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Jan. 9, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The No. 15 Nittany Lion men's hockey team settled for a split with Minnesota following a 7-1 loss on Saturday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena in front of 6,105 fans. Vince Pedrie (Rochester, Minn.) tallied a goal for the second straight game.
"They're a very good team," Head coach Guy Gadowsky said. "It's Minnesota, that's a level that I think this program would like to rise to at some point and this is a good reminder that we're not there yet."
Penn State (13-4-3, 3-1-0-0 Big Ten) suffered its first loss in conference play this season and its largest margin of defeat at Pegula Ice Arena. Minnesota (9-10-0, 4-2-0-0 Big Ten) split a series a second straight Big Ten road weekend.
The Gophers limited Penn State to a season-low 30 shots, while connecting on seven of 32 attempts including three short-handed goals. Hudson Fasching had two of those short-handers, while Justin Kloos ended with a four-point day. Eric Scheirhorn had 29 saves in the win.
Leon Bristedt opened the scoring 7:43 into the contest, scoring in transition from Tommy Novak and Nick Seeler, who would add another assist on Fasching's first short-handed goal for a 2-0 lead after one period.
In a penalty-filled second period that saw Penn State fend off all three Minnesota power plays, Tyler Sheehy connected on an even-strength tally at the 2:29 mark from Kloos and Jack Sadek. Penn State was a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and has now successfully killed 13 in a row.
A turnover deep in Penn State territory allowed Vinni Lettieri to bag his third of the year just 1:31 into the frame for a 4-0 lead.
A chance to eat into the deficit came on a double-minor by Michael Brodzinski that put Penn State on a four-minute power play with 14:11 remaining. Penn State elected to pull Matthew Skoff (McKees Rocks, Pa.) for a 6-on-4 power play, but Kloos was able to take advantage of the empty net for a short-handed goal and a 5-0 lead.
Fasching added another short-handed goal from Kloos with 6:09 remaining before Pedrie uncorked a shot from the left point to prevent the shutout. David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) won a loose puck in the corner and found Dylan Richard (Sherwood Park, Alberta). Richard slid the puck form the corner across the zone to Pedrie, who score the game-winning goal last night. Goodwin earned his team-leading 13th assist on the play.
The scoring was capped by Ryan Norman's second of the season off a faceoff, assisted by Jack Ramsey and Darian Romanko.
Both teams went 0-for-4 on the power play and faceoffs were nearly even with Minnesota holding a 30-29 edge. David Glen (Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta) went 11-4 at the dot.
NITTANY NOTES
• Penn State played in front of its 46th sellout in 49 regular-season games at Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions have played in front of 26 straight home sellouts.
• Derian Hamilton made his second appearance in the past two games following a six-game absence. He was the lone Nittany Lion to have a positive rating (plus-1) on Saturday.
• Matthew Skoff had his eight-game unbeaten streak snapped on Saturday, the longest by a Nittany Lion netminder. Skoff's last loss came Oct. 16, 2015 vs. Notre Dame.
• Penn State fell to 2-8-0 all-time against Minnesota and 2-4-0 at Pegula Ice Arena.
• The Nittany Lions split with Minnesota at Pegula Ice Arena for the second straight year.
• The seven goals scored by Minnesota are the most in the series and the six-goal margin of victory was the largest in series history.
• Minnesota matched Michigan (Feb. 7, 2014) and Notre Dame (Oct. 16, 2015) for the most goals scored by an opponent at Pegula Ice Arena.
• Penn State fell to 9-3-1 at Pegula Ice Arena and is 22-5-4 in Pegula Ice Arena the past two seasons. Two of those five losses have come to Minnesota.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State continues Big Ten play at home when it welcomes Wisconsin to Pegula Ice Arena on Friday- Saturday, Jan. 15-16. Friday's game is set for a 6:30 p.m. faceoff on Big Ten Network and BTN2Go, while Saturday's game will commence at 6 p.m. on ESPNU and WatchESPN.