Buckeyes Get Revenge; Penn State Can’t Find Answers Against Dobes

Story posted January 30, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Evan Popalis

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - After a thrilling shootout victory for Penn State on Friday night, Ohio State got its revenge Saturday.

The Buckeyes scored early and often to edge the Nittany Lions 6-0.

“We lost to a very good team,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “I thought they were a lot more mentally tough than we were tonight.”

Chicago Blackhawks product Jake Wise initiated the scoring in the matchup. The senior forward from Reading, Massachusetts, re-directed a Will Riedell wrister from the point to beat Penn State netminder Oskar Autio.

Wise was not finished in the first period, tallying his second goal of the night and ninth of the season on a defensive breakdown by the Nittany Lions. The Buckeye found himself alone in front of the goal and buried the opportunity to spread the lead to 2-0 in favor of the visitors.

Penn State showed a decent response, but could not get anything into the back of the net.

Right in the opening minutes of the second period, the Buckeyes struck once again. Cam Thiesing threaded a beautiful pass to Joe Dunlap leading to Ohio State’s third goal. For Dunlap, it’s his sixth goal of the season.

With a couple of ticks under eight minutes remaining in the middle frame, freshman phenom Georgii Merkulov sniped one over the left shoulder of Autio to push the advantage to four goals.

Down by four goals entering the third period, Penn State needed a massive comeback. It did not find the spark it needed.

A minute into the period, Boston Bruins product Mason Lohrei rang a shot off the crossbar and into the net to extend the lead further. It was the lone goal in the game that came on the man advantage.

Later in the period, Tate Singleton got on the board for the eighth time on the campaign.

Ohio State sealed the victory holding the Nittany Lions scoreless for the entirety of 60 minutes. It is the first time this season Penn State was shut out in a game.

It’s no question that the star of the night was Ohio State goaltender Jakub Dobes. The Montreal Canadiens fifth-round selection in the 2020 draft stood tall throughout the duration of the contest, racking up 47 saves.

“Give him credit, he played very well,” Gadowsky said about Dobes. “I, also, think that we had some self-inflicted wounds.”

With the loss, Penn State slips to 14-13-1 as it concludes play in the month of January. The opening of 2022 has paved a 4-4-1 record for the blue and white.

Next up for the Nittany Lions is a trip to South Bend to battle the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.


Evan Popalis is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email epopalis83@gmail.com.

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Evan Popalis is a third-year from Lititz, Pennsylvania, majoring in broadcast journalism. He is a writer, analyst, and play-by-play commentator for the CommRadio sports department. His writings include weekly NHL betting previews along with power rankings for the NHL and NFL. He appears weekly on the NHL Podcast as a host and analyst reviewing the previous week’s action. If you would like to contact him, email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).