Jones Backstops No. 16 Penn State to 3-2 Victory over Michigan State

Jones Backstops No. 16 Penn State to 3-2 Victory over Michigan State

For Immediate Press Release – Saturday, February 17, 2018

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Junior Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) becomes just the second Nittany Lion in program history to reach the 100-point milestone as he collects a goal and an assist to lead No. 16 Penn State past Michigan State, 3-2, in Big Ten Conference action this evening from Munn Ice Arena to close out the regular season series.

Penn State snaps an eight-game winless streak securing a victory for the first time since January 12 as they improve to 14-13-5 on the year and 7-10-5-2 in Big Ten play. The Spartans fall to 11-19-2 overall and 5-15-2-1 in conference action.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Penn State opened the scoring with a power-play tally as junior Kevin Kerr (Bensalem, Pa.) found classmate Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) just above the right dot and the junior fired a wrist shot far side over the blocker of Michigan State net-minder Ed Minney for the 1-0 lead at 12:38 of the first period. Junior Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) picked up the secondary assist with a clean face-off win.
• The Spartans answered just 55 seconds later as Brody Stevens skated in all alone on a breakaway and fired past the glove of PSU sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) for the 1-1 tie at 13:33.
• The Nittany Lions regained the lead as Sturtz skated circles through the Michigan State zone during a 4-on-4 period of play late in the first period and rang a shot from the right circle off the post and in over the glove of Minney for the 2-1 lead at 19:43.
• Penn State extended its lead after a strong play in the corner by sophomore Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ont.) who won a battle and sent the puck to Kerr at the left point the junior fired a shot that was tipped out front by freshman Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) and over the right shoulder of Minney for the 3-1 advantage at 4:58 of the second period.
• Michigan State cut the deficit to a single goal with a power-play tall by Patrick Khodorenko as he finished off a great feed from Mitchell Lewandowski for the 3-2 score at 6:48 of the third period.

GOALTENDING

Jones stood tall in the third period stopping 18 shots alone and 31 for the game to improve to 13-11-4 on the year while Minney collected 34 saves and falls to 0-3-0 with the setback.

NOTES

• Guy Gadowsky secures his 99th career win as the Nittany Lion head coach and will go for No. 100 next week at home against Minnesota.
• Sturtz becomes just the second Penn State player to reach the 100 point milestone, joining the program’s all-time leading scorer David Goodwin ’17, and by doing it in his 105th career game he is now the fastest all-time as Goodwin registered his 100th point in the 119th game of his career.
• Sturtz also registered his 30th career multi-point effort and his 12th this season after finishing the night with one goal and one assist.
• Sturtz’ 4-on-4 tally was also the 12th of the season for Penn State in that scenario, which is the most in the nation by five over the seven of Colgate.
• Senior Trevor Hamilton (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) secured his 21st assist this season on Sturtz’ first period goal and he now stands just one shy of Vince Pedrie’s program record for assists by a defenseman of 22 from last season. Hamilton’s 21 assists rank lead the Big Ten and are tied for fifth in the country among defensemen.
• With a pair of assists Kerr registers his fourth multi-point effort this season and the ninth of his career.
• Penn State held the 37-33 advantage in shots while going 1-for-3 with the man-advantage. Michigan State went 1-for-5 on the power-play.
• The Nittany Lions improve to 11-7-4 all-time against Michigan State and secure the season series victory 2-1-1-1.

NEXT UP

• Penn State returns home to close out the regular season with a weekend series against No. 10 Minnesota next Friday and Saturday.
• Both games will air live on the Big Ten Network with puck drop slated for 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively.
• Saturday will serve as senior night as our four senior student-athletes will be recognized in a brief pregame ceremony.