EAST LANSING, Mich. – Junior Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) secured his first career Big Ten shutout stopping all 23 shots he faced during a 1-0 victory against Michigan State in Big Ten Conference action on Sunday afternoon from Munn Ice Arena.
Penn State improves to 4-5-0 on the year and moves to 2-5-0 in conference action following the victory while the Spartans fall to 3-4-2 overall and 2-3-1-0 in league play with the setback.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring late in the first period as senior Sam Sternschein (Syosset, N.Y.), in his 100th career game, intercepted a D-to-D passing attempt in the offensive zone and beat Spartan net-minder Drew DeRidder over the glove for the 1-0 score with his first of the season at 17:04 of the frame.
- The Nittany Lions stiffened their defensive attack over the next two periods and after allowing 13 shots in the first only gave up 10 over the final two frames to secure the shutout victory
GOALTENDING
- Autio stopped all 23 shots he faced and improves to 3-3-0 on the year with his third-straight victory while DeRidder made 28 saves and falls to 3-4-2 with the loss.
- Autio secures his first shutout of the season, third of his career, and first-ever in Big Ten play moving into a tie with Matthew Skoff '16 for second all-time at Penn State for career shutouts just one shy of Peyton Jones' '20 program record.
NOTES
- The Nittany Lions outshot MSU 29-23 including a 10-3 mark in the third period while also going 1-for-1 on the penalty kill. Penn State did not receive any man-advantage opportunities themselves as there were only three penalties called all game.
- MSU controlled the dot for the game winning 34-of-53 faceoffs (64.2 percent).
- The 1-0 victory marks the first-time ever Penn State has won a game by that margin and just the second time in program history a game has ended with that margin. Notre Dame defeated PSU 1-0 on November 11, 2017 for the only other such game.
- Penn State improves to 16-11-4 all-time against Michigan State and even up its all-time record at Munn Ice Arena to 8-8-1.
- Senior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) sees his three-game goal/point streak end as he was kept off the scoresheet for just the second time in the last seven games.
- Sophomore Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) also sees his career-best three-game point streak come to an end.
NEXT UP
Both teams will return to Munn tomorrow to run it back in the series finale with another 3 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.