Penn State hockey steamrolls Wisconsin, earns series sweep

Penn State hockey secured its first Big Ten sweep of the season with a dominating 7-2 win over Wisconsin.

The Nittany Lions outshot the Badgers 51-22, lighting the lamp four times in the third period to put a touchdown on the scoreboard in front of a white-out crowd at Pegula Ice Arena.

The defining moment

A 3-0 Penn State lead was trimmed to 3-2 in the first three minutes of the third period.

The Nittany Lions totally dominated the game up until that point, but a short slip-up threatened to undo all of their good work.

With the mettle of experienced veterans, Penn State’s freshmen went to work.

Ben Schoen scored a power-play goal 5:50 into the third period to give the Nittany Lions some room to breathe and take some of the anxiousness out of the atmosphere.

Fellow first-year Danny Dzhaniyev followed 43 seconds later, restoring Penn State’s three-goal advantage.

Penn State coasted from there on out, scoring seven times — five of them coming from freshmen.

One big thing

This game — and this series — felt like a jumping off-point, a platform of sorts for a team frustrated by middling performances and bad results.

Perhaps it may be viewed that way at the end of the season, but the picture head coach Guy Gadowsky painted resembled more of a gradual crescendo.

“I don’t think this is the jumping off point,” Gadowsky said. “I think the jumping-off point is weeks before, or actually probably months before when our culture being built and then us learning lessons. It seemed that tonight we were able to put the game together, both offensively and defensively.”

Wisconsin coach Tony Granato referred to the Nittany Lions as a “buzz saw.”

That’s not a word you would often use to describe a unit that came into this series in last place in the Big Ten. But in this case it feels valid.

The Nittany Lions outshot the Badgers 51-22 Saturday night. They forced Granato to make a mid-game goaltender swap for the second night in a row. They granted the Badgers about three minutes of time in the ascendency in the beginning of the third period, then quickly extinguished any hope they might have had by putting a touchdown on the scoreboard in response.

Penn State might not do anything of note this season. It still sits second-to-last in the Big Ten, with a home playoff series looking all but unattainable. Outside the top-25 in the Pairwise, the NCAA Tournament seems like an unrealistic goal, too.

Those realities aside, this weekend served as an important proof-of-concept for a team that seemed to be floating through the season listlessly.

There is progress being made here. Whether it turns into anything tangible or not is to be determined, but that alone is nice to see for Penn State fans.

Penn State and Wisconsin goal-scorers

Penn State: Ryan Kirwan (8) at 4:28 of the second period from Ben Copeland (15) and Jimmy Dowd Jr. (13)

PSU: Ryan Kirwan (9) at 14:31 of the second period from Christian Sarlo (5) and Paul DeNaples (5)

PSU: Tyler Gratton (7) at 19:15 of the second period from Kevin Wall (10) and Ben Copeland (16)

Wisconsin: Carson Bantle (5) at 1:10 of the third period from Mathieu De St. Phalle (5) and Tarek Baker (12)

UW: Carson Bantle (6) unassisted at 2:45 of the third period

PSU: Ben Schoen (4) at 5:07 of the third period from Jimmy Dowd Jr. (14) and Oskar Autio (4) (PPG)

PSU: Danny Dzhaniyev (4) at 5:50 of the third period from Kevin Wall (11)

PSU: Connor MacEachern (12) at 8:27 of the third period from Jimmy Dowd Jr. (15) and Ben Schoen (8) (PPG)

PSU: Ben Schoen (5) at 11:51 of the third period from Xander Lamppa (4) and Clayton Phillips (7)

Up next for Penn State

The Nittany Lions take on Ohio State in a two-game series beginning next Friday at 7 p.m.