Penn State hockey plays No. 12 Ohio State to stalemate, wins shootout

Penn State’s Friday night contest against No. 12 Ohio State will go down officially as a tie, but nobody inside Pegula Ice Arena seemed too caught up in the technicalities.

The decibel detonation around the arena after Ben Schoen gave the Nittany Lions a shootout win — and an extra Big Ten point — well surpassed any noise level in the building this season.

Finishing 2-2 after regulation and a scoreless overtime period, it was a tie in the record book, but not in nature. And for the Nittany Lions (14-12-1, 5-11-1 Big Ten), who have endured challenging season full of false starts, that matters, doesn’t it?

“I think it does,” Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said. “It’s funny. Obviously, it’s a point in the standings, but also, no matter what you do, you want to win — no matter what it is. If [Ohio State coach Steve] Rohlik and I had to go to center ice and flip a coin, you want to win it. So yes, it gives us good feelings, but I hope that once they leave the locker room, that they’re focused on tomorrow.”

This was a high-level, intense hockey game from both teams — the kind of contest that has been mostly absent from Pegula since the pandemic shortened Penn State’s Big Ten title-winning season in 2019-20.

Penn State landed the first punch via Danny Dzhaniyev in the fifth minute of the game, but the Buckeyes answered with two straight goals by Cam Thiesing and Joe Dunlap heading into the second intermission.

Schoen came through with the equalizer for the Nittany Lions with 14:08 to go. Penn State then put Ohio State (18-7-2, 10-5-2 Big Ten) on the ropes, forcing the Buckeyes to survive the remainder of regulation.

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The Nittany Lions owned a 45-28 advantage in shots at the end of regulation, outshooting the visitors by an 18-6 margin in the third period.

Standout Ohio State goaltender Jakub Dobeš, a hulking, 6-foot-4 presence in net, kept them out, making 46 saves — several of them spectacular.

The Nittany Lions needed a shootout to beat him. Connor MacEachern kept them alive in the third round, answering Ohio State’s Eric Cooley. Then Schoen waved his wand, and sent everything around him into delirium with the shootout winner.

“I was gonna try to get him to bite and make a deke move,” Schoen said. “I kind of got him to bite to my forehand and lifted the backhand just high enough to hit his pad and trickle in.”

Penn State’s goals aren’t out of reach yet, and similar performances will yield similarly impressive results.

But, with an eye toward next season and beyond, it’s significant that the Nittany Lions are being carried to these performances by youngsters.

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The two goalscorers Friday, Schoen and Dzhaniyev, are freshmen. Fellow freshman Ryan Kirwan also added an assist. Sophomore defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr. was the oldest Nittany Lion to land on the scoresheet.

Sophomore goaltender Liam Souliere got his second start in three games, and made a few fantastic saves, stopping 28 of the Buckeyes’ 30 attempts on goal.

There is growth here, that much is certain. The big night for Schoen and Dzhaniyev is evidence of that, in Gadowsky’s mind.

“I think they started out really fast and then maybe the transition caught up to them and that’s when they really had to work and they both did, both in terms of physically and also mentally,” he said.

“Both of them have had to really focus on a couple areas of their game and it’s not easy. And they’ve done it. They did it for the team. Like I’ve said many times, often when guys play for the team, good things seem to follow.”