Penn State avoids sweep with 6-3 win over Minnesota
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The No. 18-ranked Penn State men’s hockey program avoided the sweep. To do so, it defeated the No. 7-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday night, 6-3.
The Nittany Lions move to 9-5-3 on the season and 2-3-3 in Big Ten play.
Kirwan leads the way
Junior forward Ryan Kirwan tallied a three-point night on Saturday, helping propel the Nittany Lions to their three-goal victory.
Kirwan scored the second and third goals of the game for the Nittany Lions and added an assist on Danny Dzhaniyev’s empty net score with less than a second left on the clock.
Kirwan started the year off scorching but cooled down drastically up until the Lindenwood series since then has seven points in his last four games.
Fast start
Just like Friday night, the Nittany Lions came out of the gates fast in Saturday night’s contest.
The Nittany Lions opened the game with three straight scores, one from Resse Laubach and two from Kirwan, and never looked back.
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The Gophers got their first score of the game with 30 seconds remaining in the second period, but by then the Nittany Lions had all of the momentum, despite the shorthanded score by Rhett Pitlick.
From that point on, the two teams exchanged scores until the final score of 6-3 was reached.
Grannan’s big night
While on paper, allowing three scores may not be considered a “big game”, however, sophomore netminder Noah Grannan stepped up for Penn State to help them secure a big win.
Grannan stopped many good Gopher opportunities and held his own in the net.
His performance Saturday night helped Penn State keep the momentum and the lead throughout the game.
What’s next for Penn State
The Nittany Lions will travel to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the Wisconsin Badgers on Dec. 8th at 9:00 p.m.
