ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The 15th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions dropped their eighth-straight contest inside Yost Ice Arena on Thursday evening as the Michigan Wolverines earned the 5-1 victory in Big Ten Conference action.
Penn State falls to 13-10-2 on the year and 5-9-1-1 in conference play while the Wolverines improve to 9-9-6 overall and 5-5-4-2 in Big Ten action with the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Michigan opened the scoring as Dakota Raabe got behind the defense going in all alone slipping the puck through the five-hole of Penn State freshman net-minder Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) for the 1-0 advantage at 3:10 of the second period.
- The Wolverines extended the lead taking advantage of a power-play as Jake Slaker was left all alone near the far post and he ripped home a cross-ice feed for the 2-0 edge at 13:21 and just 14 seconds later Nicholas Boka ripped in a rebound after Autio stuffed Nick Blankenburg on a breakaway for the 3-0 margin.
- The hosts kept the pressure on as after a mad scramble in front of the net Will Lockwood was able to bang home a rebound for the 4-0 lead at 14:13 of the middle frame.
- Senior Ludvig Larsson (Malmo, Sweden) finally got the visitors on the board as he flicked the puck on net from behind the goal line and it trickled through for the 4-1 score at 11:07 of the third period.
- Michigan then sealed the victory as Garrett Van Wyhe blocked a shot and sent the puck the length of the ice for a shorthanded, empty-net goal at 15:26 of the third period.
GOALTENDING
In his first career start, Autio made 31 saves and falls to 0-2-0 on the year while Michigan goaltender Hayden Lavigne improves to 5-4-3 after stopping 37 shots.
NOTES
- The Nittany Lions held the slim 38-36 edge in shots on goal while Michigan went 1-for-3 with the man-advantage and Penn State was 0-for-4 on the power-play.
- Larsson has now scored a goal in three consecutive games for the first time in his career and the three-game point-streak ties his career-high.
- Michigan scored three consecutive goals in just 52 seconds during the second period to really put the game out of reach.
- Larsson's goal snapped a streak of 255:58 consecutive minutes without scoring an even-strength goal at Yost Ice Arena as they fall to 2-9-0 all-time in the building including eight-straight defeats dating back to November of 2014. Michigan is outscoring Penn State 40-8 over the last eight games at Yost Ice Arena.
- Senior Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) moved past Ricky DeRosa '17 for second on the Penn State all-time games played list with 140 as he hasn't missed a single game in his four years as a Nittany Lion. Berger is now just seven games shy of David Goodwin's program record of 147 games played.
NEXT UP
- Both teams travel to New York City to conclude the season series against the Wolverines at Madison Square Garden as part of B1G Super Saturday with a 7 p.m. puck drop.