Men's Hockey Downs UConn In OT Thriller, Advances to First-Ever Frozen FourMen's Hockey Downs UConn In OT Thriller, Advances to First-Ever Frozen Four

Men's Hockey Downs UConn In OT Thriller, Advances to First-Ever Frozen Four

Matt DiMarsico scored the golden goal at 17:56 of overtime to send Penn State to it's first-ever Frozen Four with a 3-2 victory over UConn in the Allentown Regional Final on Sunday night at the PPL Center

Box Score

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – No. 12 Penn State advances to its first-ever Frozen Four after sophomore Matthew DiMarsico (Wexford, Pa.) scored the overtime winner to lift the Nittany Lions past No. 7 UConn, 3-2, in the Allentown Regional Final at the PPL Center on Sunday evening.

Penn State will face Boston University in the second national semifinal at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 10 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo.

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HOW IT HAPPENED

  • UConn (23-12-4) opened the scoring early in the first period as Joey Muldowney sent a wrister past the blocker of Nittany Lion junior net-minder Arsenii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) from the high slot, between the rings, at the 3:09 mark.
  • Penn State responded with a goal from its fourth line as a strong forecheck behind the Husky net from freshman Keaton Peters (Sussex, Wis.) and graduate student Tyler Paquette (Collegeville, Pa.) produced the turnover and Paquette found sophomore Dane Dowiak (Pittsburgh, Pa.) below the far dot and he one-touched the puck inside the near post for the 1-1 score at 13:27 of the first period.
  • The Huskies grabbed the lead midway through the second frame on a fluke play as a flick of the wrist by Tabor Heaslip from the blue line fluttered and bounced multiple times and Sergeev never had eyes on it as it slipped just inside the near post for the 2-1 edge at the 11:27 mark.
  • The Nittany Lions wasted little time finding the equalizer as freshman classmates Charlie Cerrato (Fallston, Md.) and JJ Wiebusch (Verona, Wis.) connected once again with the latter picking the corner from the far dot for the 2-2 score at the 11:57 mark.
  • After a back-and-forth overtime frame Cerrato made a play at the blueline to juke a defender before slipping a behind-the-back pass to sophomore Matt DiMarsico (Wexford, Pa.) cutting into the slot and he ripped a wicked wrister shortside past the blocker of UConn goaltender Callum Tung for the golden goal and 3-2 victory at 17:56 of the extra session.

GOALTENDING

  • Sergeev improves to 19-8-4 on the year after making 42 saves, one off his career-high, in the victory while Tung finishes the year 10-4-1 after stopping 38 shots in the loss.
  • Sergeev’s 19 wins are now the third-most in a single-season by a Nittany Lion goaltender.
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NOTES

  • UConn held the slim 44-41 edge in shots on goal including a 28-13 edge in the third period and overtime. Neither team converted on the one powerplay chance they each had in the contest.
  • After scoring a pair of goals on Friday night, Dowiak now has goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his Nittany Lion career.
  • With one assist, senior Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) now has 64 career points to rank third all-time for Nittany Lion defenseman scoring.
  • Wiebusch and Cerrato both extend their career long point streaks to eight games while the former now has a five-game goal streak with seven goals over his last five games. Wiebusch’s 14 goals this season are now tied with Casey Bailey for the seventh-most by a Penn State rookie all-time.
  • Mack now has 26 assists on the season to rank tied for eighth for single-season assists in Penn State history and the most by a Nittany Lion defenseman.
  • With a pair of assists, Cerrato tallies his 15th multi-point effort of the season to tie for the team lead while his 27 assists are the second-most by a rookie and rank tied for third in a single-season.
  • Penn State improves to 4-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament while advancing to the first Frozen Four in program history.

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