EAST LANSING, Mich. — No. 3 Penn State traveled to East Lansing to take on the top ranked Spartans on Friday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 8, in a big time Big Ten battle.
Friday night’s game ended in an overtime thriller where Michigan State earned the win with a final score of 2-1. The No. 1 team in the country proved it Saturday night when they dominated Penn State and came away with a series sweep after winning the second game Saturday night with a final score of 5-0.
Friday night’s game was the battle everyone was expecting between these two teams when they matched up. Michigan State started the scoring when Anthony Romani sent one past the goalie at the 17:09 mark in the first period.
It took until late in the second period for Penn State to tie the game when star freshman Gavin McKenna put the Nittany Lions on the board as his shot went off a Spartan skate and into the net at the 16:23 mark.
Neither team could break the 1-1 tie in regulation, sending the game into overtime, giving both teams one point in the conference standings. Michigan State secured the win in overtime when Tiernan Shoudy found the back of the net.
Saturday night was all Michigan State from the first puck drop. The Spartans did not waste much time to score, taking them just three minutes to do so when Charlie Stramel scored his first goal of the game. Then with 1:23 left in the first period, Porter Martone scored another goal for the Spartans.
Colin Ralph kept the scoring going for Michigan State when he found the back of the net halfway into the second period.
The Spartans finished this game with two more goals in the third period, one by Stramel for his second of the game and another by Anthony Romani to make the final score 5-0 with Michigan State sweeping the Nittany Lions.
Penn State just could not get anything going in this game or take advantage of any of their power play opportunities.
With the Nittany Lions dropping both games, they are now 9-3 on the year and 2-2 in conference play.
Penn State will return home to take on No. 2 Michigan for another Big Ten battle Friday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Nov. 15.
