| 1 | 4 |
| CONSOL Energy Center | Pittsburgh, Pa. | |
| STATISTICS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dec. 30, 2014
PITTSBURGH --
The Penn State men's hockey team was unable to overcome a sluggish opening two periods in a 4-1 loss to Western Michigan Tuesday night at CONSOL Energy Center in the Three Rivers Classic. Curtis Loik (North Vancouver, British Columbia) scored his fourth of the year in the loss.
In the teams' first meeting on the ice, the Western Michigan (7-9-2, 2-6-2-2 NCHC) went ahead 1-0 after only 7:22 on a Sheldon Dries tally. Nolan LaPorte went behind his back to feed Dries in the slot as he wristed home his ninth of the year. Western Michigan out-shot Penn State (9-6-2, 3-1-0-0 Big Ten) 10-9 in the frame.
The second period didn't fare better as Tommy Olczyk (Long Grove, Ill.) took a two-minute hooking penalty less than a minute into action. Olczyk was also assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty as Aidan Muir took a Taylor Fleming offering from the left dot and scored his third of the season after just 24 seconds on the man advantage.
WMU's Justin Kovacs nearly made it 3-0 only 90 seconds later as he was left all alone in the slot, but his dekes didn't fool Matthew Skoff (McKees Rocks, Pa.), who made a sprawling left pad save.
Despite the Nittany Lions out-shooting Western Michigan 16-12 in the period, the Broncos would out-score PSU, 2-0, in the frame. Colton Hargrove took a failed Penn State clearance into the slot, spun around and fired a wrister that snuck by Skoff for a 3-0 lead with 5:02 left in the period.
With 4:34 remaining in the period, Skoff kept the Lions in it with a diving save across the crease to rob WMU senior captain Will Kessell of his fourth goal of the season.
Penn State came to life when the defensive pairing of Luke Juha (Mississauga, Ontario) and Erik Autio (Espoo, Finland) combined to set up PSU's goal less than four minutes into the third period. Juha sent a diagonal pass to Autio who had his shot stopped by WMU's Lukas Hafner, but Loik cleaned up the rebound to cut the Bronco lead to two goals.
The Nittany Lions continued their momentum, registering eight of the first 13 shots of the period. Nevertheless, a give-and-go between Muir and Kovacs allowed Muir to tally his second of the game, third of the tournament and fourth of the year with 8:38 remaining. Skoff (24 saves) gave way to PJ Musico (Orange, Calif.), who made his season debut and had four stops.
Penn State out-shot Western Michigan 33-32 for the game, while going 0-for-4 on the power play. WMU was 1-for-2 with the man advantage. PSU won the faceoff battle, 36-28, as Taylor Holstrom (Yorba Linda, Calif.) was a team-best 14-7. PSU had 21 blocks on the day and the Broncos stopped 15 from reaching frame.
GAME NOTES
• The Nittany Lions fell to 2-4-0 all-time at the Three Rivers Classic and 0-3-1 in neutral site contests.
• Curtis Loik was named the game's third star.
• Connor Varley (Lansdale, Pa.) returned to action for the first time since Oct. 31 vs. Bentley
• Every Nittany Lion that traveled to Pittsburgh played this week.
• Penn State wrapped up a two-month stay on the road with a 4-5-0 record.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State returns to action Jan. 9-10 to host Big Ten rival Ohio State at Pegula Ice Arena.