Feb. 20, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The No. 15 Penn State men's hockey team traded runs with Ohio State on Saturday, with the Buckeyes prevailing 7-4 at Pegula Ice Arena on Senior Day in front of 6,114. David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) had his second straight multi-point outing and Kevin Kerr (Bensalem, Pa.) had a terrific all-around game for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State (19-9-4, 9-6-1-1 Big Ten) celebrated the careers of eight seniors in pre-game: Connor Varley (Lansdale, Pa.), Luke Juha (Mississauga, Ontario), David Glen (Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta), Tommy Olczyk (Long Grove, Ill.), Curtis Loik (North Vancouver, British Columbia), Eric Scheid (Blaine, Minn.) and Matthew Skoff (McKees Rocks, Pa.).
The joy of Senior Day turned 180 degrees as Ohio State (9-13-2, 4-8-2-1 Big Ten) scored three goals in the first 8:47. David Gust connected on the power play after 91 seconds before Tommy Parran and Freddy Gerard tallied goals two minutes apart.
The Nittany Lions fought back late in the first as Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) tapped home a Scheid offering from the left wing as the teams skated into the break with OSU leading 3-1. The Buckeyes led a 9-8 edge in shots.
In the second, Penn State fought back to even the score with goals from Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Goodwin. Sturtz scored on a coast-to-coast play, taking a save by Skoff and beating the entire Ohio State lineup with 9:17 remaining. Goodwin scored on a 4-on-3 power play with 4:51 left from Glen and Juha.
Penn State scored its fourth straight goal as Kerr, arguably the best player on the ice during the game, took a Goodwin feed down the slot and scored top shelf for a 4-3 lead less than three minutes into the period. The goal was Kerr's second of the year and it came from a pair of patient plays, the first by Goodwin driving down the right wing and then Kerr, who walked down the slot for the go-ahead goal.
Penn State's lead was short-lived, however, as Matthew Weis scored the first of his two third-period goals with 15 minutes remaining to tie the score. Only 42 seconds later, John Wiitala poked home a Craig Dalrymple shot that made it through Skoff (35 saves) to restore Ohio State's lead.
The Buckeyes doubled their advantage as Weis scored on a 2-on-1 break from Gerard with 5:05. Anthony Greco added an empty-netter with 26 seconds to go for the final score line. Weis finished with three points (2g, 1a) Nick Schilkey had four assists and Josh Healey added three helpers for the Buckeyes.
NITTANY NOTES
- Penn State played in front of its 51st sellout in 54 regular-season games at Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions have played in front of 31 straight home sellouts including all 18 games this season.
- Penn State scored at least four goals in a game for the 20th time this season (16-4-0).
- Ohio State and Penn State split the season series 2-2-0. OSU leads the overall series 9-5-0.
- David Goodwin is on a six-game point streak dating back to Feb. 5 at Minnesota. He has three goals and seven assists for 10 points during that span. He notched his seventh multi-point game of the season and 17th of his career.
- Goodwin upped his team-leading point total vs. Ohio State to 14 (5g, 9a).
- Kerr finished with a plus-3 rating on the night.
- Penn State's PPG goal in the third was the first conceded by OSU in 21 kills and in 7+ games.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State has its bye week forthcoming followed by road trips to Wisconsin (March 4-5) and Michigan (March 11-12).