UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 4 Ohio State used three unanswered goals to defeat No. 13 Penn State in Big Ten Conference action this evening from Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions fall to 13-8-2 on the year and 5-7-1-1 in conference action after suffering a setback in back-to-back games for only the second time this season. The Buckeyes improve to 14-5-4 overall and 7-3-3-2 in Big Ten play following the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Ohio State opened the scoring using the power-play to its advantage as Gustaf Westlund snuck one shortside on Penn State junior net-minder Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) from the slot for the 1-0 lead at 7:14 of the first period.
- The Nittany Lions answered with a man-advantage goal of their own as senior Ludvig Larsson (Malmo, Sweden) redirected a blast from the point from sophomore Cole Hults (Stoughton, Wis.) that beat OSU net-minder Sean Romeo under the glove for the 1-1 score at 18:54 of the opening frame.
- The visitors regained the one-goal edge as they used a 5-on-3 power-play to their advantage with Tanner Laczynski ripped a one-timer past Jones from the right slot for the 2-1 score at 3:10 of the second period.
- The Buckeyes extended the lead to a pair as Westlund picked up his second of the game off a nice feed from behind the net by Mason Jobst for the 3-1 margin at 9:52 of the middle frame.
- Ronnie Hein then finished off a feed from Laczynski at 18:02 of the third period to account for the final score.
GOALTENDING
Jones made 29 saves on the night and falls to 9-6-2 with the setback while Romeo improves to 6-4-2 on the year after stopping 24-of-25 shots.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening Statement
"They're [Ohio State] an excellent team. I think that we are too, but only one of the teams showed that tonight. They were really good, and we couldn't match them. That's it."
Q: Even leading back to last weekend, simple passes and easier passes have not gone tape to tape. Turnovers and mistakes don't seem to be characteristics of this team of what we've come to see. Why do you think that's an issue?
A: "The fact is that with the turnovers you are correct. I don't know what to attribute whether it's bad passing or bad decisions. Either way the result has been way too many turnovers and because of it we were playing in our end and not theirs. You can see that by our shot total is as low as we've had and the sole reason is we were playing in their zone and not ours."
Q: Do you think that they gave you a hard time in the neutral zone tonight? It seemed like you were having trouble controlling the puck.
A: "Yeah, they're really good in the neutral zone, but I think that some of that was self-inflicted. Whether it was passing or decisions, the majority of them were self-inflicted. They're good in a lot of ways and that is one. Their top four in the nation for a reason and that's not one of their weaknesses."
NOTES
- Ohio State held the 33-25 edge in shots while going 2-for-6 with the man-advantage including a 5-on-3 power-play score while Penn State went just 1-for-6 with the extra skater. The 5-on-3 goal is the first allowed by the Nittany Lions in over a year when Hugo Reinhardt of AIC scored with the two-man advantage on October 19, 2017.
- Penn State was held to a single goal for just the second time all season and the second in the last four games. The Nittany Lions are now 0-4-1 on the year when scoring three goals or less.
- The 25 shots on goal tie a season-low for Penn State (at Wisconsin – 12/1/18).
- Penn State held the 36-25 advantage on the draw with Larsson going 13-for-21 to lead all players.
- Penn State falls to 5-18-2 all-time against top-5 opponents and 1-10-1 in such games at Pegula Ice Arena.
NEXT UP
- Both teams return tomorrow afternoon to wrap up the season series from Pegula Ice Arena with a 3 p.m. puck drop.
- The game was originally scheduled for 7 p.m., but has been moved up due to the winter storm set to impact most of the Centre County region on Saturday afternoon.