Penn State kept things close, but a flurry of second period goals by Minnesota ahead for good as the Gophers celebrated senior night and an eventual Big Ten regular season title Saturday.
After giving up five unanswered goals on Friday night Penn State came out with a much more effective game on Saturday.
The Nittany Lions generated early chances and kept the Gophers off the scoreboard for nearly the entire period.
The hard work paid off as former Gopher, Max Gardiner redirected a shot in front of goal into the back of the net to give Penn State a 1-0 margin with 4:44 left in the opening frame. Needing a win to seal the regular season Big Ten title, Minnesota suddenly was in a game.
Perhaps sensing that Saturday night wouldn’t be as simple as Friday night’s contest, the Gophers exploded, scoring two goals in just 22 seconds to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission. PJ Musico got the start in goal but never looked entirely comfortable as the Gophers swarmed around the offensive zone.
Despite the first period deficit the Nittany Lions led the shot total 10-8 through 20 minutes of play and held fairly even ground in all other major statistics after struggling Friday night.
Minnesota extended the lead just under five minutes into the second period to make it 3-1, but James Robinson cut back into the hole just two minutes later to give Penn State life with the score 3-2.
It was all Golden Gophers from there. Minnesota added another goal just a minute later to make it 4-2 and a fifth goal just five minutes after that to blow the game wide open. One final goal with 3:51 to go in the period made the final 6-2 margin and saw senior goaltender PJ Musico replaced by Matthew Skoff.
The Nittany Lions rattled off 10 shots in the final period but failed to score, going 0-for-2 on the man advantage during the game. Minnesota players peppered Skoff with 10 shots of their own but couldn’t find the back of the net again in a game already decided before the final horn sounded.
Penn State will face Ohio State on Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Puck drop is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
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