March 24, 2018
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Sophomore Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ont.) scored the lone goal for Penn State as the Nittany Lions dropped a, 5-1, decision to reigning National Champion Denver in NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal action this evening from the PPL Center.
Penn State sees its season come to a close at 18-15-5 while Denver improves to 23-9-8 and will move on to face the top seed in the region Ohio State tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Midwest Regional Final.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Denver opened the scoring as Liam Finlay collected the puck off the end boards and sent a pass to Kohen Olischefski on the right corner of the crease and he finished it off for the 1-0 lead at the 12:19 mark of the first period.
- The Pioneers added a goal just over four minutes later during a delayed penalty call as Troy Terry fired a one-timer past the right pad of Nittany Lion sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) for the 2-0 lead at 16:40 of the opening frame.
- Henrik Borgstrom made the score 3-0 in favor of Denver as he received a great feed from Terry while crossing the blue-line and his shot was challenged by a Nittany Lion defender and fluttered past the glove of Jones at 4:51 of the second period.
- The Pioneers extended their lead late in the second period as Jarid Lukosevicius redirected a blast from Ian Mitchell with the man-advantage for the 4-0 lead with just 2.2 seconds remaining in the middle stanza.
- Sophomore Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ont.) finally got Penn State on the board as he stole the puck from Terry in the offensive zone and fired from below the right dot beating Denver net-minder Tanner Jaillet five-hole for the 4-1 score at 7:39 of the third period.
- Lukosevicius then registered his second of the game as he beat Jones on the blocker side from below the left dot for the 5-1 score at 12:22 of the third period.
GOALTENDING
Jones concludes his sophomore campaign with a 17-13-4 record after making 37 saves while Jaillet improves to 22-8-7 on the year after stopping 26 shots on the evening.
NOTES
- Penn State was outshot for the fourth straight game and the 11th time all season, 42-27, with the 15 shot discrepancy being the largest all season. The Nittany Lions are just 4-6-1 in games when they are outshot.
- PSU went 0-for-3 with the man-advantage while Denver went 1-for-2 on the power-play.
- Penn State is now 0-2 all-time against Denver as the Pioneers have ended the Nittany Lion season in back-to-back years. PSU is now 1-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament games.
- Folkes now has one career goal and one career assist in three career NCAA Tournament games.
- Jones' 983 saves this season is a new Penn State single-season record and he is now just 248 saves shy of setting the Penn State all-time career saves mark. He also tied his career-high for starts-in-a-row with his 21st consecutive start tonight.
- With five blocked shots in the game senior Trevor Hamilton (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) set a new career-high and Penn State single-season record of 109 passing the 107 he registered last season.
- Sophomores Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alb.) and Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) each see their four-game point streaks snapped.
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| Final | ||||
| #12 Penn State | 9 | 8 | 10 | 27 | |
| #3 Denver | 17 | 14 | 11 | 42 |
| Final | ||||
| #12 Penn State | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-3 | |
| #3 Denver | 0-1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-2 |
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