UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Wisconsin's Sean Dhooghe tipped the hat-trick late in the third period to spoil Penn State's comeback bid as the Badgers secured the 4-3 victory on Friday evening in game one of a best-of-three Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal series from Pegula Ice Arena.
The loss drops Penn State to 19-14-2 overall this season while Wisconsin improves to 14-16-5 on the year and have now won four-straight.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Wisconsin opened the scoring as the Badgers took advantage of a defensive zone turnover by the hosts with Tarek Baker intercepting a pass and beating PSU junior net-minder Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) over the blocker from the slot for the 1-0 edge at 11:07 of the first period.
- The visitors extended the led with a power-play tally as Sean Dhooghe redirected a shot from Wyatt Kalynuk in the slot the slipped through Jones for the 2-0 lead at 17:12 of the frame.
- Just over a minute later, Penn State cut the deficit in half as sophomore Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) corralled his own rebound in front of the crease and fired far side under the blocker of Badger goaltender Daniel Lebedeff for the 2-1 score at 18:20.
- The Badgers regained the two-goal margin in the second period as Dhooghe slipped a rebound past the pad of Jones for the 3-1 lead at 7:28 of the frame.
- The Nittany Lions cut the deficit to 3-2 early in the third period as freshman Paul DeNaples (Moscow, Pa.) pinched in from the blue line and finished off a great feed from junior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) at 3:43 of the stanza.
- Penn State evened the score with a beautiful passing display during the power-play as Folkes fed sophomore Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) who found Limoges out front for an easy tip in and the 3-3 score at 7:48 of the third period.
- Wisconsin then won a battle along the far half-wall and Dhooghe secured his hat-trick as he snuck one through Jones shortside from the left circle for the 4-3 final at 18:10 of the third period.
GOALTENDING
Jones stopped 38 shots, but falls to 15-11-2 on the year with the loss while Lebedeff improves to 11-10-2 after a 37 save performance.
NOTES
- Wisconsin held the slim 42-40 edge in shots while going 1-for-2 with the man-advantage. Penn State was 1-for-6 on the power-play.
- With a pair of goals, Limoges registers his fifth multi-goal game this season and the sixth of his career while picking up his 13th multi-point effort this season and the 16th of his career.
- Limoges 19 goals this season tie Denis Smirnov for the third most all-time in a single-season while he is now just four points shy of Smirnov's single-season points record of 47.
- Folkes tied his career-high with three assists marking his ninth multi-point game this season and the 15th of his career. With 71 career points Folkes moves past David Glen '16 and into tenth on the Penn State all-time scoring list. The junior now has nine points in seven Big Ten Tournament games to lead all current Nittany Lions.
- Barratt collected a pair of assists to secure his 14th multi-point effort this season and the 17th of his career. The sophomore's 41 points this season rank third all-time as he becomes just the fifth different Nittany Lion to secure 40 or more points in a single season.
- With both Limoges and Barratt having eclipsed the 40-point mark this becomes the first time in program history the Nittany Lions have had multiple 40-point scorers in a single-season.
- With three goals on the evening, Penn State has tied its single-season record for goals with 160 while setting a new program standard for points with 433. The Nittany Lions 273 assists is also a new single-season record.
NEXT UP
- Both teams return to Pegula tomorrow for game two of the series with puck drop slated for 6 p.m. Penn State must win to extend the series to a decisive game-three on Sunday evening.