No. 5 Penn State men’s hockey (15-5-0 overall, 7-5-0 Big Ten) was defeated by No. 19 Notre Dame (8-8-2 overall, 4-5-1 Big Ten) 5-3 at Compton Family Ice Arena Saturday night.

The Nittany Lions started the game off well but gave up the first goal to the Irish for the second consecutive game. After Kevin Wall scored the equalizer in the second period, Notre Dame took control of the game with a quick goal, leading the Irish to a 5-3 victory.

How It Happened

Penn State started the game on a strong note, outshooting Notre Dame 5-0 just five minutes into the game. However, that didn’t last long. Notre Dame’s Ryder Rolston scored a quick goal and beat Liam Souliere to give the Irish a 1-0 lead at 9:42 of the first period.

Four minutes later, the Nittany Lions got the game’s first power play when the Irish got called for hooking at 13:58 of the period. Despite a few solid looks, they couldn’t convert.

Right after that, Jimmy Dowd Jr. got sent to the penalty box for elbowing at 15:59 of the first period. Penn State got the kill and finished the period down 1-0.

The Nittany Lions got right back on the power play when Notre Dame got called for roughing at 7:06 of the second period. As you can probably predict by now, the Irish killed the penalty.

After battling for the entire period, Kevin Wall was finally rewarded with a goal, tying the game at 1-1 at 12:24 of the second period.

Shoot for your buddy! We told you it was coming! Tie game in South Bend! pic.twitter.com/BufA0J9EiN

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) December 11, 2022

After the goal, Tyler Paquette got hit up high, but it only ended up being a two-minute power play for the Nittany Lions. The Irish killed it, though.

Toward the end of the second period, Notre Dame took advantage of a 3-on-0 chance and scored to take a 2-1 lead with just 48 seconds left in the second period.

The third period started pretty slow for both teams, but Christian Sarlo got a prime chance to tie the game at 13:44 of the period but was robbed by Bischel. Later on, Dowd was sent to the penalty box for interference at 6:41 of the period.

Notre Dame took advantage of the chance and scored to make it 3-1 with 11:20 left in the third period.

The scoring didn’t stop there, though. The Irish scored on a breakaway to make it 4-1 before Landon Slaggert scored an empty-net goal to make it 5-1 with just over three minutes left.

In an interesting turn of events, Bischel gave the puck away to Connor McMenamin, who scored to cut Notre Dame’s lead to 5-2 with 2:48 left in the game. Sarlo then followed that up with a goal of his own to make it 5-3. That wasn’t enough, as the Irish closed out a 5-3 win.

Takeaways

• Penn State struggled on special teams, once again. The Nittany Lions went 0-for-3 on the man advantage while allowing a power play goal to Notre Dame in the third period.
• Tonight’s loss marks the fifth time this season that Penn State failed to complete a series sweep after winning game one. The Nittany Lions fall to 5-5 in the second game of the series this season, with all five losses coming in Big Ten play.

What’s Next

Penn State will take on RIT in a home-and-home series beginning at 5:05 p.m. on Friday, December 30 in Rochester.