COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fifth-seeded and No. 11 Penn State drops an overtime heartbreaker to third-seeded and No. 10 Ohio State, 4-3, in the Big Ten Semifinals at Value City Arena on Saturday evening.
Penn State drops to 20-13-4 following the loss while the Buckeyes improve to 24-12-2 overall with the victory.
Ohio State will travel to East Lansing next Saturday to battle top-seeded and No. 2 Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship game while Penn State will spend the next week scoreboard watching for its chance at an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament and a trip to Allentown, Pennsylvania for the regional on March 28-30 at the PPL Center.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Buckeyes opened the scoring midway through the opening period as Gunnarwolfe Fontaine redirected a point shot from Aiden Hansen-Bukata that slipped through Nittany Lion junior goaltender Arsenii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) for the 1-0 edge at the 10:37 mark.
- Penn State evened the score early in the second period with a gritty goal against the run of play as senior Ben Schoen (Maumee, Ohio) jammed one in at the near post for the 1-1 score at the 2:08 mark.
- The Nittany Lions would take their first lead of the game near the midway point of the second stanza with a powerplay goal as sophomore Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta) one-touched the puck across the crease and freshman JJ Wiebusch (Verona, Wis.) had a yawning net and didn’t miss for the 2-1 advantage at the 9:05 mark.
- Ohio State pulled the game even near the midpoint of the third period as Nathan Lewis batted a puck out of the air in the net mouth and into the back of the net, originally ruled no-goal on the ice, but after a Buckeye challenge the officials awarded the goal and the 2-2 tie at the 9:19 mark.
- The hosts then regained the lead off an odd-man rush as Patrick Guzzo one-touched a pass from Jake Dunlap past Sergeev for the 3-2 lead at 11:36 of the third period.
- Penn State dug deep and found the equalizer as sophomore Matt DiMarsico (Wexford, Pa.) slipped a rebound into a yawning net after junior Carter Schade (Mars, Pa.) sent the puck toward the net from the blueline for the 3-3 score at 14:05 of the final frame.
- A neutral zone turnover lead to a breakaway for Fontaine and he buried the biscuit through the five-hole of Sergeev for the overtime winner at 14:31 of the extra session.
GOALTENDING
Sergeev drops to 17-8-4 on the year after making 38 saves in the loss while his counterpart, Logan Terness, moves to 12-8-1 after stopping 31 shots in the victory.
NOTES
- Ohio State held the, 42-34, edge in shots on goal and converted on its lone powerplay chance in the first period while going 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.
- Penn State now has at least one powerplay goal in six-straight games and nine of the last 11.
- The loss is the first for the Nittany Lions when leading after two periods falling to 18-1-1 in such games this season while the loss was also just the second overtime loss all-time for Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament falling to 6-2 in such games, the other loss was also a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Wisconsin in the 2021 Big Ten Tournament semifinals.
- For Schoen the three-game goal streak is a new career-best while Wiebusch extends his career-long point streak to six games and also has a career-high three-game goal streak.
- Wiebusch’s five goals so far in the Big Ten Tournament are the third-most in a single-tournament all time behind the seven from Adam Fantilli and the six of Penn State’s own Alex Limoges. His 12 goals on the season are also now the tenth-most all-time for a Penn State freshman.
- Fink’s 29 assists on the year break a tie with Denis Smirnov ’20 for the most in a single season in Penn State history.
- With the secondary assist on DiMarsico’s third period goal, freshman Charlie Cerrato (Fallston, Md.) extends his career-long point streak to six games while his 37 points break a tie with Nate Sucese ’20 for the second-most by a Nittany Lion rookie all-time.
- Schade has now registered a point and assist in three-straight games for the first time in his career.
- With one goal and one assist, DiMarsico secures his sixth multi-point effort of the season and the 12th of his career.
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