UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 18th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions opened the weekend with five-straight goals and closed the weekend with five-straight goals to complete the sweep over Minnesota with a 6-2 victory on Saturday evening in Big Ten Conference action from Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State improves to 16-10-2 on the year and 8-9-1-1 in conference action following the victory while the Gophers fall to 11-14-4 overall and 8-9-3-0 in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions outscored Minnesota 13-4 over the weekend.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Minnesota opened the scoring, but the goal was challenged by Penn State and waved off for too many men on the ice and then just over a minute later junior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) was sprung on a breakaway and finished with a fore-hand-backhand move through the five-hole of Gopher net-minder Mat Robson for the 1-0 lead at 2:10 of the first period.
- Sucese thought he made it 2-0 early, however, Minnesota challenged the play for too many men and the goal was waved off at 5:18 of the first period keeping the score 1-0 in favor of the hosts.
- The Gophers eventually got the equalizer in the first period as Brent Gates Jr. finished off a feed from Rem Pitlick for the 1-1 score at 15:15.
- Minnesota took a brief lead in the second period as Sammy Walker ripped a shot over the blocker of PSU junior goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) for the 2-1 advantage at 11:40, but the Nittany Lions responded with a pair of goals just 70 seconds apart to grab the 3-1 lead.
- Sophomore Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) slammed in a rebound attempt during the power-play with help from junior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) at 12:38 before junior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) also collected a rebound tally off senior Chase Berger's (St. Louis, Mo.) initial bid at 13:48 of the frame.
- Junior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) extended the Nittany Lion lead to a pair of goals using his long reach during the power-play to slip the puck into a yawning net at the near post for the 4-2 margin at 3:55 of the final period.
- Penn State got some more puck luck as senior Alec Marsh (Bridgewater, Pa.) was stoned twice by the pad of Robson at the near post, but a bouncing puck found senior Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) alone in the slot and his one-timer found the back of the net for the 5-2 lead at 7:40 of the third stanza.
- Sucese closed the scoring with his third goal of the weekend as he split a pair of defenders up the middle of the ice receiving a beautiful stretch pass from sophomore Cole Hults (Stoughton, Wis.) and after corralling a bouncing puck he sniped over the glove of Robson for the 6-2 final at 15:14 of the third period.
GOALTENDING
Jones runs his record to 12-7-2 with the victory after stopping 22 shots while Robson falls to 9-10-4 after a 42 save performance.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening Statement
"Actually I thought today was a really good hockey game. I don't like to see all the stoppages but as it turned out that was a huge call by [Director of Operations] Alex Dawes for too many men. It went from being down one to Nate Sucese getting a breakaway a little bit later to up one the other way. So I thought obviously that was a huge play even though so early, it was a big play in the game."
Q: "How do you think you guys handled the momentum changes in this game?"
A: "I mean it's easier to handle them when they seem to be going your way. That was a big one at the start so I thought we did a good job. I think you have to give Minnesota a lot of credit, the way they came out. I thought they played a much better game, a much tighter and more intense game. I mean any time that you are able to come out on top against the Gophers it's a good day."
Q: "Nate [Sucese] had a big weekend, what did you think of his performance?"
A: "I mean you have to give him a lot of credit there. Nate is the type of player, he's a game changer with his speed and his skill. His second [goal] was a beauty. He scores goals that not many people in this league can the way he does it. He's a game changer and it was nice to see him have a great weekend, and the whole line did as well."
Q: "Do you think [Alec] Marsh gets undervalued when it comes to big names on this team?"
A: "The key to that is what you said first, not to the guys. The guys know how important he is by the way he plays. There's certain things that he does, and we haven't mentioned it today but, back checking is another one. The way he does it is infectious. When Marsh is playing great it doesn't only spur him on, it spurs the team on just by the nature of how he does it. He plays in traffic. He's very visible in a lot of the plays he makes. So yeah, when he's playing well it absolutely lifts the team for sure."
Q: "What was the time-lapse on those too many men calls? How does that transpire?"
A: "It's interesting that two big plays like that happened so close together and yet we haven't really seen it all year. So, the rule is that you have to be within five feet [from the bench] now, that's what they made the defending rule. It's really unique that it happened back to back but both were correct so obviously it's a good lesson for both teams and hopefully we won't have to see that again."
NOTES
- Saturday's attendance of 6,229 ties the second largest in Pegula Ice Arena history.
- Penn State is now 10-2-0 on the year when scoring first as well as improving to 13-2-1 when leading after two periods.
- Penn State has now won six-straight against the Gophers on home ice and nine of the last 11 meetings overall dating back to the 2017 Big Ten Tournament semifinals. The six-straight conference victories at home against a single opponent ties a program record. PSU also defeated Michigan State on six consecutive chances at home from January 17, 2015 through November 24, 2017.
- The Nittany Lions held the commanding 48-24 edge in shots on goal including the decisive 40-13 mark over the final two periods while going 2-for-4 on the power-play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill snapping Minnesota's streak of eight-straight contests with a man-advantage tally.
- Penn State is currently outscoring Minnesota 34-15 over the last six games at Pegula Ice Arena.
- With goals in three consecutive games, Limoges tied his career-high goal-streak marking the third time in his career he has potted a goal in three-straight games and the second time this season.
- Limoges, Marsh, Barratt and Folkes are each now riding mini three-game point streaks.
- Penn State had four players register multi-point games led by Sucese with two goals and one assist for three points registering his sixth multi-point effort this season and the 20th of his career. Saturday night also marked his first multi-goal game this season and the eighth of his career.
- With three goals on the weekend, Sucese has moved into a tie with David Goodwin '17 for fourth on the Penn State all-time goals list with 44 for his career. His 92 career points are also fourth all-time.
- With one goal and one assist, Berger notched his sixth multi-point game this season and the 22nd of his career while his linemates Biro and Marsh also notched multi-point efforts. Marsh had a pair of assists for his third such game of the season and eighth of his career while Biro notched one goal and one assist good for his 10th multi-point game this season and the 21st of his career.
- Biro passed Casey Bailey for sixth on the all-time scoring list as he now has 82 career points.
NEXT UP
Penn State travels to East Lansing for a pair of Big Ten Conference games against Michigan State next weekend of Friday and Saturday evening.