COLUMBUS, Ohio - Freshman Dylan Lugris (Buffalo, NY) set a game-winning goal in the third period to beat Penn State 2-1 and register a series win over No. 12 Ohio State in game three of the B1G Quarterfinal-off- The Three Series on Sunday evening inside the Value City Arena.
Penn State improves to 17-19-1 with a win this season while Ohio State falls 22-13-2 with a shock.
Penn State became the first road team to win a best-of-three Big Ten quarterfinal series as the Nittany Lions advanced to their seventh-straight tournament semifinals and a conference run, their conference tournament record 13-8-0 all-time. Overall best eighth. PSU's 13 tournament victories are also the highest ever.
The Nittany Lions will travel to regular-season champion and top seed No. 2 Minnesota for the Big Ten semi-finals next Saturday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
How did this happen
- After the first period without a point, Penn State opened the scoring for a second-straight night as new Ben Schoen (Maumee, Ohio) set up classmate Ryan Kirwan (DeWitt, NY) for a one-timer in the right circle and The cheater did. OSU net-minder Jacob Dobbs missed the shot behind the glove for a 1-0 lead at 13:30 mid-frame.
- Ohio State reacted late in the second period as it was spinning on the Jake Wise blue-line and firing a tape-to-tape pass to Tate Singleton under the right dot and near for a 1–1 score. Took a shot inside the post. At the 18:52 mark.
- The Nittany Lions took the lead in the third period as senior Paul Deneples (Moscow, Pa.) sent a crisp cross-ice pass to Lugris down the left dot and the rookie waited for Dobbs to come to the crease before firing the puck. did. Post away and take a 2-1 lead on the 13:07 mark.
Goaltending
- Solire improved to 7-6-1 in the year after making 23 saves on the night, while Dobbs fell to 21-12-2 after intercepting 35 shots.
- Solire has now allowed two goals or fewer in seven of his last 10.
Notes
- Penn State took a 35-24 lead in shots on goal, 0-for-3 on the powerplay and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
- With his second period goal, Kirwan now has 13 runs in the season to tie Chase Berger '19 for the sixth most runs in a season by a freshman in program history. His 26 points also put Berger in fifth place as the newest player ever in a single season.
- Lugris has now registered a point and scored a goal in back-to-back games for the first time in his youth career.
- Led by senior Paul Deneples (Moscow, Pa.) with four blocked shots, Penn State went from 23 on the night to just 15 for the Buckeyes.
- The road team is now just 5-23-0 in the Big Ten Best-of-Three Quarterfinal Series as Penn State became the first traveling team to win a series and win a game three.
- The back-to-back wins are the second time this season that Penn State has won two straight conference games in their January 21-22 series against Wisconsin at the Pegula Ice Arena.
- The back-to-back victories mark the first time for the Nittany Lions on the road since December 7 and 13 of 2019 when they beat Michigan and Notre Dame in consecutive weekends.
- The Nittany Lions improved to 16-4-1, scoring first while the win was Penn State's second straight in a goalless game and third of the season.