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| OSU |
Nick Schilkey (14) -- PPG Greco (8), Weis (12) |
3 | 2:14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PSU
Zach Saar (6) -- SHG/ENG
Brooks (15)
3
19:33
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The No. 15 Penn State men's hockey team powered past Ohio State, 6-1, in Friday night's game at Pegula Ice Arena in front of PSU's 30th consecutive sellout of 6,113 fans. Five Nittany Lions tallied multiple points as David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) became the program's all-time leader in career points with a goal and an assist.
Eamon McAdam (Perkasie, Pa.) backstopped the Nittany Lions with 33 saves and fended off six of Ohio State's seven power play opportunities. McAdam stopped at least 10 shots in all three periods.
"I thought (McAdam's) play was a really big part of the game," head coach Guy Gadowsky said. "that timely goaltending is more important than good goaltending. I thought we came out pretty well early, but then Ohio State took it to us for a little. Give them credit because they really started humming and Eamon (McAdam) was just awesome. He made huge saves and it really gave us a chance. It's funny because in a 6-1 game you don't often think that the goaltender is an integral part of the game, but in this case it was absolutely true."
From the defense out, the Nittany Lions (19-8-4, 9-5-1-1 Big Ten) clicked to produce a multitude of scoring opportunities en route to the program's record-setting win. Penn State reached 19 wins for the first time in program history, eclipsing last year's 18-win mark. Ohio State (8-13-2, 3-8-2-1 Big Ten) dropped its third straight game.
Eleven Nittany Lions tallied points with five of them coming from the defense. Vince Pedrie (Rochester, Minn.) had a career-high three points on a goal and two assists while posting a game-best plus-4 rating. David Glen (Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta) added two points on a goal and an assist, while Kenny Brooks (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) had two-assist nights.
Glen sent the opening salvo from the slot after 6:48 of action off a clever pass from behind the net by Goodwin. The helper gave Goodwin the program record with his 81st point, surpassing former linemate and PSU's first NHL signee Casey Bailey. Penn State kept a 1-0 lead into the break.
The Nittany Lions rolled through the second period, lighting the lamp four times including three in a span of 4:32. First it was Pedrie who uncorked a one-timer from fellow Minnesotan Eric Scheid (Blaine, Minn.) at 4:24 into the second period. Scheid took a pass from Brooks and patiently waited for help as he entered the offensive zone. He then slid a pass from the right wing across the ice to Pedrie who had just jumped off the bench to score his eight goal of the season.
Goodwin made it 3-0 as crisp passing from one end of the ice to the other set up one of the nicest Nittany Lion goals of the year. Goodwin stripped an OSU player to the right of McAdam's cage, Erik Autio (Espoo, Finland) connected with Sturtz in the neutral zone, who found Pedrie. The freshman defenseman laid it off for Goodwin who wristed home his ninth of the year and his 16th career multi-point game with 6:54 to go. The goal chased OSU netminder Christian Frey (17 saves) from the game after 33 minutes.
Penn State's balanced offense struck again, using the power play to its full length as Luke Juha (Mississauga, Ontario) scored for a second straight game. Kevin Kerr (Bensalem, Pa.) showed patience of his own, driving down the left lane and skating behind the net as the power play expired, finding Juha just below the right faceoff dot for the score, which came at the same time as Dakota Joshua's interference penalty ended: 2:53 remaining.
PSU made it 5-0 when Alec Marsh (Bridgewater, N.J.) collected his seventh tally of the year on his own rebound with 2:22 to play. Tommy Olczyk (Long Grove, Ill.) sent a puck down the slot to Marsh who was alone in front of Matt Tomkins (17 saves). Marsh moved around Tomkins, who made a left pad save, but Marsh's follow up attempt slid over the goal line.
A sore spot for the Nittany Lions was the penalty ledger. Penn State took 10 penalties for 20 minutes, leading to eight Ohio State power plays. Penn State killed off seven of the eight chances. Nick Schilkey capitalized on a Pedrie minor early in the third period to make it 5-1 game.
Late in the game, Penn State took two penalties within a minute of each other as Ohio State elected to pull Tomkins for the extra attacker. The Nittany Lions killed off the rare 6-on-3 chance, which lasted 58 seconds.
Zach Saar (Richland, Mich.), freshly released from his penalty, took a Brooks feed and deposited the empty-net, short-handed goal for the final 6-1 score line with 27 second remaining. The tally was Penn State's NCAA-leading 11th short-handed marker of the season and the first of Saar's career.
Penn State out-shot Ohio State, 40-34, and defeated the Buckeyes twice in a single season for the first time in series history. OSU owns an 8-5-0 record between the two teams.
NITTANY NOTES
McAdam started back-to-back games for the first time all season. He improved to 11-4-1 on the year. He is now 16-8-2 in his last 26 decisions after starting 0-9-0 his freshman year. He owns a Big Ten-leading 2.43 GAA and a .928 save percentage.
Penn State played in front of its 50th sellout in 53 regular-season games at Pegula Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions have played in front of 30 straight home sellouts.
Penn State scored at least four goals in a game for the 19th time this season (16-3-0) and six or more goals for the seventh time this year (7-0-0).
The five-goal margin of victory is the largest by either team in the all-time series.
Penn State is on a four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1), its third such streak this season. Penn State's other two streaks came Oct. 17-29 (3-0-1) and Nov. 13-Dec. 11 (7-0-2).
David Goodwin is on a five-game point streak dating back to Feb. 5 at Minnesota. He has two goals and six assists for eight points during that span. He notched his sixth multi-point game of the season and 16th of his career.
Goodwin upped his team-leading point total vs. Ohio State to 12 (4g, 8a).
David Glen collected his 13th multi-point game of his career, his fourth this season.
Vince Pedrie notched his third multi-point game of the season, all of which have come since Jan. 30 against Michigan.
Penn State skated with just 12 forwards for the first time since Jan. 30 at Madison Square Garden vs. Michigan.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State closes out its home schedule on Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.) against the Buckeyes. Senior Day festivities for eight Nittany Lions begin at 2:45 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPNU and streamed on WatchESPN.