If Friday night was an exploration into the kind of team Penn State men’s hockey can be with its current roster – a tale of youth and relative inexperience but also promise – Saturday night was a reminder of what the team still is, the Nittany Lions falling 6-0 to Ohio State.
It was a game that saw both teams find their more natural form relative to how their respective seasons have gone. Penn State snakebitten on the offensive end of the ice, prone to giving up rushes the other way with shaky goaltending by Oskar Autio. Ohio State on the other hand showcased stout defense, timely goaltending and crisp offense to slowly turn the screws on a Penn State team that had not lost in its last three contests.
6-0 finals have a tendency to happen all at once or slowly over time, Saturday was a bit of both as Ohio State went ahead 2-0 after the first period and slowly but surely added to its margin. Penn State would create chances but two goalposts went in the Buckeyes’ favor when the Nittany Lions sorely needed a response. To Penn State’s credit a failure to score was in part a failure to create good chances, but also a failure to find itself on the receiving end of bounces that could have gone its way.
On the other end of the ice a fairly stout defensive performance and goaltending outing by sophomore Liam Souliere on Friday night was followed up by a more porous effort by both Penn State’s defense as a whole and Autio, who was not singularly to blame for the final score but did little to help the cause either.
Overall it was a performance to forget for a team that has done a little bit of everything this year. The Nittany Lions will next head to Notre Dame for a weekend series before returning home to host Minnesota for the last regular season home stand of the year following an off week.
