No. 15 Men's Hockey Falls Late to No. 2 Minnesota in Regular-Season FinaleNo. 15 Men's Hockey Falls Late to No. 2 Minnesota in Regular-Season Finale

No. 15 Men's Hockey Falls Late to No. 2 Minnesota in Regular-Season Finale

A late five-minute major led to the game-winning goal as No. 2 Minnesota defeated No. 15 Penn State, 5-3, in a back-and-forth affair in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday evening.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A late five-minute major led to the game-winning goal as No. 2 Minnesota defeated No. 15 Penn State, 5-3, in a back-and-forth affair in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday evening.

Penn State sees its unbeaten streak halted at seven games as they fall to 18-12-4 on the year and 9-11-4-1-1-3 in league play while the Gophers improve to 24-7-4 overall and 15-6-3-1-2-0 in Big Ten action.

The Nittany Lions finish the regular-season as the five seed and will travel to No. 4 Michigan for a best-of-three B1G Quarterfinal series next weekend with games one and two slated for 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday night with a winner-take-all game three scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday night if necessary.

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • After a scoreless first period, Penn State opened the scoring as senior Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) sent a puck on net that redirected off a Gopher stick out front and past goaltender Liam Souliere for the 1-0 edge at the 6:01 mark.
  • Minnesota responded just under four minutes later as Matthew Wood slipped in a rebound from atop the goal crease after Oliver Moore’s initial bid was turned aside at 9:45 of the middle frame.
  • The visitors then grabbed the lead as Mason Nevers capitalized on a fortuitous bounce after a blocked shot and roofed the loose puck bar down for the 2-1 edge at 15:11 of the second period.
  • Jimmy Snuggerud appeared to give the Gophers a two-goal margin with less than 30 seconds remaining in the middle stanza, however, Penn State challenged for a missed major penalty resulting in the goal being taken off the board and the clock reset.
  • On the ensuing major penalty, sophomore Matt DiMarsico (Wexford, Pa.) potted the equalizer on a rebound at the near post for the 2-2 score at 18:26 of the second period.
  • After killing the remainder of the major penalty, Minnesota regained the lead early in the third period as a neutral zone turnover for the Nittany Lions led to an odd-man rush and Wood finished a feed from Connor Kurth for the 3-2 advantage at the 3:44 mark.
  • Penn State wasted little time finding the equalizer as freshman Charlie Cerrato (Fallston, Md.) collected a loose puck, spun and sent a wicked wrister bar-down past the sprawling blocker of Souliere for the 3-3 score just 61 ticks later.
  • As the major penalty was winding down it was Minnesota’s Mike Koster sneaking backdoor and slotting home a behind-the-back pass from Jimmy Clark for the 4-3 lead with just 30 seconds remaining on the powerplay and 3:04 left in the game.
  • Moore would then hit the empty net with just 25 seconds left in the contest to account for the 5-3 final.

GOALTENDING

Junior Arsenii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) falls to 15-7-4 on the year after making 27 saves in the loss while Souliere improves to 13-8-1 after stopping 30 shots in the victory.

NOTES

  • Penn State held the slim, 33-32, edge in shots on goal while both sides went 1-for-3 on the man-advantage each converting on a five-minute major penalty.
  • Saturday’s attendance of 6,570 marks the eighth-largest in Pegula Ice Arena history and the fifth-largest this year.
  • With one goal and a pair of assists, Cerrato ties his career-high with three points and secures his 11th multi-point effort of the season while his 31 points are the fourth-most by a Nittany Lion rookie all-time.
  • Freshman JJ Wiebusch (Verona, Wis.) also tied his career high in points with a career-best three assists marking his sixth multi-point game of the season. With 24 points now on the season, Wiebusch sits just outside the top-10 all-time for freshman scoring at Penn State.
  • With 17 assists each on the season, Cerrato and Wiebusch are tied with Cole Hults for the fifth-most by a Nittany Lion rookie. Cerrato’s 14 goals also tie Casey Bailey for the sixth-most for a Penn State freshman.
  • With one goal and one assist, DiMarsico tallies his fourth multi-point game of the season and the 10th of his career and he has now scored a goal in back-to-back games for the fifth time in his career.
  • The goal for Mack was the 11th of his career breaking a tie for seventh on the Penn State all-time goals list for defensemen with Clayton Phillips ’22 and Paul DeNaples ’23 as he is now just one goal shy of a tie for fifth with Trevor Hamilton ’18 and Jimmy Dowd Jr.
  • With 61 points now for his career, Mack currently sits fourth on the all-time points list for a defenseman as one of just five Nittany Lion blue-liners all-time to eclipse the 60-point mark.

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.