Penn State's 4-3 loss against the No. 17 Ohio State Buckeyes marks the fourth time it could not compete a full sweep against a conference opponent. However, Saturday's series finale was different than the ones against Michigan State, Minnesota and Michigan.

"I think both of these games could have gone either way," coach Guy Gadowsky said. "Two really good hockey games with two teams who played really, really hard."

Steve Rholik's squad did not want to start December 0-2, so it came out of the gate with a physical mindset.

"They played more physical. They want a lot of battles. They did a lot of little things right," Paul DeNaples said.

Ohio State goaltender Jakub Dobeš was excellent stopping 37 Nittany Lion shots. Liam Souliere did everything he could to keep the game within reach. He was the victim of bad bounces and broken plays. He ended the night with 20 saves.

The first period is where all the action happened. Each team took a penalty in the early goings of the game. As time was expiring on Ohio State’s abbreviated power play, Ben Schoen feathered the puck across to Kevin Wall who went bar-down over the glove of Dobeš, giving the Nittany Lions the early 1-0 lead at the 17:33 mark.

However, the Buckeyes responded just 24 seconds later. A defensive zone turnover led to a 2-on-1 rush. Michael Gildon shot the puck off of Christian Berger and it went right to Jake Wise and he put it into the empty goal.

Penn State went to the man-advantage four times in the first period. Only two of those opportunities went the full two minutes.

"Our power play has gotten us momentum and gotten us goals, and we completely took that out of our hands twice," Gadowsky said.

The bounces continued to go the Buckeyes way. Ohio State caught the Nittany Lions at the end of a line change and went to work on transition. Dalton Messina centered it to an open Jaedon Leslie and he potted it past Souliere.

Penn State wiped out another power play of its own when Schoen took an interference penalty. Both teams had looks at four-on-four. The best chance for Ohio State was when Davis Burnside had a breakaway. Souliere shut the door down and the Nittany Lions quickly went not he counterattack.

Once Penn State had possession, Jimmy Dowd skated the puck around the net and found Danny Dzhaniyev on the back door, tying the game at two a piece.

However, the Nittany Lions yet again failed to continue their momentum. Soon after the Dzhaniyev tally, Tate Singleton made it 3-2 at the end of the Buckeye power play off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Mason Lohrei.

The second period had less offense. Five minutes into the second, Patrick Guzzo found a streaking Joe Dunlap and he tipped it right over the glove side of Souliere, doubling the Buckeyes' lead to 4-2. Penn State held the Buckeyes to nine shots in the middle frame.

Penn State started to play its brand of hockey in spurts for the majority of the third period. Both teams stayed disciplined and focused on playing defense. The Nittany Lions held the Buckeyes to just five shots in final frame.

Ture Linden cut the deficit to one after following up his own rebound in front of Dobeš. It is Linden's second goal in conference play.

"He's been doing a lot of things that are good. The puck just hadn't been going in the net for him," Gadowsky said.

Linden's goal put Ohio State on its heels. The Nittany Lions had numerous chances to tie the game, and had a late power play after Souliere was sent off for the extra attacker. Unfortunately, it was not enough to get past Dobeš.

"We're always pushing back in the third and that's when we are playing our best," DeNaples said. "We need to do that first and second period, so some adjustments need to be made."

Untimely penalties: The Nittany Lions were 0-for-5 on the power play. Two of those power plays were washed out because Penn State took penalties of its own, seconds after the power play began. It took away the momentum that the Lions could have generated off of.

Lack of forecheck: Whenever the Nittany Lions decided to put pressure on the Buckeyes' defensemen, it caused turnovers. Lohrei and Cole McWard are two excellent puck-moving defensemen for Ohio State. They were under little pressure and it made breakouts easier.

Not enough bodies in front of the net: Dobeš is a very good goaltender but no goaltender is perfect. He gave up a few juicy rebounds that Penn State could not pounce on because there was no one in front of the net.