MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Junior goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) made 30 saves as No. 9 Penn State opened the second semester of play with a 4-2 victory over Minnesota in Big Ten Conference action this evening from 3M Arena at Mariucci.
With the win the Nittany Lions improve to 12-5-2 on the year and 4-4-1-1 in conference play while the Gophers fall to 6-8-4 overall and 3-3-3-0 in Big Ten play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Minnesota opened the scoring taking advantage of a Penn State penalty as Brent Gates Jr. finished off a feed from behind the net by Tyler Sheehy for the 1-0 lead at 17:16 of the first period.
- Penn State knotted the score early in the middle frame as junior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) ripped a shot over the glove over Gopher goaltender Matt Robson as he was falling down in the right slot for the 1-1 tie at 3:29 of the period.
- The Nittany Lions then grabbed the lead as senior Kevin Kerr (Bensalem, Pa.) ripped a shot from the left slot off a beautiful cross-ice feed from classmate Ludvig Larsson (Malmo, Sweden) for the 2-1 advantage at 8:09 of the second stanza.
- PSU extended the lead early in the third period as junior Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) finished off a feed from behind the net by Larsson for the 3-1 margin at 1:23 of the frame.
- Jack Ramsey cut the deficit in half for the hosts, shortly after a power-play ended, as he ripped a snapshot over the glove of Jones for the 3-2 score at 7:17 of the final period.
- Sophomore Alex Limoges (Winchester, Pa.) then hit the empty net with just 18 seconds remaining to seal the 4-2 victory.
GOALTENDING
Jones improves to 8-3-2 on the year with the victory while Robson falls to 4-4-4 in the defeat after making 27 saves.
NOTES
- Penn State has now given up the first goal of the game in seven of its nine conference games so far this season and 12 times overall this season in 19 games.
- Minnesota held the slim 32-31 edge edge in shots while going 0-for-3 with the man-advantage, Minnesota went 1-for-5 on the power-play.
- The Nittany Lions have now won five-straight against Minnesota and seven of the last eight dating back to the 2016-17 postseason as they pick up just their third win at Mariucci improving to 3-8-0 on the big sheet in Minnesota.
- Penn State improves to 3-4-0 in the history of the program in the first game of the second semester having won two-straight.
- Biro extends his point-streak to five games (2-5-7) after his second period tally and the junior has now registered at least one point in nine of his last 10 games with three goals and nine assists for 12 points over that span.
- Sophomore Evan Bell (Livonia, Mich.) collected his first point as a Nittany Lion with a secondary assist on Kerr's second period goal.
- With a second period assist on Biro's goal, senior Alec Marsh (Bridgewater, N.J.) extends his point-streak to three games.
- Larsson collected his fourth multi-point effort this season and the 14th of his career as he tied his career-high with a pair of assists.
NEXT UP
- Both teams return to action tomorrow evening to close out the series with an 8 p.m. ET puck drop.
- The game will air locally on Fox Sports North and will be available for streaming on BTN2Go.