Feb. 14, 2016
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
EAST LANSING, Mich. ââ'¬" For the first time since the 2012-13 season, the Penn State men's hockey team (18-8-4, 8-5-1 Big Ten) defeated Michigan State (7-20-3, 3-10-1 Big Ten) in Munn Ice Arena.
Friday night's victory was a consistent barrage on the Spartan net. The Nittany Lions recorded 49 shots, and defeated Michigan State, 6-1.
Freshman defenseman Vince Pedrie kicked off the Nittany Lions' strong road performance with a power play goal halfway through the first period. The Nittany Lions have been working on returning to their early season power play success, and they are currently seventh in the nation with a .246 power play conversion rate.
The six-goal performance was the result of all facets of the Nittany Lions' game said head coach Guy Gadowsky.
"This really was a total team win," said Gadowsky. "There really wasn't one area that really out shown another, and there really wasn't another area that needed work."
Senior goaltender Matt Skoff tallied his first win in Munn Ice Arena since a 31 save performance on January 26, 2013, improving his overall season record to 8-4-3.
"We had to kill three power plays in the second and [Skoff] was really big on the power play for us, and made some big stops," said Gadowsky.
Six different Nittany Lions beat Michigan State goaltender Jake Hildebrand Friday night, including Andrew Sturtz who leads the team with 14 goals so far this season.
On Saturday night the Nittany Lions returned to the ice looking to take home another win.
The game that ensued was much closer than Friday night's. Senior forward Eric Scheid netted his second goal of the weekend to kick-start Saturday's contest.
With less than six minutes left in the third period, senior defenseman Luke Juha found the back of the net to force the game into overtime.
With the weekend sweep on the line, the Nittany Lions faced their fourth conference overtime of the season. With both teams playing tremendous defense, the Nittany Lions were unable to end the game in overtime, and instead found themselves in a shootout.
A raucous busload of Roar Zone faithful who made the trip to Munn on Saturday cheered on the team as they prepared for the shootout.
After exchanging missed shots in the first round, Michigan State missed in the top half of the second. Junior forward Ricky DeRosa followed with a successful shootout attempt.
The Roar Zone held its collective breath as Michigan State prepared for its third shot of the shootout. Cheers erupted as junior goaltender Eamon McAdam saved the shot, and the Nittany Lions took home five points from the weekend.
"Well hopefully it speaks to you maybe we're getting a little more mentally tough, more seasoned," said Gadowsky. "I really thought today was a great win because they came out really hard but I thought Michigan State played extremely hard, extremely well, and we really had to fight back hard, a big goal with five-something to go and a great kill and a shootout victory it was a heck of a win."