The Ohio State men’s hockey team celebrates their second goal of the game during No. 12 Ohio State’s 3-1 win over No. 14 Michigan State in Columbus on Jan. 6. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Photo Editor
No. 7 Ohio State found itself in a similar situation as Friday, tied with under five minutes remaining Saturday against No. 9 Penn State.
This time, however, the Buckeyes flipped the script to rally past the Nittany Lions.
The Buckeyes (17-10-1, 10-8-0 Big Ten) played the game on their terms Saturday, never trailing in the contest and getting clutch goals from senior forward Tate Singleton and sophomore defenseman Cole McWard in the final five minutes to prevail 4-2 over the Nittany Lions (19-10-1, 9-10-1 Big Ten).
McWard said scoring first was great for the team and believed not playing catch up all night made a difference.
“I think it’s always a good push of momentum,” McWard said. “You get the momentum going early in the game, and everyone’s feeling a little better if you got one on the board.”
Senior forward Jaedon Leslie started the scoring in the first period with a goal at the 2:44 mark, only his fourth on the season.
Ohio State had penalty troubles early, committing three in the first frame with two coming about one minute apart, leading to a brief five-on-three segment. The Buckeyes killed the power play opportunity and only committed one more penalty for the remainder of the game.
The Nittany Lions equaled the contest in the second period via freshman defenseman Dylan Gratton to make it 1-1.
The two teams traded goals at the beginning of the final period, starting with freshman forward Davis Burnside’s team-leading 13th on the campaign at 2:47 and being answered by junior defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr. for Penn State just over two minutes later.
Singleton scored the game-winning goal with 4:32 remaining, and McWard tacked on an empty net goal to pad the victory.
Three of the four goals for the Buckeyes were scored on even strength. Head coach Steve Rohlik said it was important not to have to lean on special teams to score as they often do.
“We just played one of the best teams in the country,” Rohlik said. “It felt like a playoff game and says a lot about us. Sometimes you’re not going to have that power play going every night, so it was nice to see us score some five-on-five goals.”
The Buckeyes out-shot the conference-leading shot on goal Nittany Lions 37-34.
“They do get a lot of shots on net,” Rohlik said. “Anytime you can walk away and keep them below 30 last night and below 35 tonight, you’ve done something well.”
Sophomore goalie Jakub Dobeš had 32 saves in a bounce-back performance that saw him only surrender two goals. He had 22 saves in Ohio State’s 4-3 loss Friday.
Freshman forward Stephen Halliday had two more assists Saturday, giving him five on the weekend to add to his team-leading point total at 30.
Ohio State travels to South Bend, Indiana, to take on Notre Dame at Compton Family Ice Arena next weekend. Friday’s game is a 7:30 p.m. start, while Saturday is slated for a 6:00 p.m. puck drop. Both games will stream on Peacock.
