No. 8 Penn State hockey (9-2-0, 5-1-0 Big Ten) wrapped up its series against Minnesota (4-6-2, 1-3-2-2 Big Ten) with a 6-3 victory on Saturday night.

The Nittany Lions came back from 3-1 down to score five unanswered goals throughout the second and third periods of the contest. Nate Sucese broke Andrew Sturtz’s program-record total of 54 goals in the second period, and Minnesota transfer Clayton Phillips scored the eventual game-winning goal early in the third period.

Peyton Jones stopped 35 of Minnesota’s 38 shots on goal in the victory.

How It Happened

Minnesota got off to an excellent start on Saturday night. The Gophers generally controlled play in the first, and they were rewarded when Scott Reedy tipped a point shot beyond Peyton Jones on the power play to give his team a 1-0 lead midway through the frame.

Cullen Munson added his first collegiate goal later in the frame to extend Minnesota’s lead to 2-0. He fired a shot on goal from a bad angle, and it took a weird bounce behind Peyton Jones, who made a ridiculous catch with his glove to seemingly smother the puck. However, the call on the ice was goal, and a lengthy review didn’t overturn that.

Penn State got its chances as well in the first period — most notably a 2-on-1 feed from Liam Folkes to Evan Barratt that was stuffed by Minnesota goalie Jared Moe. Connor MacEachern beat Moe with a breakaway shot late in the frame, but the puck missed the net. As a result, Minnesota entered the first intermission up 2-0.

Guy Gadowsky’s team capitalized on an early second-period power play to trim Minnesota’s lead to 2-1. Peyton Jones found Sam Sternschein with a long outlet pass while the Gophers were changing, and Sternschein made no mistake on his ensuing breakaway.

That goal sparked a chaotic back-and-forth stretch between the sides. Minnesota’s Sampo Ranta scored a breakaway goal less than two minutes after Sternschein’s tally before Liam Folkes countered with his third goal of the season. The two teams exchanged three tallies in 1:20, and at the end of it all, Penn State trailed 3-2.

The Nittany Lions eventually tied things up thanks to a program-record breaking goal from Nate Sucese. The senior center passed Andrew Sturtz to become Penn State’s all-time leading goal scorer with a nifty deflection of an Evan Bell point shot, and his goal tied the game at 3-3 with 7:23 left in the second. The middle frame ended all square and set up a wild finish at Mariucci.

Clayton Phillips, who transferred from Minnesota to Happy Valley in the offseason, launched a bomb from the point that found its way home, and that gave the team a 4-3 lead early in the third period. Connor McMenamin was credited with the lone assist on the play.

Nate Sucese extended his goal record and, more importantly, gave the Nittany Lions a huge insurance goal with 9:12 to play in the third period. Kevin Wall assisted Sucese’s sixth of the year, which was a gorgeous shot into the top corner of Moe’s net.

Denis Smirnov deflected a point shot from Kevin Wall into the back of the net in garbage time to put the icing on the cake of Penn State’s comeback victory.

Takeaways

• Congratulations to Nate Sucese for breaking Penn State hockey’s program record for goals scored! Sucese has been a model of consistency during his three-plus seasons as a Nittany Lion, and he’ll undoubtedly go down as one of the best to ever pull on Penn State’s blue and white sweater once his college career comes to a close.
• There can’t be many better feelings than scoring on your old home ice, and that’s exactly what Clayton Phillips did against Minnesota. The ex-Gopher has been one of Penn State’s best blueliners so far this year, and he was excellent once again this weekend thanks to his underrated shot from the point and gorgeous skating stride.
• Yeah, it’s safe to say that Penn State owns Minnesota in hockey. The Nittany Lions are now 11-2-0 in their last 13 meetings with the Gophers. If you’re a Minnesota fan, you really just hate to see that, huh.

What’s Next?

Penn State will return to Pegula Ice Arena for a two-game set against Ohio State next weekend. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday before a 6 p.m. start on Saturday.