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PSU’s unbeaten streak snapped, splits series with Ohio State

UNIVERSITY PARK — For the second consecutive weekend, Penn State lost a player to ejection in the second game of a two-game series. Last weekend it was Trevor Hamilton and the Lions were able to earn a shootout win.

Saturday night it was Andrew Sturtz who got the boot and No. 5 Ohio State took full advantage, winning 5-1 to earn a series split while snapping Penn State’s 11-game unbeaten streak.

Just over five minutes in, Ohio State’s Freddy Gerard breezed past Penn State’s defensemen and found Tanner Laczynski for the open net tap in as Peyton Jones was caught out of position to give Ohio State the lead.

Penn State started to find its rhythm and created chances of its own, including one that had the puck fall on top of the Ohio State net. Moments later, James Gobetz went around the net and threw the puck at the net and Nikita Pavlychev was in perfect position for the putback rebound to tie the game at one.

After that, it was all Ohio State.

Less than a minute later, Penn State’s joint-leading goalscorer Sturtz was ejected from the game for kneeing and game misconduct after bumping knees with Ohio State’s Janik Moser. Moser had to exit the game, unable to do so on his own power.

Ohio State took advantage of the five-minute major penalty with a power play goal from Freddy Gerard with Laczynski once again being involved. Laczynski played the puck toward the net where Ronnie Hein found an open Gerard crashing the net to restore the Buckeyes’ one-goal lead.

The Buckeye power play continued to cause the Lions problems following a Hamilton high sticking penalty. Gordi Myer played a beautiful pass to Dakota Joshua for the easy tap in and double the Buckeye lead.

Captain James Robinson was given a golden chance to get the Lions within one after being awarded a penalty shot after being hooked on a breakaway. However, Robinson couldn’t beat Ohio State goaltender Tommy Nappier, as he made a nice stick save.

The Lions’ offense could not get much going after that, getting few great chances. They were outshot for the fourth time this year and the first in back-to-back game.

“They’ve got a lot of really good players,” junior forward Chase Berger said. “If you give them that many opportunities, a good team’s going to score.”

Things got even worse for Penn State as Ohio State added two scores in the final minute with Gerard scoring his second on an empty net and Austin Pooley beating Jones on a buzzer-beating breakaway.

Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky was very frustrated with the loss.

“It’s hard to score goals without the puck,” said Gadowsky. “If you start with possession on a majority of those [faceoffs] and you’re giving yourself a chance. If you don’t, you’re putting yourself behind the eight ball and that’s what we did from the start. Thats a big big problem we need to address and to be honest and I’m getting kinda sick of it.”

Ohio State won the faceoff battle, 37-23.

Penn State travels to Michigan Friday looking to bounce back from their first loss in roughly two months.

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