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UNIVERSITY PARK -- Tell me if you've heard this before: Penn State comes back to beat Michigan in overtime at home.
But this time it was on the ice in the roaring Pegula Ice Arena and not Beaver Stadium. Trailing more than once, the Nittany Lions opened up Big Ten play with a 5-4 overtime victory over Michigan Friday.
In what seems to be a recurring theme over the past few games, the Nittany Lions got off to another slow start. After a couple of close chances on offense, the Lions' defense got sloppy as Michigan's Will Lockwood got past three Nittany Lions and beat Peyton Jones through the five-hole a bit more than two minutes in the game. A few minutes later, Dexter Dancs fired a wrist shot over Jones' blocker to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead on their first two shots of the game.
Penn State responded with a flurry of shots, but Michigan goaltender Jack LaFontaine stood his ground and kept Penn State from cutting the lead in half. The best chance for the Lions came when Brandon Biro nearly buried a rebound after Denis Smirnov floated a backhander on goal.
After Andrew Sturtz's holding penalty expired, he found the puck on his way over to the bench and raced toward the goal. Strutz's wrist shot deflected off of LaFontaine's shoulder and fluttered its way behind LaFontaine and into the back of the net to cut the Michigan lead in half before the end of the first.
"It's huge not to go into the intermission down two goals," said Sturtz, who is now tied second on Penn State all-time career goals with David Goodwin with 44 career goals. "It showed that if we keep getting pucks to the net, they might go in."
The second period was off to a slow start for both teams with neither seeming to grab the momentum. However, Penn State started to find its groove and had a number of chances with back-to-back power plays following a pair of penalties against Michigan.
After both teams were back at full strength Michigan had a good chance, but Penn State turned on the jets and started an attack of its own. Nate Sucese found Denis Smirnov on the left side of the ice and Smirnov sniped the puck into the bottom corner to tie the game for Penn State with 10:11 remaining in the period.
Sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones also found his rhythm, playing like a man possessed and making some tough saves. His toughest save came after James Gobetz turnovered the puck right in front of his goal. Jones was able to keep the game tied with his heroics. However, Michigan got the better of Jones after a costly interference penalty from Nikita Pavlychev and regained the lead with the score at 3-2 as Dexter Dancs got his second goal of the night. The second period ended just like the first, with the Wolverines holding a one goal lead.
Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky elaborated that the team was confident in its play and was playing more like "Penn State hockey" again going into the final period.
"Nothing different (was said in the locker room) than before the game," Gadowsky said. "Sometimes you can play a really good game and lose. If that happened tonight I promise you I would still be very very happy and I just liked how we played."
Penn State came out firing in the final period looking for the equalizer. Chase Berger hit the post within 30 seconds, then a Brandon Biro shot and Sucese rebound were both denied from close range from LaFontaine. But less than a few minutes later, after Liam Folkes' shot, Alex Limoges put away the rebound for his first career collegiate goal and tied the game at three with 15:28 remaining.
However, Michigan once again responded with a quick goal to retake the lead, this time through Cooper Marody following a Penn State turnover. Michigan used that goal to regain momentum with the better chances to try and seal the game. Following a Nittany Lion miscommunication, Jones denied the Wolverines on the breakaway and Michigan's Tony Calderone later had his shot hit off the post.
With time running out and LaFontaine playing out of his mind, Penn State continued to look for crucial tying goal. Andrew Sturtz had what seemed to be a golden opportunity in front of the net but was unable to convert, but Chase Berger found the puck of the rebound and put it past LaFontaine to tie the game at four with just 1:32 left in regulation.
After just 53 seconds of the overtime period, Blake Gober crashed the net and won the game with a sudden-death goal to complete Penn State's comeback. Gober was unsure of the goal until it was officially counted.
"I saw nothing to be honest," said Gober. "I just kind of went to net and when I looked up I saw (James Robinson) screaming."
Penn State will close out its home series with Michigan at 8 p.m. tonight.