The Penn State Nittany Lions (16-11-4, 8-6-1-0 Big Ten) fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes (10-17-2, 5-10-0-0 B1G) on Friday night by a final score of 5-3 at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
It only took 31 seconds for Penn State’s Tommy Olczyk to score the opening goal off of a play that demonstrated why coaches profess the importance of winning faceoffs. Olczyk scored his seventh of the season after taking a feed from David Glen and capitalizing on the defenders’ miscommunications.
Ohio State was quick to retaliate and scored the next three goals.
Matthew Weis put the Buckeyes on the board at 14:26 with assists from Anthony Greco and Justin Dasilva and ended the opening twenty minutes with a tie.
Ohio State came out of the intermission riding the momentum of the first goal. Penn State’s Casey Bailey took a tripping penalty, allowing the Buckeyes to take the man advantage. Tanner Fritz picked up the powerplay goal less than two minutes into the second period and gave Ohio State the lead.
The Buckeyes took a roughing penalty at 18:10 to put Penn State on the powerplay, but the Nittany Lions could not complete the scoring opportunity. Weis looked to give Ohio State a two-goal lead, but a diving save by Penn State starting goaltender PJ Musico kept the score at 2-1.
Weis found redemption with 12:13 left in the second period, slipping the puck behind Musico to take a three-goal lead.
Penn State’s Dylan Richard answered less than a minute later with a stealthy rebound from Scott Conway, pulling the Nittany Lions to within one to head into the final twenty minutes.
The Buckeyes picked up two quick goals in the opening eight minutes of the third period. Josh Healy scored at 8:09 and teammate Luke Stork fired one past Musico at 8:59 to finalize the Buckeyes’ tally at five.
Patrick Koudys scored for the Nittany Lions to pull the score within two. Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky pulled Musico with 3:10 remaining, but it wasn’t enough. Despite a Buckeye penalty that gave Penn State the 6-on-4 advantage, the Nittany Lions couldn’t exploit the manpower and fell by a final score of 5-3.
Penn State will wrap up this two-game series and finish February on Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. The game will air on MyTV 22 in Pittsburgh, MyTV in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, MeTV in Johnstown-Altoona-State College, CW 15 in Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, and on WMCN in the Philadelphia area.
Photo Credit: GoPSUSports.com
