COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sophomore Kevin Wall (Penfield, N.Y.) scored a pair of goals to lead Penn State to a 5-2 victory over Ohio State in Big Ten Conference action on Saturday evening at Value City Arena.
Penn State improves to 5-7-0 on the year and 3-7-0-0-0 in conference action with the victory while the Buckeyes drop to 4-7-1 overall and 4-6-1-0-1 in the Big Ten with the loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring as a strong forecheck from freshman Christian Sarlo (Lynnbrook, N.Y.) caused an offensive zone turnover and he fed senior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) for a point-blank score at the goal mouth for the 1-0 lead at 7:38 of the first period.
- The Buckeyes pulled even just after a powerplay expired as Grant Gabriele kept the puck in at the blue line on a clearing attempt and flung a wrist shot toward the net that was redirected past Nittany Lion junior net-minder Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) by Mark Cheremeta for the 1-1 score at 15:20 of the frame.
- The Nittany Lions took the lead early in the second period as senior Evan Bell (Livonia, Mich.) sent a shot intentionally wide and Wall took it around the net wrapping it inside the far post for the 2-1 edge at 2:55 of the middle stanza.
- PSU extended its lead as Sarlo once again sent a terrific no look backhanded pass toward the net that senior Tim Doherty (Portsmouth, R.I.) easily chipped into a yawning net for the 3-1 advantage at 7:11 of the second period.
- Ohio State cut the deficit in half early in the third period with a powerplay tally from Cheremeta for the 3-2 score at 4:34 of the frame.
- Sophomore Connor McMenamin (Collegeville, Pa.) and Wall each tallied empty-net scores 35 seconds apart late in the third period to ice the game away.
GOALTENDING
Autio improves to 4-4-0 on the year after making 28 saves while his counterpart Tommy Nappier falls to 4-7-1 after stopping 35 pucks.
NOTES
- The Nittany Lions held the commanding 40-30 lead in shots including a 30-15 mark over the final two periods but went 0-for-4 with the man-advantage while OSU was 1-for-6 on the powerplay.
- Penn State held the slim 28-55 edge in faceoffs.
- The Nittany Lions improve to 80-1-2 all-time when scoring five or more goals and move to 4-1-0 when scoring first and 4-0-0 when leading after the second period.
- With his seventh goal of the season, Limoges is now just one back of Minnesota's Sampo Ranta for the Big Ten lead while moving into a tie with Liam Folkes '20 for fifth on the all-time Penn State goals list with 48 for his career.
- Limoges is also now just one-point shy of tying Denis Smirnov '20 for fifth on the all-time Penn State points list at 115.
- With his two goals tonight, Wall registers the first multi-goal game of his career while securing his second multi-point effort this season and the third of his career.
- McMenamin added an assist to go along with his empty net score to secure his second multi-point game this season and the third of his career.
- With his two assists, Sarlo collects his first career multi-point effort.
- With a pair of assists senior Alex Stevens (Plymouth, Minn.) secure his first multi-point effort of the season and just the second of his career.
- With one goal and one assist, Talvitie secures his second multi-point game this season and the 11th of his career.
- With one goal and two assists Dowd Jr. set new career-highs for both points and assists while securing his second career multi-point game.
- Sophomore Kevin Wall had the secondary assist on both Dowd Jr. and Talvitie's goals tying his career-high for points and assists while securing his second multi-point game this season and just the third of his career.
NEXT UP
Penn State returns to Pegula Ice Arena to begin a six-game homestand with a weekend series against Michigan State on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.