ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Penn State fought hard in the final period, but the Nittany Lions' comeback effort fell short as No. 4 Michigan held on for the 3-2 victory in Big Ten Conference action on Friday evening inside Yost Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions fall to 12-11-0 on the year and 3-10-0-1-1-0 in Big Ten play while the Wolverines improve to 17-6-1 overall and 8-5-0-0-2-0 in conference action with the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Michigan opened the scoring as a strange bouncing puck at the blue line found Luke Hughes behind the defense and the freshman beat Nittany Lion senior net-minder Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) past the blocker for the 1-0 lead at 5:47 of the first period.
- The Wolverines then used momentum from killing off a major penalty on Nolan Moyle as just 50 seconds after the Penn State powerplay expired, freshman Ben Schoen took a major penalty of his own and Michigan scored twice more on the ensuing man-advantage before the end of the opening frame. Matty Beniers and Kent Johnson scored at 18:25 and 19:13, respectively, for the 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
- After a scoreless second period, Penn State got on the board early in the third as sophomore Chase McLane (Trenton, Mich.) caused a defensive zone turnover by the Wolverines and he fed classmate Tyler Paquette (Collegeville, Pa.) who sniped over the glove of Erik Portillo from the slot for the 3-1 score at 1:51 of the final stanza.
- The Nittany Lions then cut the deficit to a single goal as junior Kevin Wall (Penfield, N.Y.) finished over the shoulder of Portillo off a nice feed from freshman Ryan Kirwan (DeWitt, N.Y.) during an odd-man rush for the 3-2 score at 4:47 of the third period.
GOALTENDING
Autio was strong in net but falls to 9-9-0 on the year after making a season-high 38 saves in the defeat while his counterpart, Erik Portillo, improves to 17-6-1 after stopping 28 shots on the night.
NOTES
- Penn State is now just 1-8-0 this season when allowing the first goal of the game and opponents have now opened the scoring in three-straight games.
- Michigan held the 41-30 edge in shots on goal while going 2-for-5 on the powerplay. Penn State was 0-for-4 with the man-advantage.
- With his third period goal, Paquette has now registered at least one point in four-straight contests, with goals in three of those four, to tie his career-long point streak from earlier this season.
- Wall has now scored a goal in four of his last five games including two consecutive games and is back tied for the Big Ten lead in goals following his 14th of the season.
- Kirwan now has a point in three-straight games and has at least one point in nine of his last 11 games played.
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Yost tomorrow evening to conclude the season series with a 7 p.m. puck drop.
For more information on the 2021-22 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: 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.