UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sophomore Sam Sternschein (Syosset, N.Y.) scored the game-winning goal just six seconds into overtime as No. 5 Penn State defeated No. 16 Michigan, 7-6, in Big Ten Conference action this evening at Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions improve to 9-2-0 on the year and 1-1-0-0 in Big Ten play while the Wolverines fall to 6-5-0 overall and 2-2-0-0 in conference action.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State wasted little time taking advantage of an early power-play as sophomore Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) ripped home a shot from below the right dot off a feed from junior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) for the 1-0 lead just 80 seconds into the contest.
- The Nittany Lions extended that lead just two minutes later as freshman Aarne Talvitie (Espoo, Finland) laced a wrister over the glove of Wolverine freshman net-minder Strauss Mann for the 2-0 advantage at 3:20 of the opening frame.
- Michigan cut the deficit in half as after Jack Becker's initial shot was blocked, Nick Pastujov took advantage of the loose puck to the left of the crease and ripped it past Nittany Lion junior goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) for the 2-1 score at 10:03 of the period.
- Will Lockwood evened the game for the Wolverines as his cross-ice pass was redirected off the stick of a Nittany Lion defenseman and hopped up over the right shoulder of Jones for the 2-2 score at 15:53 of the first period.
- Penn State regained the lead during a stretch of 4-on-4 play as Barratt finished off a feed from junior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) for the 3-2 edge at 10:34 of the middle frame before the sophomore tipped the hat with a fancy five-hole goal off a feed from classmate Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) for the 4-2 margin at 14:33.
- Dakota Raabe cut the deficit in half early in the third period off some crisp passing from Quinn Hughes and Joe Cecconi for the 4-3 score at 3:05.
- The Nittany Lions once again extended the lead to a pair of goals as junior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) used a nifty toe-drag through a defenseman and finished with a nice backhand shot for the 5-3 score at 5:55 of the final frame.
- The Wolverines cut back into that lead as Nick Pastujov redirected a shot from Becker past Jones again for the 5-4 deficit at 8:53 of the period.
- The teams continued to trade goals as junior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) ripped home a rebound from the slot off Sucese's initial bid for the 6-4 advantage at 12:06.
- Garrett Van Wyhe again cut the deficit in half for the visitors as he finished off a feed from Dakota Raabe for the 6-5 deficit at 16:33 of the third period.
- Josh Norris then tied the game with just 1:10 remaining in the third period with an extra attacker goal that went off the skate of a Penn State defenseman for the 6-6 score.
- Junior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) won the opening draw of overtime forward and ripped a shot and followed it up slipping the puck to Sternschein for the golden goal just six seconds into the extra frame for the 7-6 victory.
GOALTENDING
Jones improves to 5-1-0 on the year after stopping 28 shots while Mann drops to 4-2-0 overall after a 33 save performance.
NOTES
- Penn State held the 40-34 advantage in shots while going 1-for-2 with the man-advantage and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.
- Penn State improves to 9-1-0 on the year when leading or tied heading into the final frame.
- The 13 combined goals are the most in a single-game in the all-time series and after the weekend Michigan holds the 14-11-0 record as the teams have now met 25 times.
- Barratt extended his career-long point streak to 10 games tying the Penn State program record held by Smirnov and David Goodwin '17. The sophomore also extends his own program-record goal streak to six games.
- With nine career power-play tallies, Barratt has now moved into a tie for fifth all-time in program history. Barratt's hat-trick is also the seventh in program history and the fourth in the last 24 months. All seven have come on home ice with the last six coming at Pegula Ice Arena.
- Barratt now has six multi-point efforts this season, five-straight, and ten for his career.
- Limoges extended his career-long point-streak to 10 games with the primary assist on Barratt's third goal as both line mates have now tied the program record for longest point streak. Limoges also extends his career-best assist streak to five games.
- With a three-point night, Barratt joins Limoges for the NCAA lead with 19 points so far this season.
- With his third period goal, Sucese moves past Smirnov for sixth on the all-time Penn State goals list with 37 for his career. Sucese added a later assist for his fourth multi-point effort this season and the 18th of his career. Sucese is now sixth on the all-time points list at Penn State with 80 for his career.
- Senior Kevin Kerr (Bensalem, Pa.) registered a career-high three assists marking his second multi-point effort this season and the 11th of his career while junior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) picked up a pair of assists for his fourth multi-point game this season and the 10th of his career.
- Junior Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) saw his six-game point streak come to an end on Saturday evening as he was held off the scoresheet.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Q: "What did you think of Evan Barratt's performance tonight?"
A: "Awesome. He is just a hockey player. It is really hard to describe because he is just a hockey player. His mind is absolutely elite and so is his compete level. He is just a hockey player and he is fun to watch."
Q: "There seemed to be a point where the game could have gotten away from you before Evan Barratt did what he does. How did you get out of it and what does that do for you?"
A: "His performance was not only impressive but very timely. He is a competitor and those were very timely goals for us to stay in. I thought we obviously started really strong and they made it on breaks so you have to give Michigan credit. A bad break there on an off the stick goal and they sort of started to come back and then Barratt got us going. It was timely as well as impressive."
Q: "What is the value of having a player like Aarne Talvitie on the ice? How important is he?"
A: "He is a great player and that was a big-time goal. Similar to Nikita Pavlychev, he is obviously extremely talented but I think his greatest strength is you just do not want to play against him. He is fast but yet he is powerful. He is tough to play against and he is getting more and more comfortable. I love how he is playing right now. That was a big-time goal but he is playing great. He is playing great defensively and he is tough to play against. I love having him on the team.
NEXT UP
Penn State enters its first true road weekend as the Nittany Lions travel to Columbus to battle No. 6 Ohio State next Friday and Saturday with puck drop slated for 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively.