Penn State snaps Michigan State's winning streak in dramatic fashion
The No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions come into their contest with No. 17 Michigan State with one goal in mind. Cool off Sparty. The Spartans were coming into Friday's contest with the Lions winning their last four games.
Penn State prevented them from making it five in a row as it came back to rally late in the third thanks to Tyler Gratton's power-play goal with under a minute to go in regulation.
"I mean [Gadowsky] preached on it all weekend in practice that we needed to start using our relief options," Gratton said. "I got to the net like we were trying to do all night and Paquette found me on the back door."
Guy Gadowsky shuffled up his forward lines coming into the game. Ryan Kirwan and Gratton switched spots on their respective lines. Gratton played with Ture Linden and Kevin Wall and Kirwan played with Ben Schoen and Danny Dzhaniyev.
"We just needed a catalyst. We weren't generating and both switches were two lines that had been very good offensively and created a lot of chances in the past" Gadowsky said.
The Nittany Lions trailed twice on Friday and struggled to execute passes up the rush. After a poor start for the blue and white, the coaching staff made adjustments to set the tone for the rest of the game.
"What I liked about a win tonight is we saw what was going wrong and we were losing battles and we were playing soft," Christian Berger said. "We made the adjustments and we came out with more intensity."
How it happened
It was a slow start to this contest. Penn State could not find a way to break Michigan State's stingy defense. But, Jimmy Dowd Jr. gave the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead after exhibiting great patience with the puck. He found a small hole between Dylan St. Cyr's skate and the goal post and potted it through.
However, Michigan State would not go away quietly. Penn State was scrambling in the defensive zone because of the aggressive Spartan forecheck. Miroslav Mucha threw the puck on net and it bounced out to the top of the faceoff circle and Matt Basgall went top shelf on Liam Souliere at the 12:55 mark on the first.
With the momentum in the Spartans' favor, the Nittany Lions found themselves in penalty trouble. A too many men on the ice minor put the Spartans on the power play, and Jagger Joshua capitalized giving Michigan State a 2-1 lead heading into the second period.
After failing to convert on two power plays, Berger knotted things up at two, shooting a puck through traffic and it found its way past the glove side of St. Cyr. However, Michigan State would immediately respond 23 seconds later thanks to Cole Krygier walking his way to the crease, putting the puck through Souliere's five-hole giving the Spartans a 3-2 lead.
The Lions started to generate high-danger chances towards the end of the second. Christian Sarlo thought he had tied the game at two, but the goal was washed out due to the puck being played with a high stick.
The third period was very physical and filled with penalties. Six minutes into the third, Dowd was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a questionable hit to the head. The Lions killed it off and had momentum.
Berger notched his second goal of the game, keeping the puck in the offensive zone and firing the puck through a sea of Spartans, tying the game at three with 5:37 to go in regulation.
The junior defenseman is having a terrific season defensively, leading Penn State with 23 blocked shots.
"You're seeing is a lot of little things, not just one thing," Gadowsky said. "He takes his craft very seriously and has a really good time doing it. But he's very disciplined and getting better at every little thing."
With the Spartans on their heels, Michigan State defenseman David Gucciardi took a late tripping penalty and the power-play finally converted, snapping an 0-for-15 streak in conference play giving the Nittany Lions a 4-3 win.
Takeaways
Michigan State is legit: The Spartans were projected to finish last in the Big Ten preseason coaches poll. Friday's game said otherwise. They look like a more structured and cohesive team than years past. Michigan State out-played Penn State for the majority of the contest. One thing that stood out was their play in the neutral zone. The Spartans refused to give Penn State any clean zone entries.
"They're playing with a lot of energy and a lot of freedom. They're playing a fast game," Gadowsky said. "I think they play like a team that has it rolling, and they have a good feel. You could see it."
Poor start: Even though the Nittany Lions started the game with a 1-0 lead, they did not deserve that goal. The Spartans outshot Penn State 13-11 and scored on the man-advantage. Penn State was scrambling in the defensive zone and had a hard time with its breakouts due to the Spartan forecheck.
"We got throttled. We absolutely were throttling. Dowd's goal might have been the worst thing that happened to us," Gadowsky said. "So we got a goal that we did not deserve. We got throttled the first period and had to reset in second."
Defense makes a great offense: Three out of the four Nittany Lion goals came from the back-end. The offensive contributions from the defense has always been part of Penn State's fast style of play. The defense did a good job of keeping pucks alive in the offensive zone and creating scoring opportunities.
"It's by design for us. It's something that we were very comfortable with and sort of the way we play," Gadowsky said. "We want guys that can move pucks, that can shoot pucks and that like to create offense."
Penn State will aim for the sweep at Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday.
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