| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| PSU |
Matthew Skoff (W, 3-1-3) | 60:00 | 2 | 31 | ||||||
Dec. 4, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The No. 19 Nittany Lion men's hockey team erupted for four goals in the second period in a 4-2 win over Michigan State in the teams' Big Ten opener on Friday night at a rocking Pegula Ice Arena in front of 6,161 fans. Freshman Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) dazzled with two goals and an assist during PSU's four-goal onslaught and Matthew Skoff (McKees Rocks, Pa.) made 31 saves.
Penn State (9-2-3, 1-0-0-0 Big Ten) opened its conference season with a win for the second straight year with an offensive display that overcame a staunch Michigan State (4-8-2, 0-1-0-0 Big Ten) defense. Adding goals to the cause were David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) and Vince Pedrie (Rochester, Minn.).
"I thought that the Roar Zone was just tremendous right from the start," head coach Guy Gadowsky said of Penn State's student section. "Right from the drop of the puck, they were awesome and certainly helpful in getting us going. And after hearing the score, you get inspired by what (Penn State women's soccer) coach (Erica) Walsh and her women's soccer team did, that got us going, too."
And Matthew Skoff with a huge save in the second period. It's too bad, with a save like that I think he deserved better in the outcome. I feel bad that we couldn't have played better for him in the third. Finally, I just love watching Andrew Sturtz's heart, just watching that kid's heart is awesome."
The Nittany Lions built momentum toward the end of a tight first period by firing the final five shots of the period in the last 90 seconds and that carried over to the second frame. Sturtz wasted little time in giving the Nittany Lions the lead after just 10 seconds of action.
Reigning Big Ten Player and Goaltender of the Year Jake Hildebrand (30 saves, 40 minutes) misplayed a puck behind his own net as Sturtz swooped in on the steal, wrapped around the right side of the net and deposited the puck for his seventh goal of the year. His tally was the fastest to start a period by a Penn State player, eclipsing Casey Bailey's 13-second strike to start the game at UConn on Jan. 5, 2013.
Penn State continued to amplify the pressure, peppering Hildebrand's net from all angles and eventually sparking a three-goal flurry in just over four minutes.
It would take a power play opportunity at the 12-minute mark for the Lions to double the lead as Goodwin poked home a spinning puck that caromed off Kenny Brooks (Las Vegas, Nev.) in front of the cage. The play was set up by Zach Saar (Richland, Mich.) on the left wing and a Luke Juha (Mississauga, Ontario) blast from the point.
Sturtz tallied his second goal of the game on a beautiful backhand-forehand play on the right post for a 3-0 lead with 4:52 remaining in the period. Alec Marsh (Bridgewater, N.J.) cleared the puck out of the neutral zone in the air as Sturtz and David Glen (Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta) fought off two MSU defensemen as Sturtz broke free for the tally, his eighth of the year.
Sturtz was again the catalyst for another PSU goal as he took a Connor Varley (Lansdale, Pa.) feed up the right halfboards and shot one off the right pad of Hildebrand. In the ensuing scramble, Pedrie skated in and beat the All-American on his left side for his second goal of the year.
In the third period, the Spartans out-played the Nittany Lions and ended Skoff's bid for this third collegiate shutout with 6:09 remaining on a Thomas Ebbing goal. A turnover in the defensive zone set up the play for Ebbing's third of the season. MSU would add another through Ryan Keller with 17 seconds left in the game.
The Nittany Lions held edges in shots (42-33), power play (1-5 to 0-1) and faceoff wins (43-32).
GAME NOTES
Penn State is one game shy of matching its program-best eight-game unbeaten streak from last season ago (6-0-2, Jan. 10-Feb. 7, 2015. The Nittany Lions are 5-0-2 during their current seven-game unbeaten run.
Penn State broke its program-record shutout streak of 151:13 during the first period. The streak ended at 175:54.
The Nittany Lions scored four goals in a period for the first time all season, while Michigan State conceded four goals for just the second time this season (Nov. 13, 2015 at Boston College, 6-4).
Penn State improved to 2-3-1 all-time against Michigan State at Pegula Ice Arena. Penn State is 3-6-2 all-time against the Spartans.
Andrew Sturtz recorded his fourth multi-point game of the season and his third two-goal game of the year. Sturtz has two multi-goal games in the last four games.
Sturtz along with line mates David Glen and Alec Marsh recorded a combined plus-9 on the night.
Matthew Skoff is 3-0-3 in his last five starts after dropping his opening game of the season. Skoff has a .936 save percentage and a 1.76 GAA in those six games.
Penn State notched its second straight victory while ranked after going 0-4-0 last year. PSU played its first game at home as a ranked team.
The Nittany Lions are 6-0-1 when scoring first this season, 9-0-0 when leading after two periods and 6-2-2 when tallying a power-play goal.
PSU held Michigan State scoreless on the power play, upping the Nittany Lions streak to 16 straight successful penalty kills.
Penn State played in front of its 42nd sellout in 45 regular-season games at Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions have played in front of 22 straight home sellouts over the past two seasons. Penn State is 19-4-4 at Pegula Ice Arena the past two seasons.
The Nittany Lions will go for their third home sweep of the year. Penn State had four home sweeps all of last season.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State and Michigan rematch on Saturday afternoon inside Pegula Ice Arena. Opening faceoff is set for 3 p.m. with tickets available through Ticketmaster+. The game will be streamed through BTN Plus ($) with free streaming audio on GoPSUnow and on the radio on 103.1 FM.
Saturday will be Penn State's third annual Teddy Bear Toss with all bears being donated to THON families. Fans are encouraged to bring new or gently used bears for the second-intermission toss. All students who swipe in will be worth $1 each in donations by The Pointe to THON.