Game Story: Minnesota loses game, series & home ice to Penn State (Zone Coverage)

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA- Losing a shootout last Saturday turned out to be the difference for Minnesota.

Or it could possibly be a blown 3-0 lead to Michigan in November that resulted in a loss in overtime.

The 4-0 lead the next night which resulted in two points rather than three comes to mind. Maybe Wisconsin or Ohio State finding a way to win tied games in the third period did it. Maybe being shut out at Notre Dame despite 44 shots on Cale Morris.

Then there’s this weekend. After 24 Big Ten league games, Minnesota fell one point short of home ice.

“It’s tough. It’s not the weekend that we wanted,” Gopher junior forward Brent Gates Jr. said.

Needing a single point on the road in either of the two games against Penn State, the Gophers got swept at Pegula Arena for the first time in program history. Despite a better start Saturday a night after handily losing 5-1, Minnesota could not find a way early past Peyton Jones.

The Nittany Lions scored twice in the opening 10:48 to go on and win the regular season finale 5-2. Celebrating with streamers from the student section, PSU finishes with 34 points compared to 33 for the Gophers.

“We didn’t play as we needed to yesterday, as the shots and score showed. You can’t leave the second game to chance,” said Mike Szmatula.

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Pregame Blog: Gophers without 3 top-9 forwards, Peyton Jones' Sportcenter save + More

#11 Penn State (2-1-0, 1-0-0-0 Big Ten) at #7 Minnesota (1-2-0, 0-1-0-0 Big Ten)

Date: October 15, 2017
Time: 3:00 pm CT
Place: 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, MN
TV: Fox Sports North (Doug McLeod, Ben Clymer and Krissy Wendell-Pohl)
Stream: BTN2Go/Fox Sports Go
Radio: 1130 KTLK-AM (Wally Shaver and Frank Mazzocco)
Nate is covering for today: The Athletic

Among the many things Minnesota failed to do in Friday's 3-1 loss was test Penn State sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones.

"Not at all," junior forward Darian Romanko said. "We got zero shots in the first ten minutes and 16 on the game, I think (Note: It was 21). That's not good enough for Gopher hockey."

The slow start was Minnesota's second consecutive Friday night opening the game being outshot over the first ten minutes. The Gophers didn't have a shot stopped by Jones until the 12 minute mark. He was barely tested as the Nittany Lions forced Eric Schierhorn (making his record-breaking 79th straight start Sunday) to stop 2 breakaways during that stretch.