No. 16 Penn State men’s hockey finally snapped its eight-game winless streak by defeating Michigan State 3-2 in East Lansing on Saturday night.

Chase Berger, Andrew Sturtz, and Alex Limoges scored for the Nittany Lions in the victory. Sturtz picked up his 100th career point with the secondary assist on Berger’s opening goal of the game. Peyton Jones made 31 saves in the winning effort.

How It Happened

The beginning of tonight’s game wasn’t filled with much action. Each team recorded just one shot on goal through the first five minutes of play before Alec Marsh and Trevor Hamilton took penalties to give Michigan State the first two power plays of the evening. The Spartans couldn’t convert on the man advantage either time, recording just three shots from the two opportunities.

Berger opened the scoring on Penn State’s first power play of the game, giving the Nittany Lions their first lead of the weekend with 7:22 remaining in the first.

Michigan State immediately responded with a goal of its own; Brody Stephens scored his second career goal on a breakaway to tie the game at 1-1 just 55 seconds after Berger’s opening score. The goal was unassisted after a Penn State turnover in the neutral zone.

Andrew Sturtz tallied a goal of his own in the dying minutes of the first period. His beautiful wrist shot from the right circle beat Spartans goalie Ed Minney to give the Nittany Lions a 2-1 lead with 17.7 seconds to play in the first. The goal stood after a lengthy offside review and the first period ended with Penn State leading by a goal.

The second period began with the Nittany Lions continuing to push the tempo of the game, recording the first five shots of the frame. The team was rewarded for this high pressure with an Alex Limoges deflection goal. He tipped a shot from the point by Kerr into the back of the net to give Penn State a 3-1 lead five minutes into the second period.

The second period ended with Penn State up by two goals, as Guy Gadowsky’s team was in a strong position to snap its eight-game winless streak.

Michigan State needed to put together some kind of comeback in the final 20 minutes, doing so by swarming the Nittany Lions with a flurry of scoring chances. The Spartans didn’t convert until Patrick Khodorenko rifled a shot over the gloved hand of Jones with 13:12 remaining in the period to cut the Spartans’ deficit in half

The hosts continued to push for an equalizer, but Jones was a brick wall in the third period. He stopped 18 shots in the final 20 minutes to cap off a crucial road victory for Penn State.

Player Of The Game

Andrew Sturtz | Junior | Right Wing

It was a milestone evening for “Andy Valley” — he became the second 100-point scorer in Penn State hockey history with an assist on the opening goal of tonight’s game. A faceoff victory prior to Berger’s first-period goal was enough to give the Buffalo native the secondary assist, as he joined David Goodwin in Penn State hockey’s century club. The Buffalo native added a goal for good measure in a massive victory for the Nittany Lions.

What’s Next

No. 16 Penn State will wrap up its 2017-18 regular season slate with two games against No. 10 Minnesota at Pegula Ice Arena. Game one of the series begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, and the team’s final regular season game gets underway at 7 p.m. Saturday.