After an impressive season thus far, Michigan State looked to give their seniors an appropriate send off at Munn Ice Arena on Saturday night, but red hot Nittany Lions had other plans.
Penn State has been one of the hottest - if not the hottest - teams in college hockey going 8-1-1 in its last ten games coming into this weekend, since the Spartans last played them back in early January. The No. 1-ranked Spartans knew they would need their best performance to maintain control of the Big Ten and provide a great celebration on Senior Night.
After tying the first game of this two-game series (and losing the extra point in a shootout) on Friday night, the Spartans were looking for a fast start for game number two.
They got the opposite as Penn State scored just 59 seconds into the game on a fast break 2 on 1 that ended with Charlie Cerrato slipping one through Trey Augustine's five hole.
Just 41 seconds later, Penn State would strike again on a one timer from the slot that was blasted over Augustine's blocker.
Down 2-0 just 1:40 into the game, the No. 1 team in the nation turned the momentum around to end the first period and pushed hard, but to no avail. Michigan State found themselves in penalty trouble to start the second frame and Penn State made them pay.
The Nittany Lions leading goal scorer Aiden Fink ripped a one timer from the top of the left circle that sizzled past Augustine's shoulder just 1:27 into the second period.
"We play a physical brand (of hockey)," Spartan head coach Adam Nightingale said about his teams march to the penalty box in the second period. "As long as I'm the coach here, we are going to play that way and we will take some penalties. We're going to take a piece out of our opponents. I think that's how the sport should be played and that's the side of the tracks I grew up on."
Michigan State did fight to get back in it, though, as they dominated the rest of the period. Penn State's goaltender, Arsenii Sergeev, had a fantastic weekend and proved to be a giant difference maker in this one, stopping 42 of 44 shots.
Sergeev was a brick wall for the remainder of the second and into the third until finally MSU's Tommy Mannisto was able to finish off an odd man rush, making it 3-1 with 8 minutes left in the game.
Michigan State continued to push to get back in the game but wouldn't get another one past Sergeev until 8.5 seconds left in the game when Karsen Dorwart finished off a rebound in front of the PSU net.
It was too little too late as the Spartans fell 3-2 to the Nittany Lions in the last home game of the regular season.
Nightingale touched on the loss and senior night at Munn.
"Obviously not the results we were looking for on the weekend," he said. "I told the guys after the game, let's not let that cloud ruin the season we've had. Obviously, we have to do better and clean some things up, but (we want to honor) our four seniors and manager and what they've done for the program."
After a terrible weekend at Munn this weekend, MSU will hit the road to finish off the season at last place Notre Dame. The Spartans will need to perform well against the Irish and hope for this same Penn State team to keep Minnesota from getting too many points in Happy Valley next weekend in order to be crowned regular season back-to-back Big Ten champions.
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