Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky described it as a “funk.” Offensively, his Nittany Lions just didn’t have it against Niagara on Saturday.

So they turned to backup goaltender Oskar Autio, making a spot start — and the Finn delivered.

Autio stopped all 24 of the shots the Purple Eagles threw at him, and Penn State left Pegula Ice Arena with a 2-0 win and a series sweep.

“Rock solid,” Gadowsky said of Autio’s performance. “Not only making the saves, but I thought he looked really, really composed.”

Penn State’s bench, conversely, just about lost its collective mind late in the game, when Autio made a big glove save on a Niagara wrist shot that posed the last real threat against his shutout bid.

It was clear the Nittany Lions (15-6) were desperate for Autio to hang on, playing in just his fourth game of the season. But Autio was just trying to stay focused.

“You just try not to think about it too much,” he said. “It’s the win that matters. The puck bounced in front of the net and I was just trying to get out as far as I could to get as much coverage as possible.”

Autio’s other moment in the spotlight came with the game’s outcome still very much in doubt. Penn State was clinging to a one-goal lead in the second period, when a Niagara (4-11-3) player tipped the puck on net, then crashed right into Autio, who delivered a small retaliatory shot.

“He stood his ground pretty well,” Gadowsky quipped with a small smirk.

Autio said he knew the whole time the puck had been underneath his pads, so when Niagara coach Jason Lammers challenged the play, hoping the puck had crossed the goal line, Autio wasn’t sweating out the video review. Autio turned out to be right, and that was the closest the Purple Eagles would come all night to beating him.

This weekend, defense, long Penn State’s biggest weakness, propped up a sputtering offensive attack.

The Nittany Lions killed five Niagara power play attempts, making the Purple Eagles look totally discombobulated on most of them. Penn State backchecked with authority, too.

And when Penn State did give up the occasional odd-man rush, it played them well, like when freshman defenseman Mason Snell broke up a Niagara 2-on-1 in the third period with a perfectly timed slide.

“There was a lot of really good defensive plays by both forwards and defenseman, and obviously great saves,” Gadowsky said. “Oskar was very well deserving of that shutout, but I did like how our forwards came back.”

The offense Penn State was able to generate came from Connor McMenamin, last night’s hero, and Nikita Pavlychev.

McMenamin had a shot deflect off his shin and into the net for his third goal of the season in the first period. No one found the scoresheet again until the third period, when Pavlychev muscled a rebound (4) into the back of the net on a 5-on-3 power play.

Gadowsky said he was pleased with the volume — Penn State had 44 shots — but wasn’t sure why there wasn’t more production. Playing without two skilled forwards in Alex Limoges and Aarne Talvitie, Gadowsky said the Nittany Lions just never could seize the momentum.

In the past, that almost always translated to a loss, even against a sub-par opponent like Niagara.

Now the Nittany Lions have a defense that can bail them out. Four of Penn State’s 15 wins so far this season have come when Penn State has scored three goals or fewer — including both of this weekend’s victories.

Last season, the Nittany Lions won just twice when they failed to reach that four-goal benchmark.

“There’s a lot of good things you can take out of it,” Gadowsky said. “But obviously, for us, we like to see the red light come on.”