No. 19 Penn State Falls to No. 6 Notre Dame, 5-3
Junior Andrew Sturtz moves into third on the Penn State all-time points list, but the Nittany Lions drop game one against Notre Dame, 5-3
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – No. 19 Penn State University dropped a tough 5-3 road decision to the sixth-ranked University of Notre Dame in Big Ten conference action this evening from Compton Family Ice Arena.
With the loss the Nittany Lions fall to 5-6-0 on the year and 2-3-0 in conference action while the Fighting Irish improve to 7-3-1 overall and 3-0-0 in Big Ten play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State grabbed the early lead as junior Derian Hamilton (Port McNeill, British Columbia) sent a gorgeous pass up ice to classmate Alec Marsh (Bridgewater, N.J.) sending the Lions into the offensive zone on an odd-man rush. Marsh then reached around his defender and fed the puck in front of the net where sophomore Blake Gober (Colleyville, Tx.) beat Irish net-minder Cale Morris on the glove side for the 1-0 score at 4:39 of the first period.
- Notre Dame pulled even using an odd-man rush of its own at 11:55 of the opening frame as Bo Brauer fired a wrist shot bar down past the glove of sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) from the right slot for the 1-1 score.
- The Nittany Lions responded as sophomore Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ont.) found classmate Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) skating into the offensive zone and he fired a wrist shot far side from the right dot beating Morris past the blocker for the 2-1 score at 19:32 of the first period.
- The Irish once again tied things up midway through the second period as Bobby Nardella fired a slap shot from just over center ice that snuck past Jones for the 2-2 score at 9:14 of the second period.
- Notre Dame then took its first lead of the game as Andrew Oglevie fired a wrist shot into the back of the net from the left circle off a feed from behind the net by Jake Evans at 14:20 of the second period for the 3-2 lead.
- Penn State then came back to tie things up as sophomore Brett Murray (Bolton, Ont.) fed junior Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) out front and he used a nifty move flicking a backhander over the blocker of Morris for the 3-3 score at 15:48.
- The Irish came back again to regain the lead as Dawson Cook redirected a feed out front of the net by Matt Hellickson for the 4-3 lead at 11:41 of the third period.
- Jack Jenkins added an empty-net goal at 19:40 of the third period to account for the 5-3 final.
GOALTENDING
Jones falls to 5-4 on the year with the loss after making 14 saves while Morris improves to 6-1-0 this season after stopping 40 shots.
NOTES
- Pavlychev extends his career-best point-streak and goal-streak to four games after his first period goal.
- Sturtz extends his goal-streak to four games, matching a career-high, while moving into solo third place on the Penn State all-time points list with 78 passing Eric Scheid ’16 and Dylan Richard ’17.
- Junior Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) earned the secondary assist on Sturtz’s goal giving him 43 for his career to tie Taylor Holstrom for fifth on the Penn State all-time career assists list.
- Freshman Cole Hults (Stoughton, Wis.) sees his career-high eight-game point-streak snapped.
- Tonight marked the first time the two teams have played as conference opponents and Notre Dame now evens the all-time series at 2-2-1.
- Penn State held the 43-19 lead in shots, but were 0-for-2 with the man-advantage and didn’t commit a penalty all game.
NEXT UP
The two teams return to Compton tomorrow evening to close out the weekend series. Puck drop is slated for 5:30 p.m. and the game will air nationally on NBC Sports Network.
