Penn State men’s hockey’s superb goaltending not enough in winless weekend against Michigan
Michigan’s Garrett Van Wyhe collected the puck at the Penn State blue line and raced toward goalkeeper Oskar Autio.
The clocked ticked to 11 seconds left in the 3-on-3 overtime period. Van Wyhe fired his shot as the Nittany Lions defense rushed to get back in position.
The puck flew over Autio’s stick and into the net, and Van Wyhe raced to the Michigan bench to celebrate the goal that gave the Wolverines an extra point in Big Ten play, after the game officially went down as a 4-4 tie at the end of the initial overtime period.
Autio was beaten for the fifth time on Saturday night and it was the 11th goal Michigan scored in the series, yet Penn State’s goaltenders combined for 83 saves in the two games.
Peyton Jones, who started in between the pipes on Friday night for Penn State, and Autio seemingly did more than enough for the Nittany Lions to be victorious against the Wolverines, but this great effort was negated by the Nittany Lions defending.
“Honestly, the way we felt yesterday from a coaching standpoint was as low as we felt,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said. “It was almost like we had to start over, and it really feels that way.
“We didn’t have one aspect of our game other than goaltending that we could sort of hang our hat on or feel good about yesterday at all. Today there is a lot we did a lot better but we still gave up 47 shots and for our goals, what we had coming in here, that’s not getting it done.”
On Saturday night, Penn State played better as a team, a massive improvement from the lackluster effort on Friday night, but the goaltending was what kept the game close, and why the Nittany Lions were able to take the game into overtime and earn even one Big Ten point from the series.
Autio was forced to make multiple breakaway saves in the game, a problem that Penn State has largely avoided so far this year.
Autio made his fifth appearance of the season on Saturday night. Gadowsky admitted postgame that his start on Friday night wasn’t planned, but they wanted to get him in on the ice at some point this weekend.
And after getting dominated Friday night, Gadowsky shook up the entire lineup for Penn State and determined it would be Autio’s game in between the pipes.
“He kept us in ball game the whole time,” forward Evan Barratt said. “When they went up one, he made some saves. He had three, four, whatever it was breakaway saves.
“We can’t be letting that happen but he’s there and did a heck of a job tonight for sure.”
Autio finished the game with 42 saves.
Gadowsky and the Penn State program take great pride in their effort on the offensive side of the ice and are known for being one of the most prolific scoring teams in the nation every year.
The result of this for past teams was often a lapse on the defensive side of the ice.
But heading into this weekend’s series against Michigan, this wasn’t the case. Penn State was playing some of its best defensive hockey in program history.
Penn State was giving up an average of 2.27 goals per game, a mark good enough to be No. 15 in the country.
“It is not because our defensive zone was lacking. In fact it’s interesting, their fourth goal, they had possession in our defensive zone but we didn’t give up much until the puck bounced and it was kicked through Mason’s legs,” Gadowsky said. “The way we feel is 100 percent a matter of quality game in three zones. It’s not our defensive zone that gives up, we gave up the puck and they are playing in our defensive zone a lot.”
Penn State now has questions that need answered on the defensive side of the ice and in order for the Nittany Lions to get back to their winning ways.
And if it does, Penn State’s goaltending has been playing at a high enough level that the Nittany Lions could become a very scary team.
“That is something we will watch this week and work on this week to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Barratt said, “but we’re confident in our goaltending, so if it happens we know they have our backs. But like I said, we will figure it out and move forward and not let it happen again.”
