No. 16 Penn State men’s hockey (6-3, 0-2 Big Ten) lost to Ohio State (6-2, 3-1 Big Ten) once again on Saturday afternoon in Columbus to wrap up a two-game series.
Although Penn State struck first, four unanswered Buckeye scores ultimately led the Buckeyes to a 4-1 win over the Nittany Lions and a sweep of the weekend Big Ten-opening series.
How It Happened
Head coach Guy Gadowsky made a few changes to the starting lineup on Saturday, most notably switching goalies for this game from Liam Souliere to Oskar Autio.
The Nittany Lions had a strong start to the game after a 5-2 loss to the Buckeyes on Friday night. They were able to strike early when Connor MacEachern, assisted by Clayton Phillips, scored his sixth goal of the year.
After that, Penn State struggled with penalties, getting two for having too many men and another for cross-checking. The Nittany Lions’ penalty kill unit and Auti prevented any scores.
Penn State had its first power-play opportunity early on in the second period, but the Ohio State penalty kill stepped up and held the Nittany Lions without a score.
Penn State had many opportunities to score throughout the period, but Ohio State goalie Jakub Dobeš stopped all 10 Nittany Lion shots on goal. Likewise, Autio stopped all six of the Buckeyes’ shots in the period.
The second period ended with Penn State failing on its second power-play opportunity after a Dominic Vidoli hooking penalty.
The Nittany Lions had several chances to score early on in the third period, but Ohio State clearly took the momentum after Mason Lohrei scored for the Buckeyes to tie the game. His goal was assisted by Mark Cheremeta and Jake Wise.
Ohio State really turned it on after that and had great puck control. The Buckeyes scored again when Dominic Vidoli netted a puck to take a 2-1 lead.
Penn State looked defeated after that second Buckeye goal and Ohio State scored another — this time from Joe Dunlap.
Mark Cheremeta scored an empty-netter at the end of the game for Ohio State to propel the Buckeyes to a 4-1 win.
Takeaways
- The Nittany Lions played well in the first two periods but fell apart in the third. In fact, Penn State is now outscoring its opponents 12-3 in the first period. The team’s luck has run out in the third, though, as Ohio State outscored Penn State 7-1 in the final period over the two-game series.
- The defensive unit and the penalty kill played well for Penn State. The Nittany Lions killed both power plays on Saturday but wound up with an 0-for-3 man-advantage in the game.
- Connor MacEachern can play. He’s now scored at least one goal in three straight games and has notched a point in five of his last six games. MacEachern is currently on a career-best three-game point streak, too.
What’s Next?
The Nittany Lions will face Michigan next week at the Pegula Ice Arena for a two-game series. The first matchup will begin at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday and will air on the Big Ten Network.
