UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The sixth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions broke the dam that was Michigan State goaltender John Lethemon to earn a hard-fought series split with a 6-4 victory on Saturday night in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State improves to 7-2-0 on the year and 3-1-0-0 in conference action with the win while MSU drops to 3-5-0 this season and 1-1-0-0 in Big Ten play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring as sophomore Aarne Talvitie (Espoo, Finland) fed the puck out front from the near half-wall and senior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) ripped a shot past MSU net-minder John Lethemon from just outside the crease for the 1-0 lead at 10:40 of the first period.
- The Nittany Lions then doubled their lead as junior Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) lifted the puck into the air at the near post and whacked it inside the far post and past the shoulder of Lethemon for the 2-0 margin at 16:24.
- The Spartans cut the deficit in half in the second period with a power-play tally as Mitchell Lewandowski one-timed a feed from Nico Muller over the left shoulder of Nittany Lion senior goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) at 6:22.
- Penn State answered just over a minute later as junior Clayton Phillips (Edina, Minn.) wired a shot from the point through traffic that found the left corner of the net for his first goal as a Nittany Lion and the 3-1 lead at 7:36 of the frame.
- PSU then added a power-play tally as junior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) redirected a point shot from Barratt past Lethemon at 11:28 before classmate Sam Sternschein (Syosset, N.Y.) finished off a feed from Talvitie at 15:33 for the 5-1 advantage.
- MSU cut into the deficit with a late power-play tally as Patrick Khodorenko dangled through the offensive zone and slipped the puck past the outstretched pad of Jones for the 5-2 score at 19:48.
- The Spartans controlled the pace for most of the third period and cut the deficit to a single goal as Dennis Cesana scored an unassisted 4-on-4 tally at 12:09 and Khodorenko ripped a shot into a yawning net with the extra attacker at 18:53 for the 5-4 score.
- Penn State ended any threat of the full MSU comeback as senior Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) pelted the empty net from just outside the blue line at 19:31 for the 6-4 final.
GOALTENDING
Jones finished the game with 25 saves and moves to 7-1-0 on the year while Lethemon falls to 3-2-0 after also turning aside 25 shots in the loss.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Q: Coach [Danton] Cole was in here and it kind of felt like, maybe tonight was kind of like the reflex of last night given how both teams played. Do you kind of feel that way too? Because you guys played really well last night and I seem to think they played really well tonight.
A: Yeah, I think that's fair. I think we did not play as well as we did last night, that's for sure. But we made a couple nice plays, as did they, you know, we just happen to finish a few more times than they did, but I still think there are some aspects of the game that were pretty good, but no we did not play as well as we did last night.
Q: Guy, obviously Evan scored the really nice goal in the first period. What was your reaction on the bench?
A: I can tell you the stuff that he does in game is amazing. Like there's things that are really hard to do when no one's bugging you in practice. That's really really hard to do. The things he does in a game, his mind is just really, really special, like to do that in a game that's just, I can't really comment too much because that's beyond anything I would ever do.
Q: And when Clayton's scored obviously everyone kind of touched at rail.
A: Yeah, isn't that great see? Like you see how the guys feel about him. The team has really taken to him. I think partly because he's a great player, not just the offense, but I mean he hits, he skates so well, the team loves having him on the ice, and the team obviously you can see how they feel about him off the ice, that was a great reaction and I'm sure we're going to see a lot more of that. I think Mason Snell deserves a lot of credit too, his partner, they're playing really really well.
Q: Coach, how nice was it to see six different goals scorers for your team tonight?
A: You know, I really don't care where we get them from to be honest with you, we just wanted to get them because last night we didn't have any. So, six is a lot better than zero, but I don't care where we get them. It was just nice to see the puck go in the net today. As we said earlier, I don't know if we played as well as we did yesterday, but we finished well so we're taking them from whoever we can get.
Q: What was it about this game that, you said you didn't play as well. What was it then that propelled you to an influx of goals?
A: Well, I think we made it a little bit more difficult on their goaltender. Number one, I thought, the reason why we say we played so well yesterday was our possession was excellent and we didn't give up much, obviously, their power play is great which you saw tonight. We didn't take any penalties yesterday and when you talk about good defensive hockey it's funny how that works, when you don't take penalties you seem to be a lot better defensively. So, there's aspects of the game that were much better yesterday, but we did finish, and then we made it more difficult on their goaltender.
NOTES
- Penn State held the slim 31-29 edge in shots while going 1-for-2 with the man-advantage. MSU was 2-for-5 on the power-play.
- The Nittany Lions had four players register multiple points as both Talvitie and senior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) each had a pair of assists marking their third and second such games this season and the sixth and 19th of their careers, respectively.
- Both Barratt and Phillips each added one goal and one assist marking their first multi-point games this season and the 18th and third of their respective careers.
- Penn State improves to 14-10-4 all-time against Michigan State, 8-3-3 on home ice.
- The Nittany Lions are now a perfect 6-0-0 when scoring first and 5-0-0 when leading after the first period.
- The extra attacker goal for Michigan State is the first against the Nittany Lions since last year's Big Ten Tournament semifinal at Ohio State.
- Sternschein secured his second game-winning goal of the season in as many weeks as his second period tally turned out to be the decisive goal. The junior now has four career game-winning goals.
NEXT UP
Penn State hits the road for the first time this season to continue Big Ten play in Minneapolis with a weekend series against the Minnesota Golden Gohpers next Friday and Saturday.
For more information on the 2019-20 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: the Official Bookstore of Penn State Athletics, visit the men's hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.