No. 7 Minnesota falls to No. 11 Penn State in home opener

Published Oct. 13, 2017 11:42 p.m. ET

MINNEAPOLIS – The No. 7 Minnesota men's hockey team fell to No. 11 Penn State in its home and Big Ten conference opener on Friday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Junior Ryan Norman tallied his first goal of the season in the third for Minnesota’s lone score of the game, assisted by junior Darian Romanko and sophomore Ryan Zuhlsdorf. Junior goaltender Eric Schierhorn made 26 saves on the day.

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Penn State grabbed the offensive advantage early, holding Minnesota without a shot on goal for the first 11:05 of the game. Penn State capitalized in a breakaway situation at 15:03 of the first to pull ahead 1-0.

With Minnesota assessed a bench minor for too many skaters early in the second, the Nittany Lions stretched their lead to two as Denis Smirnov scored at 3:06 into the frame.

The Gophers received a five-minute major penalty for checking-from-behind and a game misconduct to senior Leon Bristedt at 8:47 of the period and Penn State capitalized on a short 5-on-3 opportunity as Nikita Pavlychev made the score 3-0.

Minnesota broke through on the scoreboard at 8:57 of the third, with Norman sliding in the 10th goal of his career while falling to his back just to the right of Nittany Lions goaltender Peyton Jones.

The Gophers pulled Schierhorn for an extra attacker with 1:21 remaining in the contest, and a late hooking call against Penn State gave Minnesota a 6-on-4 advantage for the final 26 seconds, but Jones continued to shut the door, finishing the day with 21 stops.

The Lions out-shot the Gophers 26-21 for the game and 12-8 in the third period.

Minnesota and Penn State will wrap up the first Big Ten series on Sunday at 3M Arena at Mariucci, beginning at 3:00 p.m.