Penn State suffers series sweep at No. 6 Wisconsin
The No. 17-ranked Penn State men’s hockey program was swept by the No. 6-ranked Wisconsin Badgers in the weekend series between the two Big Ten teams.
The Nittany Lions fell to 9-7-3 in the season, and 2-5-3 in Big Ten play after the series.
Game one
Wisconsin cruised to a 6-3 win over Penn State in Friday night’s series opener.
The Badgers held a comfortable lead for most of the game after scoring two goals in the first seven minutes of the game.
Dylan Lugris added a score just before the ten-minute mark of the first period, which cut the Badger’s early lead to just one heading into the first intermission.
The Badgers then went on a 3-0 run from the opening minute of the second period until Penn State was finally able to answer back with just under nine minutes left in the third period.
Alex Servagno cut the lead down to three for Wisconsin. Tyler Paquette added a score just over four minutes later to cut the Badger lead back to two, but Carson Bantle scored his third goal of the game with 3:45 remaining, which gave the Badgers the 6-3 lead, and the momentum back.
Game Two
Trying to avoid the sweep, the Nittany Lions came out fast as Jimmy Dowd Jr. found a loose puck and netted the first score of the game after just a minute in the contest.
Penn State got the quick start they were looking for in the contest, but that was all the momentum they were able to build in the game.
Anthony Kehrer matched the Dowd Jr. score with 6:30 left in the first period and it was all Badgers from there.
The Badgers added a goal in the second period by Christian Fitzgerald to take the lead, and Charlie Stramel’s third-period score stretched the lead to two.
Jack Horbach scored on the empty Penn State net as time expired to give Wisconsin a 4-1 lead at the final horn.
What’s next for Penn State
The Nittany Lions will head on their winter break before taking on the Army Black Knights on January 6th at 6:00 p.m. at Pegula Ice Arena.
