Penn State men’s hockey (7-10, 0-9 Big Ten) fell to Notre Dame (7-12, 2-9 Big Ten) during an eight-round shootout in the first game of its two-game series against the Fighting Irish, with the bout taking place at Wrigley Field in Chicago. A 3-3 regulation and overtime wasn’t enough for the Nittany Lions as they remain winless in conference play.

The Nittany Lions battled back from multiple deficits in the contest and, with the help of goaltender Arsenii Sergeev in his return from injury, remained within striking distance throughout. The Penn State goaltender made 43 saves, while Tyler Paquette, Matt DiMarsico, and Aiden Fink all notched goals in the Frozen Confines of Wrigley Field.

How It Happened

Notre Dame recorded the first scoring chance of the night after Ian Murphy scooped up the puck off of a Penn State offensive zone turnover and skated down the ice with Brennan Ali for a two-on-zero breakaway. Murphy dished the puck to Ali, who fired a shot that was turned away by the pad of Arsenii Sergeev, and Penn State cleared to avoid further trouble.

Just minutes later, Charlie Cerrato responded with a scoring chance after he skated into the Notre Dame zone and fired a backhanded shot from the slot. Nicholas Kempf held strong and stopped the shot before covering the puck for a stoppage in play to keep the contest scoreless.

With just under eight minutes to play in the opening period, the Fighting Irish struck first. After multiple failed attempts to clear the puck from its defensive zone by Penn State, Jack Larrigan fired an initial shot from the left faceoff circle that was stopped by Sergeev, but Grant Silianoff was left alone in front to bury the rebound.

One minute later, the Nittany Lions responded with a goal of their own. After a takeaway by Paquette, the forward skated into the Penn State zone and fired a wicked wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that beat Kempf glove high to tie the game at one goal a side. Keaton Peters recorded the lone assist on the goal.

Save Transition Snipe#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/NWebiMnpNv

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) January 4, 2025

Penn State was awarded the first power play of the contest with under seven minutes remaining in the period, as Jimmy Jurcev sat for two minutes for hooking Cerrato in the Notre Dame defensive zone. The Nittany Lions generated a handful of good looks with the man advantage, but the Fighting Irish penalty kill did its job and killed the penalty.

After it sustained some pressure in the offensive zone, Notre Dame was awarded its first power play as Carter Schade was sent to the box for interference with just over two minutes remaining. With 25 seconds remaining on the power play, Justin Janicke gave Notre Dame the lead when he fired a wrist shot under Sergeev’s blocker.

The Nittany Lions came out of the clubhouse for the second period and applied pressure in the offensive zone for much of the opening minutes of play, but Kempf made a few highlight-reel saves to keep the Fighting Irish ahead by one goal. His best save of the sequence came on JJ Wiebusch, who was alone in the left circle for a one-timer that Kampf lunged for to make the save.

As the period approached its halfway point, Penn State and Notre Dame traded chances at both ends of the ice, but Sergeev and Kempf continued to provide the teams with timely saves to keep the score 2-1 in favor of the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame got its offensive legs back as the period began to wind down, as the Fighting Irish continued to pin Penn State in its defensive zone. Once again, Sergeev bailed out the Nittany Lions with a few timely saves to keep the Penn State deficit at one goal.

Penn State was awarded its second power play of the contest with just over five minutes remaining as Jayden Davis was called for tripping a player at the Notre Dame end of the ice. The Nittany Lions did not capitalize on the ensuing power play, with the Fighting Irish penalty kill blocking two of the three Penn State shot attempts by clogging the middle of the ice.

With 32 seconds left in the middle period, the Nittany Lions tied things up. With Cerrato carrying the puck up ice, the freshman Fink had a two-on-one scoring opportunity, with Cerrato opting to fire a wrist shot that was padded away by Kempf. The rebound kicked out to a trailing DiMarsico, who fluttered the puck past the Notre Dame goaltender.

They call that the Knuckle b̶a̶l̶l̶ puck!! #WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/lqptKk1uHw

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) January 4, 2025

As soon as the puck dropped to begin the final period of regulation, Fink sent the teams back for a center-ice faceoff after the forward put the Nittany Lions on top. Dane Dowiak delivered a hit on a Notre Dame defender at the half wall to secure possession and dished a pass to Fink, who fired a wrist shot just inside the far post past Kempf.

BANG!!#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/jqNK9PddAj

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) January 4, 2025

The Nittany Lions nearly added to their lead after Dylan Lugris and DiMarsico were sprung on a partial two-on-one, but Kempf saved the backhanded shot attempt by Lugris and Notre Dame promptly cleared the zone. Shortly after, Keaton Peters fired a wrist shot off of the rush that was padded away by Kempf, and the rebound kicked out to Alex Servagno, who had an empty net and fired the puck off of the post.

Needing a goal to tie the game, Notre Dame headed back to the power play after Servagno was called for an offensive zone high sticking penalty with 12 minutes remaining. Penn State killed the penalty with little resistance, and its penalty kill had the best scoring chance of the Servagno minor after Reese Laubach nearly scored shorthanded.

After a few solid saves from Sergeev and failed attempts to clear the zone by Penn State, Notre Dame notched the game-tying goal it had been searching for. After an initial pad save by Sergeev, the puck kicked out to Carter Slaggert in the slot, who fired the puck behind the Nittany Lions goaltender with under nine minutes remaining in regulation.

The Fighting Irish continued to pin Penn State in its defensive zone as the period raged on, and Sergeev was again forced to make a handful of key saves to keep the game tied at three. To help slow down the Notre Dame onslaught, Guy Gadowsky called his timeout with under three minutes left.

Neither club found success offensively in the final minutes of regulation, and the teams headed to three-on-three overtime.

Notre Dame nearly ended overtime as soon as it began, but Sergeev came up with a pair of huge saves to rob Cole Knuble and kept the game going. The Nittany Lions responded minutes later with fantastic scoring chances of their own, punctuated by a near breakaway by Fink, but the Notre Dame defender knocked the Penn State forward off the puck and cleared the zone.

Overtime ended with a whimper, as both the Nittany Lions and Fighting Irish had the puck in their offensive zones but could not get the puck on the net.

Onto the shootout, Knuble shot first, and his wrister was denied by Sergeev. Danny Dzhaniyev went next for Penn State and beat Kempf on a backhander to give Penn State a 1-0 lead after one round.

Hunter Strand began round two and snuck the puck past Sergeev to tie. Cerrato shot next for Penn State and was denied.

In round three, both Blake Biondi and Fink were stopped by the opposing net minders. Round four was no different, as Kempf and Sergeev once again came up with saves. Round five was more of the same, and as the shootout reached round six, neither team could end it.

Ben Schoen began round seven with a failed attempt, and Notre Dame followed with a miss of its own.

Ryan Helliwell finally notched a goal in round eight, and Kempf came up with a massive save on Wiebusch to secure the victory for Notre Dame.

Takeaways

• Sergeev was solid in his first live-action since suffering an injury just before Thanksgiving, as the goalie made numerous timely saves to keep Penn State in the game. Without much help from the team in front of him, Sergeev picked up right where he left off before the injury He finished with 43 saves on 46 shots faced in the loss.
• Slow starts to periods have been an ongoing issue for the Nittany Lions during their season, but the third period of play in tonight’s game provided a breath of fresh air. After Fink scored just 10 seconds in, Penn State continued to apply pressure on Kempf and should have scored a second, as Peters missed an open net.
• Coming into play, the Notre Dame offense had managed just 27 shots on goal per game. Now missing two of its top forwards due to the 2025 World Juniors tournament, one would expect Penn State to dominate on the shot board. However, this was not the case, as the Fighting Irish dominated play for long stretches of game time and hemmed Penn State in its defensive zone too many times. At the final horn, Notre Dame notched 46 shots to Penn State’s 42.

What’s Next?

Penn State and Notre Dame will travel back to South Bend to complete game two of this weekend’s series to open the second half of the season. Puck drop is set for 5 p.m. on Sunday, January 5, and will be streamed on Peacock.