No. 6 Penn State men’s hockey drops Game 2 of series with Ohio State in Teddy Bear Toss game

Poor response to good things is very rarely a recipe for success.

A barn-burning first period gave No. 17 Ohio State a narrow 4-3 victory over No. 6 Penn State men’s hockey Saturday in Pegula Ice Arena.

The contest opened at a rapid pace, with Penn State earning a quick man-advantage thanks to a Buckeye trip. The blue and white squandered that chance even more quickly than it came, with junior defender Christian Berger picking up a slash call to send the game to 4-on-4 action at the 30-second mark.

At the conclusion of a high-intensity 4-on-4 play, Penn State struck. On what was technically a short-handed goal, senior forward Kevin Wall sneaked behind the defense, received a pass from sophomore forward Ben Schoen and made an impressive move to slot the game-opening goal past Jakub Dobeš.

Pegula Ice Arena exploded in cheers, but like the Nittany Lions’ early power play, that excitement was short-lived.

Striking just 24 seconds later, Ohio State’s tied the contest just under the three-minute mark.

High-paced competition continued to ensue before the road team once again found the board, taking its first lead of the night. Jaedon Leslie’s goal at the 5:59 mark gave his unit a 2-1 lead.

After coming up short on a power play shortly after the scarlet and gray’s second goal, head coach Guy Gadowsky’s squad earned yet another chance a man-up just under 13 minutes in. On par with other mistakes earlier in the frame, Penn State once again shot itself in the foot, Ben Schoen leveled play five seconds into the power play after going to the box for interference to send the contest to another 4-on-4.

Luckily for the Nittany Lions, they didn’t squander the extra open ice, bringing things level once again on a tally by sophomore forward Danny Dzhaniyev at the 13:57 mark in the first.

In somewhat impressive fashion, the home team found yet another way to blunder momentum less than a minute later. Tate Singleton picked up the third and final score for his team in a wild opening period.

“In my eyes, our first period was our worst period,” fifth-year senior Paul DeNaples said. “We never took control of the game early on, and every power play opportunity we had in the first was kinda eliminated with a penalty against. So, to me, that was actually the period that brought us down.”

Between periods, the blue and white crowd celebrated a special moment — the team’s annual Teddy Bear Toss benefiting Thon.

As the first intermission clock ticked down, fans took in the sights of a special moment, forgetting about hockey for a mere moment.

The second period carried a much different pace and feel than the third, with the home side looking especially sluggish after a high-tempo first 20 minutes.

Only one major happening took place in the middle frame — the eventual game-winning goal by Joe Dunlap just over four minutes in. After that, the blue and white clawed to keep pace with an Ohio State, who controlled the pace despite being outshot 10-9.

“For some reason in the second, I don’t know what it was, we had trouble getting going,” Gadowsky said.

The third and final period was a much better showing for Gadowsky’s squad than the previous one, appearing to have been re-energized during the break. That reinvigorated play paid off for the home team, as it cut its deficit to just one 6:22 into the final frame on a backhanded shot from fifth-year forward Ture Linden.

Playing for the game-tying tally, Penn State was aggressive, dictating the flow of the contest while outshooting the Buckeyes 11-5 on home ice. The third proved to once again be a grounds to a stark comeback push from the Nittany Lions, something that’s consistently been the case throughout the year.

Penn State’s head coach said that the fight his team shows at the end of games is encouraging but added being down late is not an ideal spot to be in.

“I mean, it’s exciting,” Gadowsky said. “But ... that’s not the plan by any means.”

With under a minute left, the blue and white had its best chance on paper to equalize.

Pulling junior goalie Liam Souliere and earning a power play with 1:04 remaining, Penn State used a 6-on-4 advantage to apply continued pressure to Dobeš and the Ohio State defense. But much like its several other grade-A chances in the frame, the squad came up empty, falling just short of another comeback against a Big Ten foe.

With the loss, the sixth-ranked blue and white moved to 14-4 on the campaign with games against Notre Dame on the road on the horizon.

“We can’t be too disappointed,” Gadowsky said. “There’s good things that happened in this game that make us feel good.”