No. 6 Penn State fell to Notre Dame 2-1 at home. This marks the Lions' first loss at home in the first game of the series.

“As far as a five-on-five game, I take that game every night of the week," coach Guy Gadowsky said. "I thought we played extremely well, and I thought we generated a lot of really, really good chances. [The puck] didn't go in as much as we'd like, but I would take that effort.”

The Nittany Lions played one of their best first periods of the season, outshooting the Irish 19-6. Penn State was playing its style of hockey and successfully got pucks on net, and with one minute remaining in the first period, Danny Dzhaniyev gave the blue and white a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, the Nittany Lions continued to outshoot the Irish 15-9 but struggled to stay out of the box. The three penalties in the period did give the players any momentum. Instead, it gave the Irish momentum as Chayse Primeau notched one to tie the game at one with less than six minutes left in the period.

The penalties continued to be a struggle in the third period as Penn State had two more penalties. Notre Dame capitalized on one early in the period when Ryder Rolston scored on Ashton Calders’ penalty.

The Nittany Lions outshot the Irish 53-24. Ryan Bischel’s 52 saves mark his career-best. Possession typically leads to success, except the Irish, who play a defensive style game, had 23 blocks to the Nittany Lions' five.

Possession in the zone is formed from winning faceoffs which Penn State dominated 35-26. Whether they were at even strength, on the powerplay or shorthanded, the Nittany Lions dominated every category. Connor MacEachern had a 69.7% win rate.

“A faceoff is the only time that there's truly a 50/50 battle out on the ice," Tyler Gratton said. "I think we could definitely try and capitalize a little bit more right off the faceoff to get more shots on that, but it'll come.”

Friday's matchup was tough for Penn State, but it beat its attendance record with 6,558 fans. Saturday’s matchup is expected to bring even more fans to Pegula as the team debuts its alternate jerseys for the annual “Wear White” game.

The jerseys will be auctioned off to benefit THON and special needs hockey groups.