No. 3 Penn State men’s hockey (9-2-0, 2-0-1 Big Ten) battled hard, but dropped the series opener to No. 1 Michigan State men’s hockey (6-1-0, 1-0-0 Big Ten) on Friday night at Munn Ice Arena, 2-1.

Michigan State struck first on a goal by Anthony Romani in the first period, but an excuse-me goal from Gavin McKenna tied the game up in the second. After a back-and-forth scoreless third period, the Spartans prevailed in overtime, taking advantage of one too many mistakes by the Penn State defense. The Nittany Lions got a point in conference play for this defeat.

How It Happened

Reidler got the start in net, as Guy Gadowsky continues to go back-and-forth with his goaltending tandem. He wasn’t really tested much early in the game, as neither team was able to generate a chance in the first three minutes.

At the three-minute mark, Penn State sprung a 2-on-1 with Charlie Cerrato and Matt DiMarisco, with DiMarsico getting the game’s first big chance in front of the net, only for it to be swallowed up by Michigan State goaltender Trey Augustine.

It took the Spartans over four minutes to get a shot near Reidler, with Romani firing a sharp shot off the faceoff wide of the net at 4:15. Much of the first half of the first period was a lot of skating, dumping, and resetting for both teams.

The first penalty of the game came at 6:50, when Porter Martone crushed Nic Chin-DeGraves on the boards and got a two-minute head contact minor penalty. On the delayed penalty, Augustine made his second good save of the early going by stopping Gavin McKenna on a partial breakaway.

The ensuing power play did not result in a goal, but the Nittany Lions endlessly peppered Augustine with shots, getting three on net and having two others blocked by defensemen playing in the crease. Michigan State killed off the power play, doing a great job sweeping juicy rebounds out of the slot.

Shortly after the penalty expired, the Spartans seriously threatened Reidler for the first time, with a defensive zone turnover resulting in a clean look by Daniel Russell and an ensuing shot by Travis Shoudy, but Reidler stopped both.

A majority of the offensive zone time over the next several minutes went to Michigan State, as they came perilously close to a number of high-danger chances, but struggled to fully complete the passes to set them up.

Penn State went back on the power play at 13:51 on a trip by Russell, but this one was much more disjointed. Aside from a pair of shots that went wide from DiMarsico, all this power play had was a pair of shorthanded breakaways for the Spartans, with Tommi Mannisto and Sean Barnhill streaking up ice off giveaways, but Reidler stopped both of them.

Eventually, the dam cracked, and Romani found space in front of the net and put one past Reidler to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead at 17:09 with his second goal of the season.

Just four seconds later, Reese Laubach got called for tripping off the faceoff, giving a dangerous Spartans power play a chance to double the lead in an eyeblink. Reidler made a trio of saves early, and the aggressive Nittany Lions penalty kill did a great job after, even coming close to a shorthanded breakaway when Cerrato took it away in the offensive zone, but he was unable to get a shot off in tight against Augustine.

Cayden Lindstrom mauled Cerrato and was called for interference at 19:00, ending the Michigan State power play early and giving the Nittany Lions a 1:47 power play at the end of the first period. For the first minute of the power play, Michigan State throttled any potential entry into the offensive zone, and Penn State skated into intermission with a 1-0 deficit.

The back half of the power play was better, but Michigan State still killed it off. The Nittany Lions were extremely sloppy with their passes after the power play ended, narrowly avoiding disaster a number of times.

Lindstrom got three different chances in front of the net after the five-minute mark, but Reidler stopped two, and one went wide. The biggest chance for Penn State in a while came at 7:15 when JJ Wiebusch was stopped in the slot by Augustine.

The ice began to tilt the other way after that, with Mac Gadowsky getting a partial breakaway stopped at 8:57 before another scrum led to dueling minors on Owen West and Lev Katzin. Michigan State got a power play; however, Shea Van Olm also received a minor for taking someone down after the play.

The Spartan power play saw a lot of force-feeding Martone and several shot attempts, but the Nittany Lions successfully killed it off. A quick chance for McKenna off a giveaway in the Michigan State end at the 12-minute mark was stopped by Augustine, and Wiebusch nearly capitalized a minute later when Augustine was out of position trying to play the puck, but shot it wide.

A theme all night was Michigan State not providing any space for Penn State’s high-octane offense, but that changed at 16:23 of the second period, when Ben Schoen rode the puck up the wall and fed McKenna, who dumped the puck towards the crease and it deflected off a skate and through the five-hole of Augustine for a game-tying goal for McKenna, his fourth of the season, to tie the game at one.

Strong play by Schoen and McKenna stops on a dime and shows off his incredible vision, tie game in East Lansing!!#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/sdOnr4CeCI

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) November 8, 2025

Penn State got two more dangerous chances in the ensuing minutes, but both Van Olm and DiMarsico mishandled passes on odd-man rushes. The game was tied heading into the second intermission.

Penn State started the third period with possession and got a wraparound chance by Dane Dowiak, but Michigan State was able to turn it and got a golden opportunity for Gavin O’Connell in tight with Reidler sprawling, but he rang it off the post. Michigan State continued to threaten for the next several minutes, but the Nittany Lions blocked many shots.

Lindstrom got a partial breakaway at the five-minute mark that was stopped by Reidler, as the Spartans continued to control play early in the third period. The pace reverted to the back-and-forth track meet style after that breakaway, but the Nittany Lions were struggling to get any chances.

McKenna’s speed forcing the action allowed Penn State to get offensive zone possession for the first time in a while, but a giveaway allowed Romani to get a clean breakaway, but Reidler stopped it again at 10:33.

Back and forth the two teams went. Monnisto sent it wide on a 2-on-1, Luke Misa skates through three defenders, and his shot is stopped by Augustine. Wiebusch drove into the crease at 14:15, but was stopped. The action finally slowed down when Eric Nilson hooked Schoen at 14:42 to send Penn State onto their fourth power play.

Unfortunately, it was once again an extremely sloppy man-advantage, as the Nittany Lions surrendered three more shorthanded chances and only got a McKenna one-timer through to Augustine in the two minutes. Despite an extremely sloppy period that gave Michigan State a number of chances, neither team scored in the third, and overtime we went.

Seven seconds in, Michigan State’s Charlie Stramel broke in and nearly ended it as soon as it started. Shortly after, Reidler got caught out of position, but the defense in front of him shielded the wide-open net. Jarod Crespo tried to deke out Augustine at 1:35, but was stopped. A partial breakaway by Cerrato was also stopped at 1:56.

Ultimately, Penn State’s defenders spent much of overtime scrambling, and it was only a matter of time until the Spartans capitalized. After a chaotic stretch saw Michigan State miss a wide-open net, a collision of Nittany Lions allowed Tiernan Shoudy to get a good look in the slot, finally beating Reidler over the shoulder at 2:21 to win the game for Michigan State.

Takeaways

• Michigan State was an offensive powerhouse last year, but it’s turned into a low-event, defensive monster so far this season. An aggressive and fundamentally sound group of skaters who don’t commit bad turnovers, coupled with one of the best goalies in the nation, is a good pairing.
• Trey Augustine and the Michigan State defense did two things that no team has done so far. They completely neutralized the Penn State power play and shut down the dynamic DiMarsico-Cerrato-Wiebusch line.
• Kevin Reidler did his best Arsenii Sergeev impression, conjuring the former Nittany Lions goaltender’s performance at Munn Ice Arena last season by stopping a number of breakaways. It seemed like he was going to Houdini his way to a memorable road victory, but the Spartans got one too many chances.
• If you thought there was a lot of promising NHL talent on Penn State, you saw another level on the other side tonight. Of the 22 Spartans in uniform, 14 players are currently in NHL organizations. Penn State only has six in NHL organizations on the roster.
• A lot of familiarity with the opposition for the freshmen on both teams, despite their relative inexperience in the NCAA. Porter Martone played with Luke Misa with the Brampton Steelheads in the Ontario Hockey League, and Cayden Lindstrom played with Gavin McKenna at Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League.
• Ultimately, Penn State didn’t play close to its best, and it got a point on the road. They’ll get an opportunity to make a statement on Saturday.

Up Next

The men’s hockey team concludes this weekend’s series in East Lansing against No. 1 Michigan State at 4 p.m. Saturday, November 8. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.