UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The sixth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions overcame adversity with two third period goals including the game-winner from senior Tyler Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) with just 56.6 seconds remaining to defeat No. 17/18 Michigan State, 4-3, in Big Ten Conference action on Friday night inside Pegula Ice Arena.
The win pushes Penn State's record to 11-2-0 overall as the Nittany Lions are now 5-2-0-0-1-0 in Big Ten action while the Spartans fall to 8-4-1 on the year and 4-2-1-0-0-1 in conference play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring midway through the first period as junior Jimmy Dowd Jr. (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.) collected the puck in his own zone and skated down the ice going coast-to-coast and sneaking a backhanded shot from below the left dot through Spartan goaltender Dylan St. Cyr for the 1-0 edge at the 10:35 mark.
- The Spartans evened the score just over two minutes later as a loose puck in the slot found the tape of Matt Basgall and he deposited it uncontested over the glove of Nittany Lion junior net-minder Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) for the 1-1 score at 12:55 of the first period.
- Michigan State then took advantage of a too many men penalty on the hosts and late in the man-advantage Jagger Joshua used some fancy stickwork around the crease and roofed the puck for the 2-1 edge at the 17:24 mark.
- Penn State evened the score late in the second period as junior Christian Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) blasted a shot from the slot off a feed from freshman Jarod Crespo (Eastampton, N.J.) that beat St. Cyr past the glove at 16:22 of the middle frame.
- The Spartans responded just 23 ticks later as Cole Krygier used a strong move to the net and slipped the puck past Souliere for the 3-2 advantage at the 16:45 mark.
- Berger tied the game with his second goal of the contest as he collected the puck at the blueline and sent a seeing eye shot through traffic that St. Cyr never saw until it tickled the twine over his left shoulder and the score was tied 3-3 at 14:23 of the final stanza.
- Penn State received a late powerplay and took advantage as the Nittany Lions won a battle at the near half wall and junior Xander Lamppa (Rochester, Minn.) fed classmate Tyler Paquette (Collegeville, Pa.) at the right dot and he one-touched a backdoor feed to Gratton at the net mouth for the tap in score and 4-3 lead.
GOALTENDING
- Souliere runs his record to 9-2-0 on the year after collecting 22 saves while St. Cyr drops to 7-4-1 after stopping 33 shots in the loss.
- The win for Souliere is the 17th of his career which is now one win shy of Eamon McAdam for fourth on the Penn State all-time wins list.
- His nine wins on the season are already the seventh most and are just one win shy of Oskar Autio for the sixth-most in a single-season in Penn State history.
NOTES
- Penn State has now scored first in 11 of its 13 games this season with a 10-1-0 record when doing so.
- The win is the first such game this season where the Nittany Lions won after trailing entering the third period, however, it was only the second game Penn State has been behind after 40 minutes of play.
- Penn State improves to 21-14-4 all-time against the Spartans including a 12-4-3 mark at Pegula Ice Arena.
- Penn State held the 37-25 edge in shots on goal while going 1-for-4 on the man-advantage. MSU was 1-for-3 on the powerplay.
- The powerplay goal for the Nittany Lions snapped an 0-for-15 streak and is just the second man-advantage tally since conference play began.
- Berger scored the first two goals of his career in Big Ten play marking his first career multi-goal game and his fourth career multi-point game, first this season.
- Junior Christain Sarlo (Lynbrook, N.Y.) had a second period goal waived off due to a high stick as he sees his career-best four-game point streak come to a close.
- With his secondary assist on Gratton's game-winner, Lamppa now has points in six of his last seven games.
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow night for the series finale at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available HERE.
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.