UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Three third period goals for Canisius decided the game as Penn State fell, 4-1, in non-conference action on Friday evening inside Pegula Ice Arena.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Canisius (1-0-0) started the scoring early in the second period as it was J.D. Pogue finishing off a nice feed from Cooper Haar during an odd-man rush for the 1-0 advantage at 2:50 of the middle frame.
- Penn State (2-1-0) wasted little time answering as freshman Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) blocked a shot and took the puck up ice before sending a beautiful, backhanded sauce pass from the far circle to junior Kevin Wall (Penfield, N.Y.) on the doorstep for the one-touch score at 4:25 of the second stanza.
- The Griffs grabbed the lead again midway through the third period as Keaton Mastrodonato slipped the puck over the goal line during a net-front scrum for the 2-1 score at 9:02 of the stanza.
- Five minutes later, Lee Lapid gave Canisius insurance at 13:58 before Pogue sealed the game with an empty-net shorty at 16:51 for the 4-1 final.
GOALTENDING
Senior Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) made 27 saves in the defeat falling to 2-1-0 on the year while his counterpart Jacob Barczewski stopped 39-of-40 shots to move to 1-0-0 on the season.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Q: Opening Statement:
A: Number one, give Canisius a ton of credit for playing a great game, they beat us, absolutely. They beat us physically, I thought they played to their identity much better than we did and I think it was a great lesson for us. I honestly felt like we wanted a cute game and we've gone through that attitude in the past and had to change it and hopefully this is a really good lesson because we're not a cute team, but we played like we wanted to be tonight.
Q: Things seemed to get away from you in the third, can you speak to what happened?
A: We wanted to be cute, and they took advantage of us being cute. That's what I think happened and we got out shot in the third, we weren't in the first two, but I think it was them taking advantage of us being a cute perimeter team rather than doing what we are supposed to do.
Q: You guys had 40 shots tonight, why do you think they couldn't fall?
A: I don't think we had a lot of second and third chances. It didn't feel like a lot of good chances to me. We certainly didn't get to the net like we needed to and that's part of what I talked about the attitude of being cute team, cute teams tend to be perimeter and in the past I think we've got a lot of second and third chances that we didn't really see tonight. I don't think we went in the dirty areas enough to get those quality second or third chances, so if you're doing that and then you're not scoring I think it can get frustrating. I don't necessarily think that the 40 shots were indicative of the number of quality grade A chances we normally get when we do have 40 shots on net.
Q: Can you speak on the penalty kill tonight?
A: We killed well but also usually your goaltender is going to be one of your best penalty killers and I thought he played really well during the kill. Yeah, I guess that's one bright spot, but I don't think we really garnered enough momentum out of it. You're not going to win too many games by scoring one goal so although the penalty kill is a positive in this game, we either have to find a way to build a lot more momentum off of it or we've got to address other areas.
NOTES
- Penn State held the commanding 40-31 edge in shots on goal while going 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, but were unable to connect on four powerplay chances of its own.
- The Nittany Lions clogged shooting lanes most of the night blocking 22 shots with senior Paul DeNaples (Moscow, Pa.), junior Kenny Johnson (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and junior Tyler Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) each collecting four.
- Canisius controlled possession winning 39-of-67 faceoffs (58.2 percent).
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow afternoon to wrap up the season series with a 1 p.m. puck drop.
For more information on the 2021-22 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.