Penn State earns first Big Ten win; Host Michigan State this weekend

Zach Saar celebrates his goal during PSU's 4-0 win over No. 10 Michigan. (Photo c/o Abby Drey of the CDT)

The No. 10 Michigan Wolverines jumped out to an early 2-0 lead midway through the first period last Friday, but sophomore Casey Bailey and redshirt sophomore Eric Scheid scored their fourth and 11th goals of the season, respectively, in the second to tie the game at two.

Once again, things were looking good for Penn State despite giving up two early goals.  

Unfortunately, Michigan responded with five of the next six goals, including an empty-netter to beat Penn State 7-3. It was a disappointing effort against one of the country’s top teams, but the Lions had another game to play the following day.

In Game 2 last Saturday, sophomore goalie Matt Skoff stopped all 32 shots he faced and the Lions took advantage of their three-goal first period to earn their first Big Ten conference victory in school history by defeating the Wolverines 4-0.

Freshman Zach Saar opened the scoring just 5:31 into the game to give Penn State at 1-0 lead. With 8:36 left in the first period, David Glen scored to give the Lions a 2-0 advantage. Glen won the initial faceoff back to Kenny Brooks, which was just to right of Michigan goalie Zach Nagelvoort. Brooks then found Glen, who caught the Wolverine netminder leaning a bit off the left post, and squeaked a shot past between the post and Nagelvoort’s right pad.

Casey Bailey would score less than two minutes later to give Penn State a 3-0 advantage. Ricky DeRosa’s centering pass deflected off Scheid in the slot, but Bailey found the puck and wristed a shot in the back of the net. Nagelvoort was pulled after Bailey’s goal.

DeRosa would add a third period tally to seal the 4-0 victory for Penn State.

Penn State out shot Michigan by a 40-32 margin. This was the seventh time in the last eight games that Penn State has outshot its opponents.  PSU went 0-for-3 on the power-play, while Michigan failed to score on its only power-play chance.

DeRosa and Scheid each recorded two points on Saturday for three-point weekends.

Penn State now improves to 5-18-1 overall and 1-9-0-0 in the Big Ten. Michigan falls to 14-7-3 overall and 6-3-1-1 in the Big Ten. This was Penn State’s first shutout of the season and Skoff’s third career shutout.

Obviously, this was a huge win for the program, but they must build on this signature win this weekend with a pair of games against (in my opinion) a beatable Michigan State squad.

If you recall, the Spartans swept the Nittany Lions back on Jan 17th and 18th in East Lansing and this is Penn State’s time for revenge.

The Spartans are 8-13-6 overall and 2-5-5 in conference play. MSU hasn’t won a game in regulation since they beat PSU on Jan. 18th, 3-2. Last weekend in Columbus, the Spartans tied a pair of 2-2 games with the Buckeyes.

The key for Penn State this time around against the Spartans is to play a full 60 minutes and stay disciplined. They didn’t do that last month and if they play like they did against Michigan, they’ll have a great chance to sweep the series.

MSU has nine players who are in double-digit scoring and are lead offensively by Greg Wolfe. Wolfe has 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points in 27 games played.

I think we could see a different Penn State squad from here on out. Getting off the “hump” so to speak, by beating Michigan should do wonders for this team. Confidence can be a powerful thing and Penn State must take advantage of the Spartans slumping.

I normally don’t like to do predictions but I think Penn State will split the series with MSU. Matt Skoff will continue his hot play and Eric Scheid will show why he’s Penn State’s best player.