Jan. 21, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 11 Ohio State scored three times in the third period to defeat No. 1 Penn State, 6-3, this evening in Big Ten Conference men's ice hockey action from Pegula Ice Arena.
The victory moves the Buckeyes to 12-4-6 overall and 3-2-1-1 as they take five out of a possible six points this weekend and eight of 12 points in the season series. The Nittany Lions drop to 16-3-2 on the year and 5-2-1-0 in the Big Ten Conference.
COACHES COMMENTS
"First of all, it was too bad that we wasted such a good crowd. It was a heck of an atmosphere all weekend, which was awesome to play in. We obviously didn't have our best stuff at the start. I think we were looking for big plays early instead of doing what we do; I thought that the effort was there but not the attention of playing together."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring early as they registered the first goal of the game on just their third shot of the evening. Senior David Thompson (Glen Mills, Pa.) lit the lamp just 2:38 into the contest as classmate David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) and sophomore Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) showed great hustle to record the two assists on the play for the 1-0 lead.
- Ohio State answered taking advantage of a neutral ice turnover by the Nittany Lions as John Wiitala skated in uncontested for the breakaway goal at 11:50 of the opening period for the 1-1 tie.
- The Buckeyes then tilted the score in their favor as Mason Jobst scored his third goal of the weekend with the man-advantage at 18:20 for the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
- OSU added to their lead in the second period taking advantage of a Penn State shot that went wide and hard all the way around the boards and into the neutral zone springing Dakota Joshua on a breakaway for the 3-1 lead just 18 seconds into the frame.
- Freshman Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario) then came right off the bench and went bar down past Buckeye goaltender Christian Frey with a wrister from the left slot at 7:17 cutting the deficit to 3-2.
- Sophomore Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) registered the equalizer as he snuck his team leading 15th goal of the season over the left shoulder of Frey from near the goal line with just 24.3 seconds remaining in the middle frame for the 3-3 score.
- Ohio State came out of the second intermission poised and scored twice in just 1:41 to gain the 5-3 advantage as Matthew Weis beat PSU freshman Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) just 38 seconds in before Luke Stork sent a wrister high glove that found the back of the net just 63 seconds later.
- Christian Lampasso added a late tally at 17:10 of the third period to account for the final score.
GOALTENDING
Frey impressed again stopping 41 pucks to improve his season record to 6-2-3 while Jones collected 22 saves and falls to 14-2-2 on the year.
NOTES
- Berger extends his point streak to five game (4G, 4A), which is a new career-high. He has multiple points in three of his last five games.
- Penn State has only trailed after the first period four times all season with two of those games coming against the Buckeyes. They are now 1-3-0 when behind after 20 minutes of play.
- Penn State could not take advantage of a 5-minute major for interference midway through the second period as Frey stopped six shots during the extended power-play. Penn State is 0-for-2 on five-minute majors against the Buckeyes this season.
- This was just the second game all season Penn State has failed to score a third period goal and it was the fifth time they allowed the opposition to score at least two third period goals, the Buckeyes have accounted for three of those games.
- The Nittany Lions entered the game outscoring opponents 33-17 in the final frame all year, but were outscored 3-0 this evening.
NEXT UP
Penn State will travel to the Wells Fargo Center and battle Princeton as part of the fifth annual Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff at 7 p.m. next Saturday.