UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State saw its mini three-game winning streak snapped on Thursday night as the 12th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers earned the 4-1 victory in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State dips below .500 falling to 7-8-0 on the year and 5-8-0-1-0-0 in conference action while Wisconsin improves to 9-6-0 overall and 7-4-0-0-1-0 in the Big Ten with the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Badgers opened the scoring taking advantage of their third-straight powerplay as Ty Pelton Byce received a feed by the near post from Cole Caufield and he ripped it over the shoulder of Penn State junior net-minder Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) for the 1-0 edge at 13:07 of the first period.
- Just under four minutes later Wisconsin extended its lead as Mathieu De St. Phalle tallied his first collegiate goal firing at the far post from the slot beating Autio over the glove for the 2-0 margin at 16:58 of the opening frame.
- Sophomore Kevin Wall (Penfield, N.Y.) cut the deficit in half early in the second period as he took advantage of a strong forecheck from senior classmates Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) and Tim Doherty (Portsmouth, R.I.) and sent a shot through the short side under the blocker of Badger goaltender Cameron Rowe for the 2-1 score just 60 seconds into the frame.
- The Nittany Lions were burned on the powerplay again by the Badgers as Caufield drifted into the slot and sniped over the blocker of Autio for the 3-1 lead at 14:11 of the third period on just the third shot of the frame for Wisconsin.
- The visitors added a late empty-net goal as Dominick Mersch emerged from the penalty box and skated after a loose puck depositing it into the unguarded cage for the 4-1 final at 16:41 of the frame.
GOALTENDING
Autio sees his second three-game winning streak of the season snapped as he falls to 6-5-0 on the year following a 26-save performance while Rowe improves to 4-1-0 with his third-straight victory after stopping a career-high 45 pucks.
NOTES
- The Nittany Lions held the commanding 46-30 lead in shots including an 18-7 clip in the final frame but went 0-for-4 with the man-advantage. Wisconsin was 2-for-7 on the powerplay.
- The seven power-play opportunities are the most allowed by Penn State in a single-game this season while the seven penalties tie for the most in a game this season.
- Wisconsin held the slim 41-37 advantage at the faceoff circle (52.6 percent).
- The Nittany Lions fall to 1-7-0 on the year when the opponent scores first and 0-8-0 when trailing after two periods.
- With his second period assist, Limoges moves into a tie with Chase Berger '19 for third on the Penn State all-time points list with 118 for his career.
- With seven goals of the season Wall now has as many goals this year as he did points last year and moves into a tie with Wisconsin's Linus Weissbach for fourth in the Big Ten.
- With his second period assist, Doherty has now registered at least one point in eight of the last 10 games.
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow evening to conclude the season series with another 6 p.m. puck drop.
For more information on the 2020-21 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.