Penn State hockey gets mixed results in series at Wisconsin

On3 imageby:David Eckert12/12/21

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Penn State hockey now finds itself in last place in the Big Ten following an up-and-down series at Wisconsin.

The Nittany Lions dropped a 4-1 decision on Friday, before needing overtime to claim a 5-4 win Saturday night.

Penn State’s penalty kill proved to be a big problem yet again, with the Badgers netting four of their nine goals in the series on the power play.

Lions drop series opener

A disaster of a second period decided Friday night’s opener in Madison.

The Badgers scored the game’s opening goal at the 7:02 mark of the second period, when Penn State lost track of Tarek Baker, who crept into the slot and fired one past goaltender Oskar Autio.

That, for the Nittany Lions, was only the beginning of the problem.

A scrum that started with a collision between Wisconsin’s Roman Ahcan and Autio resulted in a five-minute game misconduct for Penn State defensemen Paul DeNaples.

Wisconsin punished the Nittany Lions, scoring twice on the ensuing man advantage to turn a tight contest into a rout.

Matthieu De St. Phalle finished off a nice passing play for the first of those two goals. Brock Caufield followed shortly thereafter after Autio lost track of a rebound to make it 3-0.

Tyler Gratton got Penn State on the board late in the third period, but that was negated by an empty-net goal from Ahcan.

Penn State claims OT win in game two

The Nittany Lions put together a much better performance in the second game of the series.

They outshot Wisconsin 52-25 on their way to an overtime victory as DeNaples made up for his costly penalty on Friday, netting the winner in a 5-4 thriller.

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The win in the extra frame salvaged something from the weekend for Penn State. But the Nittany Lions could come to regret letting a three-goal lead slip in the third period.

Penn State gets only two Big Ten points, rather than three, with an OT win. Additionally, it gets credit for only 55 percent of a win in the Pairwise rankings, which determine the NCAA Tournament field.

In some ways, you might say the Nittany Lions emerged from the weekend with a little more than half a win.

Things started well enough for Penn State. Connor MacEachern and Kevin Wall each scored their 11th goals of the season in the first period to get the Lions out to a 2-0 lead before Wisconsin’s Carson Bantle replied with a power-play goal.

Ben Schoen added one more for the Nittany Lions to put them ahead 3-1 after the first. Fellow freshman Danny Dzhaniyev followed early in the second to extend the Penn State lead to three.

The Nittany Lions seemed primed to coast down the stretch, until Bantle added his second goal of the game in the third period.

Corson Ceulemans got the Badgers within one, scoring yet another power-play goal against Penn State.

With 39 seconds on the clock, Jack Gorniak beat Autio, who was screened, salvaging a point for the Badgers.

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