No. 17 Penn State Comes Back to Tie No. 2 Notre Dame, 2-2
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 17 Penn State clawed its way back from an early two-goal deficit, but couldn’t complete the comeback as they finished with a 2-2 tie in overtime against the second-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Big Ten Conference action this afternoon to close out the regular season series at Pegula Ice Arena.
Each team earned a point for the tie with the Irish collecting the extra point with a 1-0 shootout victory. Notre Dame improves to 21-5-2 on the year and 15-2-1-1 in conference action while the Nittany Lions now stand at 13-12-5 overall and 6-9-5-2 in the Big Ten.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Notre Dame opened the scoring as Andrew Oglevie skated the puck into the zone along the half wall firing on net and Cal Burke dove across the crease slapping in the rebound for the 1-0 lead at 6:38 of the first period.
- The just 2:16 later Dylan Malmquist was able to slip a rebound past Nittany Lion sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) for the 2-0 lead at 8:22 of the opening frame.
- Penn State cut the deficit in half late in the first period as junior Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) roofed a rebound off sophomore James Gobetz’s (St. James, N.Y.) initial blast from the right point for the 2-1 score at 17:49.
- The Nittany Lions pulled the game even early in the second period as sophomore Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alb.) slipped the puck out from behind the net to classmate Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ont.) on the left side of the crease and he chipped it past Irish net-minder Cale Morris for the 2-2 score at 2:09.
- The defenses and goaltenders tightened up after that and no goals were scored during the final 37:51 sending the game into overtime.
- Penn State had a golden chance in the extra frame as Sturtz was held going in on a breakaway bid and was awarded a penalty shot with 1:36 to play in overtime. The junior deked Morris making a great move, but the Irish goaltender was able to get the left pad on the puck keeping it out of the net and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.
- Jordan Gross was the only person to find the back of the net during the shootout earning Notre Dame the extra point in the Big Ten standings as he slipped the puck through Jones during the third round of the shootout.
- Sophomores Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) and Folkes were each stopped by Morris and Sturtz’s bid sailed just high during the shootout for Penn State.
GOALTENDING
Morris was very strong in net securing a career-high 55 saves while moving to 20-3-1 on the year and Jones stopped 32 pucks while running his record to 12-10-4.
NOTES
- Today’s attendance of 6,221 is the third largest in Pegula Ice Arena history behind Opening Night in 2013 vs. Army (6,370) and last night vs. Notre Dame (6,229).
- Penn State held the commanding 57-34 edge in shots while going 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, but were 0-for-2 with the man-advantage.
- Senior defensemen Trevor Hamilton (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) played in his 100th career NCAA game this afternoon with his last 68 coming as a member of the Nittany Lions over the past two seasons. Hamilton hasn’t missed a single game since donning the Blue and White.
- With his first period goal Sturtz snapped a six-game goalless drought and extended his point streak to three games (1-4-5). He is now just one point shy of becoming the second Nittany Lion ever to reach 100 for his career.
COACHES CORNER
“I was really happy how the team responded after being down 2-0 early. What a great atmosphere, it was a really good hockey game after [going down 2-0].” – Guy Gadowsky
NEXT UP
Penn State has next weekend off before heading to Michigan State for a pair of contests on Friday February 16 and Saturday February 17. Both games will air live on the Big Ten Network.