Penn State wins first shootout, edges Michigan State

The Penn State men’s hockey team earned another first Saturday night.

For the first time in program history, the Nittany Lions won a shootout.

In the program’s fourth year, Ricky DeRosa hit the net while Eamon McAdam stopped all three shootout tries at the other end of the ice to beat Michigan State at Munn Ice Arena.

The game goes in the books as a 2-2 tie, but the Nittany Lions (18-8-4, 8-5-1-1 Big Ten) get the extra point in the conference standings. It followed a 6-1 Penn State win on Friday.

Eric Scheid scored early and Luke Juha forced overtime with a late goal for the Nittany Lions, while McAdam stopped 34 shots. He also stopped all three Michigan State shootout tries, including Cody Milan on the final attempt, to lock it up.

“We had to really fight back hard,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “A big goal with five-something to go and a great (penalty) kill, and a shootout victory. It was a heck of a win.”

Matt DeBlouw and Michael Ferrantino had the Spartan goals and Jake Hildebrand registered 35 saves.

Scheid netted his 10th goal of the season just over three minutes into the game, beating Hildebrand from a tight angle. Picking up an assist on the goal was McAdam, the third assist of the season for the junior goalie.

Scheid is the third Lion this season to reach double digits in goals, joining freshmen Andrew Sturtz (14) and Chase Berger (12).

DeBlouw evened the game 1:26 into the second, beating McAdam on his blocker side from the faceoff circle.

Killing its third power play in less than 13 minutes of second-period play, the Nittany Lion defense broke as Ferrantino beat McAdam to give the Spartans (7-20-3, 3-10-1-0) the lead.

Penn State was fortunate to only trail by one goal after the second, outshot 14-6 as Michigan State held possession for much of the period.

But the Nittany Lions cranked up the offense, and cut down on the penalties, in the third. They outshot the Spartans 17-8 in the third and 37-36 for the game.

Peppering Hildebrand, Juha finally tied it with 5:27 left in regulation on a power play, knocking in a rebound right in front of the net through a maze of bodies. Penn State then survived a 5 on 3 power play to force five minutes of overtime before the shootout.

“The 5 on 3 was a huge play,” Gadowsky said. “I’m not so sure we deserved to be down 5 on 3, but a great job by the guys to forget about the call and kill it and came back for our first shootout victory. It’s been a great weekend.”

Notes: Penn State was 1 for 3 on the power play, and Michigan State was 1 for 5. ... Penn State faces Ohio State next weekend in the final home games of the season, at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday, with Senior Day set for Saturday. ... David Goodwin picked up an assist to become the second Nittany Lion, joining Taylor Holstrom last season, to post 20 helpers in a season. ... Penn State started its fourth straight game with only 11 healthy forwards.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Penn State wins first shootout, edges Michigan State."