Penn State hockey earns weekend split at Minnesota

The Penn State men’s hockey team needed to bounce back in a big way, and despite plenty of excuses the Nittany Lions pulled it off.

Zach Saar scored the game-winner with 3:41 left in regulation as No. 16 Penn State beat Minnesota 5-3 Saturday night, earning the program’s first win at Mariucci Arena.

Matt Mendelson, David Glen, Luke Juha and Kenny Brooks also scored as the Nittany Lions (17-8-3, 7-5) beat the Golden Gophers on their home ice for the first time in six tries, and for just the third time in 12 meetings overall.

“It’s a win here at Mariucci —it’s a really tough thing to do,” coach Guy Gadowsky told the media in Minneapolis after the game. “There’s only been one Big Ten win here in three years. Wow. That makes you feel pretty good.”

Michigan State is the only other conference team to win at Minnesota.

Eamon McAdam made a number of big saves in goal, 34 total, for the win as the teams split the season series 2-2.

Jake Bischoff, Tyler Sheehy and Justin Kloos had goals for Minnesota (14-13, 9-3), and Eric Schierhorn stopped 24 shots.

Penn State, which was playing with only three full forward lines and forced to shuffle lines throughout the weekend, won despite being outshot 37-29. It was a season low shot total for the nation’s leader in shots per game at nearly 44 per night.

“It wasn’t by design,” Gadowsky said of the shot attempts. “It was how the game went.”

Saar ripped in the winner with a powerful blast. Right off a faceoff in the Minnesota end, won by Chase Berger, Saar crossed behind Berger, picked up the puck and moved toward the slot. He unleashed an attempt that was blocked by a sliding Gopher defenseman, but the puck went right back to Saar and the junior unloaded another rocket that beat Schierhorn for his fourth goal of the season.

Mendelson broke the ice on his college scoring career midway through the first period, knocking in a rebound after Schierhorn stopped but couldn’t control another blast from Saar.

Mendelson’s score leaves freshman defenseman Derian Hamilton as the only skating Lion without a career goal. The team also improved to 13-0-1 this season when netting the game’s opening goal.

The Lions had not scored first since Jan. 22 at Ohio State — the team’s last win until Saturday.

Then came a flurry of scoring, with four goals in the span of just more than four minutes in the second period.

Glen started the run, taking a cross-ice feed from David Goodwin from one faceoff dot to the other and firing a one-timer for his fifth goal of the season.

The Gophers then rattled off two goals 2:10 apart to tie it, first from Bischoff on a power play, then from Sheehy. The power play tally allowed to Bischoff was the only Gopher goal with a man advantage in four games and 17 opportunities against Penn State this year.

However, the game was tied for just 46 seconds before Juha put the Nittany Lions in front again, slipping up the slot and taking a feed from Alec Marsh from behind the net for his fifth goal of the season.

Minnesota swiped the momentum right before the second intermission, though, when Hudson Fasching set up Kloos for a shorthanded goal with 39.7 seconds left in the period to tie it.

“We didn’t really say too much,” Gadowsky said of the goal, “just turn the page.”

It appeared Minnesota had the lead early in the third when Taylor Cammarata hit the net on a 3 on 2 break, but a review found Cammarata barely offsides and the score was denied.

“It means a lot,” Gadowsky said. “The guys just had a heck of a game, our trainer had a heck of a game, our equipment manager. That was the one who said ‘offsides’ and to challenge.”

Brooks finished the scoring into an empty net in the final minute.

Penn State stays on the road next weekend, visiting Michigan State on Friday and Saturday.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Penn State hockey earns weekend split at Minnesota."