MINNEAPOLIS. – In spite of outshooting the Gophers 35-7 in the final two periods of play, Penn State men’s hockey fell 3-2 to Minnesota on Saturday afternoon as the Gophers scored the winning goal with 1:08 left in regulation. The loss ends the Nittany Lions season, falling 2-0 to Minnesota in a best-of-three series in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
It’s hard to say with any certainty if this sort of thing happens to Penn State with an above average regularity, but for a program which has been among the nation’s leaders in shots on goal – basically for the past decade – the Nittany Lions have fallen short in more than their fair share of such games, largely dominating in the box score, only to fall prey to the simple fact it can sometimes only take one shot to lose.
While the Nittany Lions have generally always been in favor of volume over anything else, as Penn State neared 50 shots on goal, it seemed reasonable that more than two of them would have made it past Gopher netminder Justen Close. And yet that never happened. All told Penn State played four games against the Gophers on the road this season, scoring just three goals over the span of those 12 periods.
Away from the shot totals Penn State fell behind 1-0 right out of the gates as Liam Souliere misjudged a puck shot from range by Jaxon Nelson with about two minutes gone by in regulation. Nelson would add another 6:50 to go in the opening period while on the power play, the Gophers killing off an extended Penn State 5-on-3 opportunity not long before.
Trailing 2-0 Penn State would finally find some life around the midway point of the second frame as Jimmy Dowd Jr found the back of the net with just over 11 minutes to go in the period. Matt DiMarsico would add another, tying the game at 2-2 at the 7:07 mark to give the Nittany Lions an added boost with their season on the line. Penn State would outshoot Minnesota 15-3 in that period with their most dominant performance of the season against the Gophers at 3M Arena.
Penn State would continue its aggressive offensive play in the third period but was unable to find the back of the net to take the lead. In fact over the course of the game’s final minutes, two different goal opportunities would be waved off. The first, a save on the line by Close which was reviewed and upheld as no goal. The second an even more painful reversal for Penn State’s fortunes as Danny Dzhaniyev’s legitimate goal to give Penn State a 3-2 lead with six minutes remaining was overturned due to an offsides review on the entry into the zone moments earlier.
Whatever the case, it was Aaron Huglen, taking a pass from Brody Lamb that would doom the Nittany Lions with 1:08 to play, sending Penn State packing with a final record of 15-18-3.
