McMenamin Leads Penn State to Overtime Victory versus St. Thomas
Penn State Hockey stayed undefeated on Friday night as Connor McMenamin lead the team to an overtime win over St. Thomas.
The Nittany Lions got off to a strong start with McMenamin and Ben Copeland both having back-to-back goals in under 20 seconds with five minutes left in the first period.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first, Ryan O'Neill got the Tommies within one, off of a power play. Penn States' penalty kill has been .571 and their biggest weakness.
“I think St. Thomas took it to us in pretty much every single way and they deserve better because they did they be certainly one more flex than we did they beat us to pucks. They played harder.” head coach Guy Gadowsky said.
The Nittany Lions were outshot 18-16 in the second and third periods playing a more defensive game than they are used to.
Not too long into the second period, St. Thomas’ Ethan Bauer ended up tying the game as he scored the Tommies' only even-strength goal of the evening.
The third period was scoreless with Penn State successfully killing two back-to-back penalties.
The game was tied at two at the end of regulation taking the Nittany Lions into their first overtime game of the season, partially in thanks to Noah Grannan who made an incredible saves to keep them in the game.
“I was actually pretty happy with how we navigated it we possessed the puck, we didn't give it up.“ Gadowsky said.
Finally senior Connor McMenamin was able to close out the game with a breakaway five-hole goal, following a save by Noah Grannan.
"I just picked up the puck off saved by him (Grannan), looked up saw I had one guy to beat and just put my head down trying to skate,” McMenamin said. "Luckily I got by him and made a nice move and luckily he opened up the five-hole for so I could put it in."
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