No. 19 Penn State men’s hockey (18-12-2, 10-11-1 Big Ten) wrapped up its series against Wisconsin (11-16-5, 7-10-5 Big Ten) with a 7-3 defeat at Pegula Ice Arena.

Adam Pilewicz and Chase Berger scored for the Nittany Lions, and the team’s senior class of Berger, Kevin Kerr, Alec Marsh, Derian Hamilton, Ludvig Larsson, and Chris Funkey was honored in a pre-game ceremony ahead of its final home game in Happy Valley.

Peyton Jones allowed six goals on 31 shots before being pulled in favor of Funkey, who made 11 saves in relief.

How It Happened

Tonight’s game got off to a very physical, chippy start. Cole Hults unloaded on Wisconsin’s Jason Dhooghe just seconds before Badger defenseman Ty Emberson destroyed Brandon Biro at his own blue line. Emberson was penalized for indirect head contact on the play, but Penn State didn’t convert on the power play.

The Badgers used their physical start to take a 1-0 lead with 11:03 to play in the first period. Jack Gorniak beat Peyton Jones with a wrister from the faceoff dot to open the scoring.

A scrum in front of Peyton Jones’ goal resulted in two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey and a three-minute power play. Wisconsin’s Josh Ess doubled his team’s lead with less than 30 seconds to play in the first period. The physical first period ended with the Nittany Lions trailing by two and being outshot 14-9.

Penn State couldn’t get much going at the start of the second period, and the Badgers capitalized to extend the lead to 3-0. Linus Weissbach took a shot from a terrible angle, and it snuck past Jones to extend the Wisconsin lead to three. At this point, Wisconsin took full control of the contest, but

Adam Pilewicz provided Penn State the spark it needed with 8:54 to play in the second period with his second career goal. The sophomore stuffed home the rebound of an Alex Limoges shot to trim the deficit to 3-1, and Kris Myllari picked up the secondary assist.

Wisconsin would bounce back to re-extend the lead to three after a shot from the point snuck past Jones. Josh Ess was credited with his second goal of the game, and it came with 3:04 left in the middle frame. Tarek Baker scored a backbreaking shorthanded goal to extend the lead to 5-1 with 1:51 to play in the second.

Chase Berger scored his 14th goal of the season with nine seconds left in the second to give Penn State some life entering the final 20 minutes of play.

Wisconsin instantly took that momentum away with an early third-period goal. Chris Funkey took over in net after Matthew Freytag beat Jones with a backhand shot.

Brandon Biro buried a consolation goal with 6:30 left in the game after a nifty feed from Alec Marsh, and a Wisconsin empty netter with 4:03 to play sealed Penn State’s fate.

Takeaways

• Wisconsin used plenty of rough stuff and physical play to get off to a hot start. One consequence of the Badgers’ physicality was a host of Penn State power plays, but the Nittany Lions couldn’t get anything going on the man advantage.
• Penn State simply looked flat in the first half of Saturday night’s game. The team didn’t match the Badgers’ intensity until Adam Pilewicz’s goal midway through the second, and it showed on the scoreboard.
• Tonight’s defeat deals Penn State’s NCAA tournament hopes an incredibly large blow. The Nittany Lions were on the outside looking into the postseason entering this weekend, and this game definitely didn’t help their cause. A sweep at Notre Dame next weekend and a deep Big Ten tournament run are musts if this team wants to play for a national title in three consecutive seasons.

What’s Next

The Nittany Lions will wrap up the regular season with a series against Notre Dame in South Bend. The puck will drop at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday night; the first game of the series will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network.