COLUMBUS, Ohio – Freshman Dane Dowiak (Pittsburgh, Pa.) tallied a pair of powerplay goals in the second period to lead Penn State to a series sweep over Ohio State with a 2-1 victory in Big Ten Conference action on Saturday evening inside Value City Arena.
The Nittany Lions improve to 15-16-3 on the year and 7-14-3-0-1-2 in conference action with the victory while the Buckeyes drop to 12-18-4 overall and 4-18-2-1-0-2 with the loss.
The sweep is the first ever for Penn State in Columbus and it marks just the third time in program history the Nittany Lions have won all four games of a season series against one opponent and the first time against the Buckeyes.
It is the first time Penn State swept a season series since beating Michigan State all four games in 2016-17 with the other occurrence coming against Wisconsin during the 2014-15 campaign.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Buckeyes opened the scoring as Sam Deckhut raced down the near wall and laced a shot inside the near post over the glove of Nittany Lion senior net-minder Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) for the 1-0 edge at 7:06 of the first period.
- Penn State found the equalizer midway through the second period cashing in on a powerplay chance as Dowiak hit a yawning net after junior Simon Mack's (Brockville, Ontario) initial shot was turned aside at the 7:27 mark.
- The Nittany Lions grabbed the lead with a second man-advantage tally of the middle frame as in an identical sequence it was Dowiak again slipping the puck into a yawning net after Mack's shot was saved for the 2-1 lead at the 15:54 mark.
GOALTENDING
- Souliere improves to 12-12-1 after stopping all 25 shots he saw after the first one of the game got past him.
- Souliere became just the third Nittany Lion goalie in program history to hit the 2,000 save mark with his first stop of the game.
- Buckeye net-minder Kristoffer Eberly drops to 3-7-1 on the year after making 33 saves in the loss.
NOTES
- Penn State held the 35-26 edge in shots on goal, while going 2-for-6 on the powerplay and a perfect 2-2 on the penalty kill. This season in the four games against Ohio State the Nittany Lions went 8-for-18 with the man-advantage.
- Dowiak secured the first multi-point and multi-goal game of his career with his two second period tallies while Mack collected a pair of primary assists to register his third multi-point effort of the season and the fourth of his careers.
- The Nittany Lions move to 5-10-3 on the year when the opponent scores first while improving to a perfect 12-0-1 when leading after two periods.
NEXT UP
Penn State travels to Minneapolis next weekend for a best-of-three Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinal series against No. 8 Minnesota.
For more information on the 2023-24 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.