UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 18 Penn State erased a pair of third period deficits to force overtime, but couldn’t escape with the victory as Daniel Laatsch scored the OT winner with just over a minute remaining in the extra session to give Wisconsin the 5-4 victory in Big Ten Conference action on Friday evening inside Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State drops to 4-4-0 on the year and 0-3-0-0-1-0 in Big Ten play with the loss while the Badgers improve to 3-8-0 overall and 2-5-0-1-3-0 in conference action with the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Wisconsin opened the scoring early in the first period as Ryland Mosley was left alone in front and he redirected a point shot by Quinn Finley for the 1-0 edge at the 3:27 mark.
Penn State evened the score late in the frame with a powerplay tally as senior Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) fed sophomore Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta) and he skated below the right dot firing a laser shortside and over the glove of Badger net-minder Tommy Scarfone for the 1-1 score at the 18:35 mark.
The Badgers regained the lead late in the second period with a pair of goals in just over three minutes as Sawyer Scholl sent a rebound into a yawning net after Anthony Kehrer’s initial shot was turned aside at the 13:18 mark before Cody Laskosky slipped into the slot and beat Nittany Lion junior goaltender Arsenii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) under the blocker for the 3-1 advantage at 16:43 of the middle stanza.
Penn State mounted a third period comeback with a transition goal as freshman JJ Wiebusch (Verona, Wis.) paitiently outwaited the defense before saucering a pass to the front of the net to find classmate Charlie Ceratto (Fallston, Md.) for the redirect and the 3-2 deficit just 1:43 into the final frame.
The Nittany Lions continued to push as senior Ben Schoen (Maumee, Ohio) was the beneficiary of a strong forecheck to secure the equalizer as he collected the puck in the slot before firing past the blocker of Scarfone for the 3-3 score at the 6:25 mark.
Wisconsin got one back midway through the period to regain the one-goal margin as Ryan Bottterill scored a goal against the run of play during a modified odd-man rush for the 4-3 advantage at the 11:20 mark.
Then with the goalie pulled and on the powerplay, the hosts once again pulled the game even as senior Danny Dzhaniyev (Brooklyn, N.Y.) redirected a point offering in the low slot by Mack for the 4-4 tie with just 50.6 seconds remaining in the third period.
Nearing the end of a back-and-forth overtime session, Daniel Laatsch took the puck from behind his own net and skated coast-to-coast before beating Sergeev past the outstretched right pad for the 5-4 victory at the 3:48 mark.
GOALTENDING
Sergeev drops to 4-4-0 on the year with the loss after making 23 saves while Scarfone improves to 2-4-0 on the year after stopping 32 shots in the victory.
NOTES
Penn State held the 36-28 edge in shots on goal while going 2-for-5 on the man-advantage and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
With his first period powerplay tally, Fink moves into a tie with David Goodwin ’17 for eighth on the all-time powerplay goals list with 10 now for his career. With his assist on the game-tying goal in the third period he secures his third multi-point effort this season and the 12th of his career.
With a pair of assists Mack also registers his third multi-point game this season and the seventh of his career while Dzhaniyev collects his second multi-=point effort of the season and the 18th of his career following a one goal and one assist outing.
The extra attacker goal was the first for Penn State since Fink tallied with the net empty last November against Michigan.
The win was the first for the Badgers in four overtime games this season while marking the first overtime loss for Penn State since last February also against Wisconsin at Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions controlled the dot against the best faceoff team in the conference winning 56.5 percent (39-for-69) of the draws with Cerrato leading the way going 12-for-19 (63.2 percent).
NEXT UP
The two teams return to Pegula tomorrow to close out the weekend series with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.
For more information on the 2024-25 season, visit the men's hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.