Notre Dame Hockey: Irish and Nittany Lions Tie 3-3 in University Park

The University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish headed to University Park to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions Friday. Fans of the gold and blue have been seeing their guys regain some of the structure that has defined the team before this frustrating season. The Irish took it to a shootout to tie it 3-3 and snagged the second conference point.

First Period

The Notre Dame faithful have seen stronger first period showings in the past few games, and Friday’s matchup was no different. Notre Dame’s Mike O’Leary got things started with the first goal of the game. However, Penn State’s Nikita Pavlychev responded with a goal to tie the game. The Nittany Lions went after it on offense to double Notre Dame’s 8 shots on goal with 16.

Second Period

The Nittany Lions carried their momentum in the second and brought it to 2-1 Penn State with a goal from Nikita Pavlychev. Not even two minutes later, Notre Dame’s Matt Hellickson reacted with an Irish goal to tie it up again.

Third Period

Penn State’s squad wasted no time setting the tone of the first period. The Nittany Lions snatched a 3-2 lead with a goal from Tyler Gratton. The Nittany Lions seemed to have it all locked in, but Notre Dame’s Michael Graham scored to tie the game 3-3 with less than two minutes to go in regulation.

1st OT

Zero... point... zero

Shootout

Cam Burke found the back of the net to claim the second conference point.

Game Summary

Scoring

Notre Dame: Mike O’Leary at 04:31 in the 1st with assists from Colin Theisen and Trevor Janicke

Penn State: Nikita Pavlychev at 14:05 in the 1st with assist from Connor McMenamin

Penn State: Sam Sternschein at 05:01 in the 2nd with assists from Connor MacEachern and Kris Myllari

Notre Dame: Matt Hellickson at 07:16 in the 2nd with assists from Cal Burke and Jake Pivonka

Penn State: Tyler Gratton at 01:38 in the 3rd with assists from Alex Stevens and Connor McMenamin

Notre Dame: Michael Graham at 18:11 in the 3rd with assists from Alex Steeves and Cam Morrison

Notre Dame: Cam Burke, shootout goal

Penalties

Penn State: Nate Sucese for slashing at 06:44 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Team for too many men on the ice at 08:44 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Tory Dello for slashing at 19:31 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Jake Pivonka for holding the stick at 05:33 in the 3rd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Cale Morris, 49 saves

Penn State: Peyton Jones, 30 saves

Moving Forward

The Irish and Nittany Lions will meet again Saturday at 6 p.m. ET in University Park. To catch the game, stream online with BTN+.

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