‘He’s a winner:’ Connor McMenamin’s career night lifts Penn State hockey over Wisconsin

On Thursday night, Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky lamented that his team’s loss to Wisconsin was due to a lack of discipline. The Nittany Lions lacked drive. They were unable to kill the seven penalties they racked up.

However, on Friday night, it was an entirely different story, as the Nittany Lions came away with the 5-4 win to split the series with Wisconsin at Pegula Ice Arena.

Penn State’s first goal came from alternate captain Aarne Talvitie at 2:54 into the game, assisted by Christian Sarlo and Connor McMenamin. The next goal came just 13 seconds later when Kevin Wall found the net, assisted by Talvitie and McMenamin, giving the Nittany Lions a two-goal lead less than five minutes into the first period.

“I think after last night we had a sour taste in our mouth, and my line especially. I know we didn’t do as good as we should of, so we took it upon ourselves to go out and try and start the game a little bit differently tonight,” McMenamin said. “Luckily, I was in the right place at the right time a couple of times. I got to give all credit to them and our D-men that were out there with us, because they just made my job easy tonight.”

McMenamin would end the night with five points of his own, as he played a factor in each of Penn State’s goals, tying the record for most points in a single game.

“He gets points because he plays the right way. He’s always been that way. Always,” Head Coach Guy Gadowsky said. “... He’s a guy that plays the right way. All the time, he plays the right way. He doesn’t cut corners, it’s the way he is. I love it when guys like that have offensive success, because they have offensive success because they play the right way. I’m thrilled with his game tonight.

“He’s a winner. I can’t say enough about his game.”

Penn State dominated the first period. With just less than eight minutes left in the period, Wisconsin’s Mike Vorlicky was sent to the penalty box for high sticking. While the man advantage came and went, they were given another chance almost immediately after the first one ended.

Wisconsin was caught with too many men on the ice 15 seconds later, and the Nittany Lions went back on the man advantage. Talvitie wasted no time and his shot went bar down, giving Penn State a 3-0 lead, assisted by McMenamin and Jimmy Dowd Jr. The Badgers pulled goaltender Cameron Rowe and opted to place Robbie Beydoun between the pipes after the netminder allowed three goals on 16 shots.

With 2:58 remaining in the period, Mason Snell was sent to the box for boarding, giving Wisconsin their first man advantage of the evening. Unlike the night prior, the Nittany Lions killed the power play with ease, as they would do for all four they were handed.

The second period started with Xander Lamppa being sent to the box at 2:25, giving Wisconsin their second man advantage of the night. Penn State once again had no trouble killing off the penalty.

The difference in the team’s power kill performance versus the night before didn’t go unnoticed.

“The difference was, at least on the penalty kill, when you give a team like that seven opportunities — which include a 5-on-3, I mean you can’t expect a different result,” Gadowksy said. “Tonight, I thought our kill was great. We also had to only do it four times, which is almost half of what we did last night plus we didn’t have to kill a 5-on-3. So that’s the difference, the number of opportunities.”

Just over seven minutes into the second period, Wisconsin’s Dylan Holloway would get the puck in the back of Oskar Autio’s net, cutting the Nittany Lions lead to 3-1. The Badgers dominated play for the next minutes, and it appeared as if Penn State was regressing into Thursday night’s style of play.

Defenseman Clayton Phillips, assisted by Sam Sternschein and McMenamin, then buried the puck into Beydoun’s net, giving the Nittany Lions their three-goal lead back. Phillips came in at a crucial point when Wisconsin began to pick up speed and show some spark. Even with his performance, things began to turn late in the second period.

Alex Limoges was then sent to the box on a hooking call, giving the Badgers their third power play of the evening. Once again, Penn State killed the penalty before going on another penalty kill when defenceman Paul DeNaples was sent to the box for tripping with 30 seconds remaining in the period.

The third period started with Penn State killing off the remaining 1:28 of the penalty, but things soon began to tilt in favor of the Badgers. The team began to come apart at the seams, and once again fears of the prior night began to resurface. With one period left to go and facing a team as skilled as Wisconsin, even crumbling just a little could turn the tide of the game entirely.

Wisconsin’s Roman Ahcan would put the puck past Autio with under 10 minutes remaining in the period. Just under two minutes later, Ty Pelton-Byce would slip the puck past the Finn and make it a 4-3 game with 7:58 left in the period.

“We did come out really well, but in the third we had moments where we played like we played last night,” Gadowsky said. “I don’t know the reason for it. I think you really do have to give some of the credit to Wisconsin, they came really hard. I don’t know if we took our foot off the gas a little bit at the same time where they tried to put it in another gear.”

Hoping to tie the game, Wisconsin sent Beydoun to the bench with just over two minutes remaining in the game. McMenamin got his final point of the game when he buried the puck in the back of the Badger’s empty net, giving the Nittany Lions a 5-3 lead. 45 seconds later, Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield got the puck past Autio in an awkward toss, making it a 5-4 game. After a tense remaining half a minute of play, the Nittany Lions split the series with the Badgers.

Penn State has a postgame tradition of awarding one of its players “Thor’s Hammer.” The tradition began when a student who had spina bifida would show up to the Nittany Lions’ games dressed as the Norse god Thor. The challenges the student had to overcome, including three surgeries, inspired the team to bestow the hammer upon the athlete who possess the qualities of “perseverance and mental toughness” on the ice.

It was no surprise who the “hammer” was awarded to Friday night.

“So with that being said, the hammer was given to Connor McMenamin today,” Gadowsky said. “Not necessarily because of, again, the points, but because of those reasons. Mental toughness, perseverance, doing the right thing.”

While Friday night’s game ended much differently than Thursday’s, there were moments when fears of a sweep by Wisconsin weren’t unwarranted. But, the start of the game with Talvitie and Wall’s goals kicked off an energetic first two solid periods where the Nittany Lions were able to dominate play.

“The reason was the start, 100 percent and what the team did. … I need to get that answer, but I don’t have it,” Gadowsky said. “I asked the team after the game the exact question. I don’t know what the difference was. The difference was we were prepared to play tonight right at the drop of the puck and last night we weren’t. Why? I don’t know. I’d really like to know.”