Werner’s OT Goal Powers Irish Past Penn State, 5-4
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Fighting Irish erased a two-goal deficit before Evan Werner scored the winner in overtime to deliver Notre Dame a thrilling 5-4 victory over Penn State inside Pegula Ice Arena on Friday evening.
All five goals were scored by five different players in the win, as Hagen Burrows, Dashel Oliver, Brennan Ali and Danny Nelson also added goals in the winning effort.
Freshman goaltender Patrick Quinlan picked up the first win of his collegiate career, finishing with 36 saves on the night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish wasted little time opening up the scoring, as they found the back of the net within the first five minutes of play to jump out to a quick 1-0 lead.
Fischer collected a pass inside the blue line and skated past two Penn State players before his shot was redirected by Burrows into the back of the net for his first career goal with Notre Dame.
The Nittany Lions leveled the score at the 12:50 mark of the first period, as Justin Poirier scored on the power play to make it 1-1.
Penn State added another power play goal less than three minutes later to take its first lead of the evening at 2-1.
The Fighting Irish battled back and tied the game at 2-2 just over three minutes into the second period. Will Belle’s shot was saved but Oliver finished the rebound on the backside of the play for his first goal of the season.
The hosts immediately responded to retake the lead at 3-2, scoring less than three minutes after Notre Dame evened the score off a rebound in front of the crease.
The Nittany Lions pushed their lead to two at the 13:24 mark of the second, scoring a short-handed goal to make it 4-2.
With less than two minutes left in the period the Irish went on the power play for the second time of the game and cashed in with 15 seconds left in the second as a Henry Nelson shot from the point was redirected into the back of the net by Ali for his second of the season to pull the Irish back within one at 4-3 heading into the second intermission.
Notre Dame completely erased the two-goal deficit at the 8:55 mark of the third period, as Henry Nelson’s shot from just inside the offensive zone was redirected by his brother Danny from right in front of the crease to pull level at 4-4.
The Irish nearly took the lead within the final four minutes of regulation, as Cole Brown’s shot went off the pipe on a Notre Dame power play.
On the other end Quinlan made a number of huge saves in the final 90 seconds to send the game into overtime.
The Irish controlled the majority of the overtime session, creating numerous scoring chances in the 3-on-3. All the pressure paid off in the final two minutes. Danny Nelson found Evan Werner with a perfect pass, who got just in front of the defenseman and managed to lift a shot that the Penn State goalkeeper was unable to keep out, which gave Notre Dame the win.
UP NEXT
Game two of the series is set to start at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 7 and will be streamed on B1G+.
