Matt DiMarscio’s goal at 17:56 of the first overtime period put Penn State hockey into the Frozen Four for the first time ever.
No. 4 Penn State beat No. 2 UcConn in to win the Allentown regional and as a result will face the winner of No. 3 Denver and No. 1 Boston College, who are competing in the Manchester Regional Final.
UConn got started a little more than three minutes in on a goal by Joey Muldowney.
Penn State had a power play opportunity soon after the goal but wasn’t able to capitalize.
At 13:27 of the first period, Penn State tied it up courtesy of Dane Dowiak, assisted by Tyler Paquette.
The ensuing minutes featured a four-on-four created by a scuffle between Penn State’s Jimmy Dowd Jr. (roughing) and UConn’s Ryan Tattle (holding). But no goals came out of the four-on-four.
After period one, the teams were tied at 1.
Penn State certainly was aggressive in the early going, outshooting UConn 17-7.
The first four minutes of the second period featured multiple scoring chances from each side but the game remained tied.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Right around the 12-minute mark of the second period, Penn State put together a four-shot sequence. But UConn goalie Callum Tung kept the game tied.
UConn retook the lead at 11:27 of the second period when a shot by Tabor Heaslip hit off Penn State defenseman Jarod Crespo’s elbow and went into the net.
But that lead only lasted 30 seconds because Penn State’s JJ Wiebusch tied it up with an unassisted goal.
It remained tied at two through the rest of the period.
The third period started with plenty of physicality. There was even a moment where Penn State’s Matt Dimarsico lost his stick and still threw himself into a UConn player.
UConn controlled the game for the next four minutes but couldn’t quite break through. The next several minutes featured more of the same, with Penn State goalie Arsenii Sergeev making a clutch save right at the four-minute mark.
At the end of the day, regulation wasn’t enough, and Penn State got it done in overtime.
