Ohio State spoils Senior Day for Penn State men’s hockey

Moments after the Penn State men’s hockey team stood arm in arm at the end of the ice, joining the Blue Band for the Alma Mater, Tommy Olczyk was the last Nittany Lion left at that end of Pegula Ice Arena.

He circled back, blew a kiss and waved to the “Roar Zone” student section, and as he skated backward he tapped his hand to his heart.

The senior didn’t want the moment to end, although it was not the senior sendoff he, his teammates or Penn State fans wanted.

The Nittany Lions battled back from a three-goal deficit less than nine minutes in to take the lead, only to see it disappear again.

Matthew Weis scored a pair of third-period goals as Ohio State upset the No. 15 Nittany Lions 7-4 Saturday afternoon.

“We’ll have to blame those first couple goals on teary eyes,” senior captain David Glen said. “I thought we did a good job responding. … Tough start, obviously there’s a lot of emotions involved in something like that.”

Chase Berger, Andrew Sturtz, David Goodwin and Kevin Kerr had goals for Penn State (19-9-4, 9-6-1-1), which saw a four-game unbeaten streak end. Senior goaltender Matthew Skoff made 35 saves in his final home game.

He was joined for Senior Day festivities before the game by Glen, Kenny Brooks, Luke Juha, Curtis Loik, Tommy Olczyk, Eric Scheid and Connor Varley.

David Gust, Tommy Parran, Freddy Gerard, John Wiitala and Anthony Greco also scored for the Buckeyes (9-13-2, 4-8-2-1). Nick Schilkey assisted on four of the goals, the most for the team in a game in five years. Matt Tomkins stopped 30 shots.

“You’ve got to have that relentless attitude,” Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik said. “As you can see how we started tonight … we were going to be relentless and we were going to get after it.”

The Nittany Lions could not ask for a worse start.

Just 31 seconds into the game they drew their first penalty, and just over a minute into the ensuing power play Gust was alone in front of the net and slipped the puck under Skoff.

About four minutes later the puck slid to an open Parran, who fired a shot from the faceoff circle that was deflected past Skoff. Two minutes after that, the margin was 3-0 when, not long after a turnover deep in the Penn State end, Gerard found the net from the other faceoff circle.

It was just the second time all season the Lions faced a three-goal deficit in the first, and the third time they had given up three in the opening 20 minutes — let alone the first 8:47.

Meanwhile, the Penn State offense was not generating anything. It took 8:31 just to get the first shot on goal.

It also was on the heels of a 6-1 win the night before.

“It showed a lot of character in our room,” Rohlik said. “Tough loss last night. I think our guys answered the bell. They came out against a very good team on a pretty special night, emotional night for them. We knew we wanted to jump on them.”

The Nittany Lions finally started showing life in the final five minutes of the period, and got on the board with 2:14 left when Scheid sent a feed across to Berger for a tap-in behind Tomkins.

Penn State tied it up in the second, first when Sturtz showed off his skating skills over more than half the ice, splitting defensemen and beating Tomkins.

Then Goodwin got the puck from Glen, skated into the slot and fired a wrist shot over Tomkins’ glove.

“There was a big response from us,” Glen said. “That was a tough hole to be in that early in the game. Getting the late one in the first, and then going in the second, it seemed like things were going our way.”

Penn State grabbed the lead 2:53 into the third. Goodwin waited patiently by the boards before Kerr cut down the middle and Goodwin fed the defenseman perfectly in the slot.

“Any time you go up like that after you go down by three,” Kerr said, “at any point, even if it was at the end of the second period, anything like that, it’s a confidence booster.”

It looked like momentum was on the Nittany Lions’ side.

“Going into (the third) I felt that way,” Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said. “After Kerr (scored), yeah. Then they turned it around pretty quick.”

Weis scored less than two minutes later, and 42 seconds after that Craig Dalrymple’s attempt trickled under Skoff and Wiitala swept in behind the goalie to tap in what proved to be the winner.

Weis scored again with 5:05 left, beating Skoff over his glove, ringing the post and into the net, and Greco added an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left.

“A few games ago, a few weeks ago, that might have been game over,” Rohlik said of losing the early lead and trailing early in the third. “Our guys were just determined to win tonight.”

Even though it wasn’t the spectacular end the seniors envisioned to their time on campus and in the arena – the first four-year varsity class for the program — they know they helped build something special.

“I’m just grateful for the opportunity that we’ve had here,” Glen said. “It’s exceeded any expectation I had. … It will be memories that we’ve made to last a lifetime and thankful for every moment here.”

Notes: The Nittany Lions take next week off before heading to Wisconsin for games March 4-5. … A crowd of 6,114 gave the team its 31st straight sellout. … Penn State was 1 for 5 on the power play and Ohio State was 1 of 2. … The Buckeyes outshot the Lions 42-34.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Ohio State spoils Senior Day for Penn State men’s hockey."