No. 6 Penn State men’s hockey (11-3-0, 5-3-1 Big Ten) fell to No. 17 Michigan State (9-4-1, 5-2-2 Big Ten) 7-3 at Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday night.

The Nittany Lions quickly fell behind 3-0, as Liam Souliere was pulled from the game after allowing three goals on six shots. Penn State came roaring back with three goals to close out the first period and tie the game at 3-3. But, goaltender Noah Grannan had a rough go at it and allowed three Michigan State goals in the second period, and the Nittany Lions were never able to recover.

How It Happened

Guy Gadowsky went with his “identity line” again tonight. Liam Souliere got the start in goal.

Michigan State got started quickly, as Matt Basgall opened the scoring at 2:40 of the first period to give the Spartans an early 1-0 lead. Things didn’t get better for Penn State, as it gave up the puck in the offensive zone to lead Jeremy Davidson to a goal. That gave the Spartans a 2-0 lead at 5:51 of the first period.

Penn State then appeared to score, but the goal was waived off due to Ashton Calder’s stick being above the crossbar when he touched the puck. It stayed 2-0 in favor of Michigan State.

The Spartans were then called for interference, giving Penn State its first power play of the game, but the Nittany Lions couldn’t convert. Michigan State took advantage of that momentum, as Jesse Tucker scored to give Michigan State a 3-0 lead. Liam Souliere’s night ended then, as Gadowsky replaced him with Noah Grannan.

Things then started to get weird.

Chrisitan Sarlo scored the first goal for the Nittany Lions at 16:33 of the first period to cut Michigan State’s lead to 3-1.

Michigan State’s Jagger Joshua was then sent to the box for a five-minute major for interference. Tyler Gratton, who scored the game-winning goal in last night’s 4-3 victory, scored to bring Penn State within one goal at 18:57 of the first period. Then, the roof almost blew off Pegula Ice Arena. Kevin Wall scored on the power play to tie the game at 3-3 just 61 seconds later.

Suddenly, we had a game at the end of the first period.

The second period started with some back-and-forth play. After a brief stint of 4-on-4 hockey, Michigan State’s Karsen Dorwart slipped the puck passed Grannan and scored at 10:41 of the second period, giving the Spartans a 4-3 lead.

Less than three minutes later, Michigan State’s lead was extended to 5-3 when Cole Krygier scored from the slot at. Then, with 1:12 left in the period, Daniel Russel added salt to Penn State’s wound, beating Grannan to make Penn State’s deficit 6-3.

The period ended at 6-3 in favor of the Spartans.

The third period didn’t see much action.

Penn State got a power play on a Michigan State tripping penalty at 6:31 of the period, but it didn’t result in anything. Noah Grannan was pulled for the extra skater with 4:40 to go, but Dorwart scored his second goal of the game to make it 7-3 Michigan State and put the nail in the coffin.

Takeaways

• Despite struggling with the man advantage coming into the game, Penn State didn’t look that bad on the power play. After finally converting on the game-winning chance last night, the Nittany Lions went a modest 2-for-4 tonight and tied the game on the five-minute man advantage it was given in the first period.
• Penn State’s trend of dropping the second game after winning the first continues. After sweeping Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions have dropped the second game in each of its last three series after winning the first. Even at the beginning of the season when Penn State started 8-0-0, the second game of the series was never pretty.

What’s Next

Penn State will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22 when it takes on Alaska at Pegula Ice Arena in a two-game series. The game can be streamed on BTN+.