University Park, Pennsylvania – Freshman Reese Laubach Penn State bounced back with a 4-2 win over No. 14 Michigan State on Saturday night in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena, as a (San Jose, Calif.) player scored two goals.
With the win, the Nittany Lions improve to 13-14-3 on the year and 5-12-3-0-0-2 in conference play, while the Wolverines fall to 15-12-3 overall and 8-10-2-0-1-1 with the loss.
How it happened
- Michigan scored first against the pace of the game when TJ Hughes took a nice pass from Dylan Duke, got behind the defense and fired a shot inside the far post at 4:29 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.
- Penn State scored on the power play, when Laubach scored a rebound off a freshman goal at the near post to tie the score at 1-1. Aiden Fink's (Calgary, Alberta) The first shot was blocked at the 6:43 mark.
- The Nittany Lions took the lead late in the second period thanks to the sophomore player. Dylan Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) smashed a corner kick over Wolverine goaltender Jacob Barczewski's blocker to extend the lead to 2-1 at the 17:35 mark.
- Michigan tied the score early in the third period when Frank Nazar III beat the Penn State senior goaltender's blocker. Liam Soulier (Brampton, Ontario) A great pass from Gavin Brindley made the score 2-2 at the 3:50 mark.
- Penn State responded again as a freshman. Dane Dwiak (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a sophomore By Alex Cervaño (Gibsonia, Pa.) The first shot hit Barczewski's pads to make it 3-2 with 7:30 to go in the final frame.
- Laubach closed out the game with a 4-2 lead with just under two minutes remaining, scoring his third goal of the weekend with a 160-foot shot over the back of the net.
Goalkeeper
- Soulier stopped 33 of 35 shots in the win and improved to 10-10-1 on the season, while Barczewski stopped 38 shots in the loss and drops to 13-11-3 on the season.
- Soliere entered Saturday night playing in his 78th game as a Nittany Lion, passing Matthew Skov (Class of '20) for second-most games played all-time and trailing Peyton Jones (Class of '20) with 133 games played. His 76 starts rank second all-time behind Jones.
Note
- Penn State led 42-35 in shots on goal, making 1 of 4 with the man advantage and 1 of 1 on the penalty kill.
- The Nittany Lions are perfect this season with 10-0 losses and one tie when leading after two periods.
- Saturday night's attendance of 6,571 was the second-largest in Pegula Ice Arena history.
- Junior Danny Janiev (Brooklyn, N.Y.) played in his 100th career game Saturday night, becoming the seventh Nittany Lion player to reach that milestone in just one season.
- Senior assisted on Laubach's first-period goal. Jimmy Dowd Jr. (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.) scored 61 points, moving him past Luke Juha ('16) into fourth place on the all-time scoring list for Nittany Lions defensemen, and the assist also moved him to second on the all-time assist list for Penn State blue linemen with 51 career assists, passing Eric Autio ('18).
- Laubach recorded his second consecutive multi-point game, his fourth overall and the first multi-goal game of his career on Saturday night.
next time
Penn State will close out its 2023-24 home schedule with a Senior Weekend visit to No. 4 Wisconsin next weekend.
For more information about the 2023-24 season provided by Penn State Bookstore, the official bookstore of Penn State Athletics, visit the men's hockey page on GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
