Penn State coach Guy Gadowski couldn’t hold back his excitement after watching his squad defeat Ohio State in the consolation game of the Three Rivers Classic.
“When you look in the stands and heard the Penn State alumni; I mean how much fun is that?” Gadowski’s Nittany Lions rebounded from a 6-0 loss to beat the Buckeyes in front of a crowd that heavily favored Penn State.
Ohio State struck first, less than four minutes into the opening period. Ryan Dzingel’s wrister beat goaltender Matthew Skoff. Both teams appeared to start the game in a similar fashion as yesterday. The Nittany Lions struggled out of the gate as the Buckeyes titled the ice. At one point the shots were 7-2 in favor of Ohio State as they appeared to take control of the game.
It didn’t last.
Penn State answered with three unanswered goals and energized the crowd who responded with chants of “We are!” Curtis Loik evened the score for Penn State with a nifty backhand goal in front. The goal was one of many the Buckeyes would surrender over the course of the game in front of their net.
“We certainly did not play our best game…That was about as discombobulated a D-zone and an effort that we’ve had in a long time,” said assistant coach Steve Rohlik. His team will leave Pittsburgh without a win.
After killing a David Glen unsportsmanlike penalty, Taylor Holmstrom gave Penn State their first lead of the tournament. Holmstrom forced a turnover behind the OSU net which was picked up by Casey Bailey. Goaltender Collin Olson stopped Bailey’s shot but deflected the rebound right to Holmstrom for the easy goal.
The Nittany Lions scored less than two minutes later, cashing in on a 5 on 3 power play. Max Gardiner dug the puck out of he corner and found Casey Bailey completely alone in front of the net. Bailey kicked the pass to his stick and buried the shot stick side on Olson.
Ryan Dzingel scored 2:39 into the second period to cut the Ohio State deficit to one. The Buckeyes were prepared to go into the second intermission down by one but Casey Bailey scored again with nine seconds left in the period to give the Nittany Lions a two goal cushion. Max Gardiner’s centering pass found its way out to the left point. Luke Juha’s slapshot was deflected between the faceoff dots by Bailey for the goal.
Holmstrom extended the lead to three just 21 seconds into the third period.
With just over twelve minutes remaining in the game, Ryan Dzingel scored his third goal of the night. Dzingel took the puck just above the face-off circles, moved around the defensemen and the goaltender before tucking the puck into a wide open net.
With four minutes remaining and down by two, coach Steve Rohlike elected to pull the goaltender for an extra attacker.
“In hindsight I should’ve pulled him with 20 minutes left. We needed to generate a spark. Sometimes desperate hockey teams play differently…we wanted to send a message that we were going after this thing.”
Alex Szczechura scored less than two minutes later, tucking in a backhand wraparound to move the Buckeyes within one. The Buckeyes pulled their goaltender again which led to a golden chance for Ryan Dzingel with under 15 seconds left. But Skoff was there to make the save and the Nittany Lions won their first game against future conference rival, Ohio State.
Taylor Holmstrom who came into the game with three points in fourteen games, scored two goals including the game winner.
“I think after the loss we kind of pulled ourselves together. We had to come back and we didn’t want to disappoint the fans; knew it was a big rivalry.”
Photo courtesy of PSU
