Tag: Penn State hockey

Ohio State men’s hockey drops final game of season series to Penn State

The Ohio State men’s hockey team dropped a key matchup against Big Ten leading Penn State on Saturday.

The Ohio State men’s hockey team lost a key battle against Penn State Saturday night. It’s in the middle of a key stretch of games that will determine who wins the Big Ten, and possibly which league teams get an invite to the NCAA Tournament.

Friday night was a good beginning to that stretch with a tie, and extra Big Ten point via a shootout win, but there was a step back Saturday night in a tough 6-3 loss in the last regular-season game of the series with the Nittany Lions.

Penn State started the scoring first with a power-play goal with 12:37 left in the 1st period. It took that 1-0 lead to the first break. The Nittany Lions would separate in the 2nd period with three goals to just one Ohio State power-play goal by Carson Meyer. The score after two periods had the Buckeyes in a 4-1 hole it simply could not climb out of.

OSU did try to reel things back in with two unanswered tallies in the 3rd period on goals by Ronnie Hein and Ryan O’Connell to cut the deficit to 4-3, but Penn State would get two empty-netters to provide the final scores of the game.

With the loss, the Buckeyes drop into a tie for second place in the Big Ten with a 9-8-3 Big Ten record. Penn State takes over sole possession of first place in the league with the win.

After being off for a week, OSU has another key two-game series against Michigan State the following weekend, the team it is tied with in the conference.

Notre Dame Hockey: Steeves, Irish Dominate Broncos

Looking for a spark after Friday’s tie with No. 19 Western Michigan, No. 15 Notre Dame got it with a big second period on the road Sunday and won the rematch with the Broncos, 4-1. Alex Steeves led the charge by having a hand in each Irish goal, all …

Looking for a spark after Friday’s tie with No. 19 Western Michigan, No. 15 Notre Dame got it with a big second period on the road Sunday and won the rematch with the Broncos, 4-1.

Alex Steeves led the charge by having a hand in each Irish goal, all of which were scored in the second period. Steeves’ four points, including two goals, were a career high. Cam Morrison was part of three of the goals for the Irish (10-7-3), one of which he scored himself. Matt Hellickson got the game’s first tally.

Cale Morris continued his hot streak in the net with 40 saves. In the two games against the Broncos (7-8-3), he stopped 82 of 84 shots. For the second straight contest, Morris stopped a penalty shot, this one from Ethen Frank. Morris has made 119 saves out of a possible 121 going back to Dec. 14 against Penn State.

From here, the Irish will stick to the Big Ten schedule, beginning with two home games against Michigan State on Jan. 10 and 11.

 

Hockey Sweeps No. 8 Ohio State/Earn Big Ten’s Third-Star of Week

For the second week in a row the Irish found a player earning the Big Ten’s Third Star of the Week as senior net-minder Cale Morris did so.  Morris earned two wins over the weekend, bringing his career total to 50, the fifth most in Notre Dame hockey history.

Notre Dame hockey improved to 7-0-1 over the weekend after sweeping previously No. 8 Ohio State as  Jake Pivonka and Cam Burke scored third period goals on Saturday to complete the sweep.

As a result the Irish moved to No. 3 in the USA Hockey/USA Today poll this week, trailing just No. 1 Denver and No. 2 Minnesota State in the rankings.

The Irish now sit alone atop the Big Ten standings with 10 conference points on the year.  Penn State (9) and Minnesota (7) sit directly behind.

For the second week in a row the Irish found a player earning the Big Ten’s Third Star of the Week as senior net-minder Cale Morris did so.  Morris earned two wins over the weekend, bringing his career total to 50, the fifth most in Notre Dame hockey history.

Jordan Pearce (2005-09) leads the way all-time with 59.

The award is the twelfth time Morris has been named one of the Big Ten’s Three Stars of the Week as he’s been named top-star six times, and second and third-star both three times now.

Senior forward Patrick Khodorenko of Michigan State top away this week’s first-star honors while freshman forward Alex Turcotte of Wisconsin took home the second-star.

Morris and the Irish will travel to Madison to take on Turcotte and the Badgers for a two-game series this weekend.   Both games starting at 8 pm ET on Saturday and Sunday with the Badgers still looking for their first conference win.