed a lot of their grit, but we can't put ourselves in that position."
McAdam, who was named the game's third star, saved 38 of 40 Wolverine attempts, continuing his solid play since debuting last week at UMass Lowell. McAdam, who has been in net for the past two Penn State victories, has saved 95.2 percent of the shots he's seen (79 saves, four goals allowed).
Penn State was out-shot for the first time this season as U-M held a 40-28 advantage. The Nittany Lions held the Wolverines scoreless on the power play (0-for-4), while PSU went 1-for-2. Penn State had 23 blocks with David Thompson (Glen Mills, Pa.) stopping five. Gardiner had four and Patrick Koudys (Smithville, Ontario) had three.
Taylor Holstrom (Yorba Linda, Calif.) saw his nine-game point streak come to an end, but he was effective nonetheless at the faceoff dot, leading the Nittany Lions with 11 faceoff wins.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State and Michigan return to Yost Ice Arena to close out their Big Ten opening series on Saturday night at 7:35 p.m. The game is set to be televised in Michigan by Comcast Network 900 with a simulcast on BTN2Go for Big Ten Network television subscribers on their mobile devices and computers.