Lions collapse late; fall to Minnesota in OT

For 59 minutes and 53 seconds, Penn State outplayed Minnesota.

It wasn’t enough.

Ahead 3-2 with seven seconds remaining on the clock, a one-timer from Justin Kloos off a draw found the back of the net and tied the game for the Gophers. Rem Pitlick scored the game-winner at the 3:27 mark in overtime, as Minnesota defeated the Nittany Lions 4-3.

Things started off well enough for Penn State.

Denis Smirnov scored 3 minutes into the game to give his team the early lead, and David Goodwin scored early in the second period to give the Lions a 2-0 edge.

In the third period, however, things went south for Guy Gadowsky’s squad.

A Jake Bischoff goal broke the ice for the Gophers, and Tyler Sheehy tied the game at two with less than three minutes to go.

The momentum swung back towards the Lions, though. Denis Smirnov was awarded a penalty shot after Minnesota’s Ryan Lindgren was called for hooking, and he made the most of the opportunity, giving Penn State a 3-2 lead.

Explosive plays such as that goal have become almost routine for the star freshman.

“I just didn’t do anything over my head, just didn’t think about what I was going to do,” Smirnov said, when asked about his go-ahead goal. “I just did what I usually did in practice.”

From there, it was all Gophers, as they scored twice in less than four minutes between the third period and overtime, beating the Lions for the fourth time this season.

“Obviously that’s a tough one,” Gadowsky said. “But that’s not the first tough loss that we’ve had, it’s certainly not going to be the last. But it was against an excellent opponent, an excellent hockey game.”

Penn State had some difficulties on the power play on Saturday, failing to score despite being given four chances, including a five minute major.

“If we look at what we have to do to win these types of games, certainly [the power play]’s a big part of it,” Gadowsky said. “We had a great mentality 5-on-5 in the first period, and had a very poor mentality 5-on-4 for whatever reason. I think we certainly got better, and I liked our power play after that. But, again, if we score on that five minute power we’re not going to get that point, and that’s certainly one of the areas we have to learn from”

Despite the tough loss, these are the types of games that Gadowksy hopes can give his young team some much-needed experience as they continue to chase their postseason aspirations.

“Those are the type of games that we’re going to have to play down the stretch in the Big Ten’s and hopefully in the NCAA tournament,” Gadowsky said. “But hopefully, we certainly can learn from this experience.”

The Nittany Lions will look to rebound on Friday, as they take to the road to face Michigan State in East Lansing.