It wasn’t too long ago that Penn State hockey was 0-5, staring down the barrel of a throwaway season during a throwaway year. Things would have been easier to just simply pack it in, a few parties or nights out on the town, a few positive COVID-19 tests and the 2020-21 would be postponed and canceled into oblivion.
But the Nittany Lions didn’t – despite what any thoughts in the back of their head might have suggested they should do – and now having won nine of their last 12 games and five of their last six, the 2020-21 season is full of life.
Of course it hasn’t been easy, at 9-8 on the year Penn State has now won six-straight games that have been decided by just a goal, the latest coming to pass as Alex Limoges scored his 50th as a Nittany Lion for a 2-1 overtime victory against Notre Dame on Thursday night.
There is something funny about this for anyone who has watched Penn State hockey over the years. The Nittany Lions have gotten to the point becoming nationally relevant through relentless offense and historic goal-scoring abilities. Now they’re winning games by a goal while scoring only two or three of their own. The games Penn State used to struggle in are now the games the Nittany Lions are winning.
“It’s nice to know that we don’t have to score a touchdown, to have a chance to win,” Gadowsky said with a laugh. Penn State is 21st in goals per game – averaging three – a seemingly foreign location for a program used to Top 5 status.
The low goal scoring is of course not by design, which makes for an interesting clash of emotions for coach Guy Gadowsky and his players. On the one hand his team won, on the other hand, they weren’t trying to play to just score a few goals. But as Gadowsky himself admitted Thursday night, you’ll take your wins, and the lessons that go with them. Although as longtime goalscorer and captain Alex Limoges noted, it’s a change of pace from the nights of blowout wins and seven goal outings.
“It can definitely be frustrating,” Limoges said. “Especially for some of the older guys that are used to putting up five or six goals for a game. That’s where we just need to stick to the system and really trust what we do. Because, especially in a shortened season like this there’s really no room for error and we found that out early on in a tough way.”
If there was any lesson to take from the outset on Thursday night into Friday night’s rematch, it’s the start. Notre Dame jumped on Penn State early as Oskar Autio stood tall making 16 first period saves before Penn State proceeded to outshoot the Irish 26-16 in the final two periods which featured an 11-3 margin in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
However shooting the puck is not scoring the puck, something both teams found out as the game wore along, Alex Steeves broke the 0-0 tie to put Notre Dame ahead 12:01 into the second period before Clayton Phillips wristed home a long shot through traffic just over six minutes into the third to tie things back up.
But neither team would find the winner in regulation.
And so for the fourth-straight time this season, Penn State went to overtime, and for the second time this year, Limoges worked his way through the 3-on-3 defense, and slotted home the winner.
Penn State sits in fourth in the Big Ten standings, eight points behind conference leading Minnesota, the Gophers slated to close out the home schedule at Pegula Ice Arena later this season.
The fact that sentence is even relevant speaks to the change Penn State’s season has taken. From a throwaway year, to yet another season of watching out of town scores, wondering what it means for the title race and with 12 games to go in that race.
Penn State and Notre Dame take the ice again tomorrow evening at 6:00.
