UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 19th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions dropped their Big Ten home opener to No. 2 Michigan, 5-1, on Thursday evening inside Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State falls to 6-4-0 on the year and 0-3-0 in the Big Ten with the setback while the Wolverines improve to 9-2-0 on the year and 4-1-0 in conference action.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Michigan opened the scoring taking advantage of a Nittany Lion turnover behind their own net as Dylan Duke fed Luke Morgan on the doorstep for the 1-0 lead at 17:12 of the first period.
- The Wolverines extended their lead early in the second period with a powerplay goal on a one-timer from Matty Beniers at the right faceoff dot for the 2-0 lead just 35 ticks into the frame.
- Penn State finally broke through to cut the deficit in half as Ben Copeland (Edina, Minn.) had a rebound bounce off his leg and into the net after sophomore Xander Lamppa's initial chance was turned aside for the 2-1 score at the 16:35 mark.
- Michigan regained the momentum just 94 seconds later as Johnny Beecher laced a one-timer from the right dot that squeaked through Nittany Lion senior net-minder Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) for the 3-1 advantage at 18:09 of the middle stanza.
- The Wolverines pushed the lead to three goals midway through the final frame as Garrett Van Wyhe finished off a pass from Beecher for the 4-1 margin at 8:03 of the third period.
- Beniers added his second of the game on the powerplay at 14:49 of the third period as he fired over the blocker of Autio for the 5-1 final.
GOALTENDING
Autio drops to 4-3-0 on the year after stopping 19 shots while his counterpart, Erik Portillo, improves to 9-2-0 on the year after a 33-save performance.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening Statement
First, I got to say I love the roar zone, how great were they. That was really nice and I'm sorry we couldn't pull one out. We didn't finish. Give [Michigan] credit for finishing, but I thought we were fairly fragile. I thought when they got going, we didn't. We didn't respond well.
Q: Do you think that their goal in the second period kind of started that?
Yeah, it could have. It didn't seem like we had much after that. It probably did start it and I think that's a mental thing. Like I said, I think that it felt fragile. It didn't feel like we had the fight to come back. It was sort of a negative feeling rather than a let's get going feeling. That feels a little bit like an inexperienced thing, that was probably the most disappointing thing about the night.
Q: That's kind of a current theme given the last couple of games against Ohio State and then tonight, with a little bit of scoring droughts. You guys are not scoring at the level you did in the first six games. What's kind of been different recently?
It's a lot. I think it's a fragile thing. Like in all three of those games, we've actually played very well defensively for stretches and usually early. Then, we haven't responded to adversity well. We've crumbled a little bit rather than getting tougher and that's what I mean by that. It adds up. It's not like our defense is out of it, it's just that we got fragile instead of getting tougher. We started really well in the game, we played tough, we defended well and then we've gotten through a stretch where a lot of goals have been scored in a short amount of time. We've been fragile, I don't think that's an X's and O's thing or positional thing. It's a mental toughness thing, that's how I feel right now.
Q: What adjustments do you need to make for tomorrow night?
I think immediately when you talk about what adjustments, I hope it's something that we can control. It's not just a concept that might not work, but what we can control for sure. I mean, we've had I don't know how many weekends, too many penalties. Too many men on the ice penalty, that's something that can't happen. I don't know how many times that we've had a rush in the last three games that has been killed because of offsides. So those are two things right off the top that have to be adjusted that we can control.
Q: To add onto the variance thing, traditionally, you guys have been mentally tough.
When you've been through it, you're much more confident. You know how to respond in a much more positive way. When you're not confident, you tend to respond in a rather negative frantic way. We've got some growing up to do. I believe we will get there but, we need to go through this experience, and we have to respond now. We have to understand it doesn't just happen by having the experience and all of the sudden check the box and move on. We really have to understand that it takes a lot more mental toughness, workman like effort and commitment to what we do than we've been giving right now.
NOTES
- Penn State failed to score first in just the second game this season falling to 0-2-0 when the opponent nets the first goal of the contest.
- Junior Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) sees his career-best three-game goal streak snapped in the defeat.
- Penn State was once again outscored 2-0 in the third period and are now being outscored 18-13 this season over the final 20 minutes.
- Autio secured his second career assist on Copeland's goal as he played the puck up the near glass and into the neutral zone where Lamppa ran it down entering the offensive zone.
- Penn State held the slim 34-24 edge in shots on goal, but went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage while Michigan was 2-for-4 on the powerplay.
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow evening to close out the series with a 7 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.