No. 8/7 Men's Hockey Stuns No. 1/1 Minnesota at Mariucci, 4-2No. 8/7 Men's Hockey Stuns No. 1/1 Minnesota at Mariucci, 4-2
Craig Houtz

No. 8/7 Men's Hockey Stuns No. 1/1 Minnesota at Mariucci, 4-2

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Senior Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) tallied twice including the eventual game-winner as No. 8/7 Penn State defeated the top-ranked team in the nation for the second-straight week with a 4-2 victory over No. 1/1 Minnesota in Big Ten Conference action on Thursday night inside 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The victory is the second in a seven-day span for Penn State against separate No. 1 nationally ranked teams marking what we believe is the first time in the history of college hockey a team has defeated the No. 1 team in the nation in back-to-back weeks.

Penn State improves to 10-1-0 on the year and 4-1-0 in conference action with win while the Gophers drops to 7-4-0 overall and 3-2-0 in Big Ten play.

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • Penn State opened the scoring as a physical play on the defensive side of the ice from Freshman Carter Schade (Mars, Pa.) sprung the Connors in on an odd-man rush and senior Connor McMenamin (Collegeville, Pa.) feathered a pass to MacEachern who one-timed the puck into a yawning net for the 1-0 edge at 6:15 of the first period.
  • The Gophers evened the score early in the second period as Bryce Brodzinski finished from the slot past the glove of junior goaltender Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) for the 1-1 score at the 2:34 mark.
  • The Nittany Lions regained the lead late in the second period as senior Ashton Calder (Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.) connected with junior Christian Sarlo (Lynbrook, N.Y.) coming out of the box and Sarlo dangled a Gopher defenseman along with net-minder Justen Close and finished into a yawning net for the 2-1 advantage with just 5.8 ticks remaining in the middle frame.
  • Penn State pushed the lead to a pair early in the third period as MacEachern collected a bouncing puck at the blue line and sniped one top shelf over the blocker of Close for the 3-1 advantage just 48 ticks into the final stanza.
  • Minnesota responded quick capitalizing on a bouncing puck of its own as Aaron Huglen was able to pick a corner for the 3-2 score at 4:26 of the third period.
  • Calder would put this one out of reach as he buried the empty netter with just 18.5 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.

GOALTENDING

  • Souliere improves to 8-1-0 on the year after making 24 saves in the victory while Close falls to 6-4-0 after also stopping 24 shots.
  • Souliere's eight victories are a new career-high while his 16 career wins are just two shy of Eamon McAdam for fourth in Penn State history.
  • The win for Souliere also marks his first career victory against Minnesota.

NOTES

  • Penn State has now scored first in nine of its 11 games this season with a perfect 9-0-0 record of when doing so.
  • The Nittany Lions improve to 2-4-0 all-time against No. 1 ranked teams while moving to 17-21-1 all-time against Minnesota and 7-13-0 at 3M Arena.
  • For MacEachern the two goals mark his first multi-goal game this season and the third of his career. It is also his second multi-point game of the season and the 11th of his career.
  • MacEachern added an assist on Calder's empty-netter for a new career-high three points.
  • McMenamin collected a pair of assists on the night for his third multi-point effort this season and the ninth of his career while with one goal and one assist, Calder secured his first multi-point night as a Nittany Lion and the 31st of his career.
  • With his secondary assist on MacEachern's first period goal, Schade has now registered points in back-to-back games for the first time in his young career.
  • The Nittany Lions held the slim 28-26 edge in shots on goal while each team went 0-for-1 with the man-advantage.
  • Junior Xander Lamppa (Rochester, Minn.) sees his career-long point streak and career-best three-game goal scoring streak each come to an end at four and three games, respectively.

NEXT UP
Both teams return to Mariucci tomorrow night to close out the series with another 7 p.m. CT / 8 p.m. ET puck drop.

For more information on the 2022-23 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.