University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Penn State
Gophers Settle for Split in Overtime Loss
2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (GopherSports.com) - The No. 15/17 Gopher Hockey team erased a two-goal deficit including a game-tying goal with 40 seconds left in regulation before falling to Penn State 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night in the Big Ten series finale.
For the second night in a row, Penn State jumped out to a first period lead as Curtis Loik scored a power-play goal at 7:21 followed by an even-strength goal from Scott Conway at 12:23.
Down by two, the Gophers (17-10-3 overall, 8-3-3-0 Big Ten) made up ground in the second period with Travis Boyd's two power-play goals sandwiched around a third Penn State goal. The Gophers senior forward scored his first of the night at 8:17 from Mike Reilly and Adam Wilcox and added his 15th goal of the season at 16:21 from Reilly and Kyle Rau after Conway scored his second of the night at 15:44 - sending the game into the third at a 3-2 advantage for the Nittany Lions.
The Minnesota senior class completed the comeback when Sam Warning pounded home the equalizer at 19:20 of the third period after being set up by Hudson Fasching and Rau for the extra-attacker goal. Minnesota's senior class ended the weekend with four of the team's five goals in the series and 20 of Minnesota's last 33 goals.
After a penalty was called on the Gophers in overtime, Penn State (16-10-4, 8-5-1-0) picked up its first-ever win over the Gophers when Luke Juha scored the game-winning power-play goal at 2:13 of the overtime session. Minnesota, which now holds a 5-1-0 mark against Penn State, closes out the regular-season at home against the Nittany Lions.
Adam Wilcox made 30 saves in net for Minnesota while PJ Musico picked up the win with 32 saves. The Gophers outshot the Nittany Lions 35-34 in the game and went 2-for-4 on the power play and 1-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Gopher Hockey returns to action next weekend, hosting Michigan State in a rare Thursday-Friday Big Ten series at Mariucci Arena.
-Pride On Ice-
