Penn State sweeps Minnesota, heading to Big Ten hockey semifinals
With a thunderous roar throughout Pegula Ice Arena, the Penn State men’s hockey team poured off the bench, racing to one end of the ice in celebration.
The Nittany Lions got to have a big celebration last year when they won the Big Ten tournament title, but getting a conference tournament series win at home – it was emotionally almost as big.
“Playing at home is a lot of fun,” said Liam Folkes, who had a goal Saturday night and also netted the double-overtime winner in last year’s Big Ten title game. “Having all the support from the fans in the community of State College is definitely huge and they definitely helped us pick up the win tonight.”
The Nittany Lions got to celebrate winning the opening round of the tournament, completing a sweep of Minnesota in the best-of-three series with a 6-5 win.
Evan Barratt led the way with two goals and an assist, netting the game-winner with 8:35 remaining.
“It was pretty fun to see Evan score that sixth goal,” Folkes said. “It’s always better when the crowd’s louder, but we’ve got a long way to go and we’re not done yet.”
No. 15 Penn State (18-13-5), which likely assured itself of a spot in the NCAA tournament with the win, will hit the road for the Big Ten semifinals next Saturday at regular-season conference champion Notre Dame.
Even with spring break underway on campus, and only a few days’ notice for ticket sales knowing the series would be held at Penn State, the house was nearly full and full-throat most of the night.
“Home ice turned out to be massive,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “The crowd was so good. It turned out to be so important. We never would have got home ice if it wasn’t for our crowd, and I don’t think we have a shot at winning tonight if it wasn’t for them. Students are … on break, (but) a whole bunch showed up and the community to fill the rest of the building like that on such short notice was just unbelievable.”
It was obvious from the start it was going to be a night filled with offense. Trevor Hamilton fired the puck from the blue line into the net just 16 seconds in to begin the barrage. Liam Folkes, Brandon Biro and James Robinson had the other goals.
Scott Reedy scored twice for Minnesota with one assist, Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and two assists, and one score each came from Rem Pitlick and Jack Ramsey.
On the winning goal, Barratt swept in and fired at Gophers goalie Eric Scheirhorn, with the puck bouncing right back to the freshman. He skated to the right and poked the puck behind the downed goalie into the empty net for what proved to be the game-winner.
“I know we had guys going to the net and I was just trying to shoot it low and see what happened,” Barratt said. “It just kind of came to me and landed on my stick.”
From there, it was up to the defense to keep the lead.
Penn State had a 2-0 lead through the first period, and was up 3-1 early in the second before Minnesota rumbled back to a 4-3 lead in less than 10 minutes.
“We never got too low in the dressing room,” Folkes said. “We knew how to come back and beat these guys. The last three games we really showed it.”
After the difficult second period, goalie Peyton Jones held firm in the third, finishing with 35 saves.
“We were all pretty confident in all four lines, all the defensemen,” Folkes said. “Definitely a lot of confidence in Peyton back there. Last few weeks we’ve really played to our potential.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2018 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Penn State sweeps Minnesota, heading to Big Ten hockey semifinals."