UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Junior Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) scored twice while adding an assist as No. 6 Penn State earned a 4-4 tie against Michigan in Big Ten Conference action on Saturday night at Pegula Ice Arena. The Wolverines secured the extra conference point during the 3-on-3 overtime period.
The Nittany Lions move to 16-7-1 overall and 8-5-1-0 in conference play following the tie while Michigan secures 5-of-6 conference points on the weekend winning the season series and now sit at 10-11-3 on the year and 5-7-2-1 in Big Ten action.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring as senior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) ripped a puck into the back of the net during a 5-on-3 power-play after it bounced off the backside of junior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) for the 1-0 edge at 6:55 of the first period.
- The Nittany Lions extended their lead to 2-0 as senior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) chipped in a rebound after classmate Kris Myllari's (Kanata, Ontario) initial shot was saved at 5:08 of the second period.
- Michigan erased the deficit with back-to-back goals as Nolan Moyle slipped one through PSU sophomore goaltender Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) at 6:34 before Nick Granowicz redirected a Will Lockwood shot into the back of the net at 10:16 for the 2-2 score.
- Barratt gave Penn State the lead back as he redirected Myllari's offering from the point and then jammed his own rebound past the outstretched pad of Michigan net-minder Strauss Mann for the 3-2 edge at 16:59 of the second period.
- The Wolverines found the equalizer again as Jacob Hayhurst laced a shot over the glove of Autio from the slot for the 3-3 score at 6:15 of the third period.
- Michigan then grabbed the 4-3 lead as Granowicz banged home a bouncing puck in front of the crease at 9:53 of the third period.
- Opting for the extra attacker Penn State pulled the goalie and capitalized as Barratt was able to corral his own rebound again in the low slot and snap the puck past Mann for the 4-4 score at 18:38 of the third period.
- Both teams had chances during the initial 5-on-5 overtime, but neither could find the back of the net and the game officially went down as a tie.
- Nearing the end of a back-and-forth 3-on-3 overtime, Michigan caught Penn State in a change and Garrett Van Wyhe picked the corner over Autio's right shoulder to secure the extra Big Ten point with just 11.1 seconds remaining.
GOALTENDING
- Autio moves to 2-1-1 on the year with the tie after stopping a career-high 40 shots.
- Autio's 19 first period saves are also new single-period career-high while his string of 167:09 consecutive scoreless minutes logged are a new Penn State record.
- Mann collected 45 saves to move to 10-10-3 on the year.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening statement
Obviously a much better effort, we played a lot more like us, we played a lot more like what we expect. But after what we did yesterday, at the end, I don't know if we deserve to get more than this point tonight because of how we started the weekend. The positive is, it was a much better effort.
Q: Goalies, referees and bounces are a part of hockey, how much of that goes into the evaluation process of what you take away from the game tonight?
A: I agree, the other part that I believe in is that the hockey gods play into it a little bit too. We were very disappointed in the things that we can control, specifically how we competed for each other yesterday, and I think in a weekend that's a tough equation. I'm really happy that we came out better, played much, much better, but in the end, for those four factors, I'm not so sure we deserve more than we got.
Q: How is the team feeling about ending in a tie from a result standpoint?
A: It's interesting because there are two races right now, there's the Big Ten standings and there's the national races. When you're down a goal with a couple minutes to go, that tie feels really good from a national standpoint. Obviously, we'd love to have another point in the Big Ten standings, which are very important. But, when we started the way we did yesterday, I thought we played a lot harder tonight, we weren't sure we were going to get anything out of it, so in that sense it's a very positive tie.
Q: Was there a reason for Evan Barratt seeming more engaged tonight?
A: One of the things I think we were really disappointed with last night is just the compete level for each other, and just our overall competition level. Evan's a guy that is an extremely emotional player, positively and negatively, but his emotion, positive or negative, is something we feed off. I thought that he competed extremely hard and was rewarded for it. Often leaders like that just are, it's not that you try to be, you just are, and he is, he's very much of an emotional leader for us and I thought that played a big part tonight.
Q: What was thinking behind the 3v3 overtime combinations?
A: They were not decided before the season started, we actually tinkered with other things, that didn't work out very well. This was more a feel for what was going on in the game and how guys were performing. It was obviously a good goal at the end, Barratt and Limo were on and we tried to keep them together. Denis and Folkes have been pretty good at 3 on 3 in the past, and we thought Aarne and Nate were playing very well. With the defensemen, 3 on 3, you want excellent skating defensemen, and all three of those guys you saw were.
Q: Every line combination you started with today was different from yesterday, is there concern about over-correcting?
A: Yes absolutely, and this isn't something that's normal for us. Yesterday felt very much like we were forced to grasp a little bit, it didn't feel very good. We felt that it was very necessary, it doesn't feel good for us, it sort of feels like you're hoping for a magic pill. There's a lot better effort overall and playing for each other but it's not because we put together some line combination, it isn't. They made a decision to play a lot better for each other tonight than they did last night.
NOTES
- Penn State held the slim 49-44 edge in shots while going 1-for-4 on the power-play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
- Both Myllari and Limoges added a pair of assists to collect their second and sixth multi-point games of the season and the ninth and 25th of their careers, respectively.
- With his two assists on the night, Myllari has moved into a tie with Luke Juha '16 for second on the Penn State all-time scoring list for defensemen.
- With a pair of goals and one assist Barratt secured his seventh multi-point effort this season and the 24th of his career. It also marks his first multi-goal game this season and the fifth of his career.
- The tie marks the first between Penn State and Michigan in now 31 all-time meetings, the Wolverines lead the series 17-13-1 at the conclusion of the weekend.
- Penn State drops to 13-1-1 on the year when scoring first while the marks the first time this season the Nittany Lions have surrendered a lead going into the third period having won the previous 12 games.
- Saturday night's attendance of 6,278 marks the third largest crowd in Pegula Ice Arena history.
NEXT UP
Penn State heads to East Lansing to battle Michigan State in a matchup of the top-two team's in the Big Ten next Friday and Saturday evening.
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.