Feb. 24, 2002
Penn State’s Will Jones scored his third goal of the game 2:29 into overtime to lift the Nittany Lions to a 10-9 victory over Notre Dame in the 2002 season opener for both teams.
In a battle that saw five ties throughout the 60 minutes of regulation, Notre Dame’s Dan Berger (Phoenix, Md.) scored the game-tying goal with seven seconds left in regulation as the Irish rallied from a 9-6 deficit with 8:12 remaining in the fourth quarter.
After trailing 5-4 at the intermission, the Nittany Lions outscored the Irish 3-0 in the third quarter to give Penn State a 7-5 advantage after three quarters. Will Driscoll scored Penn State’s first two goals to state the second half as he tied the game at 5-5 with 13:06 remaining and then gave the Nittany Lions a 6-5 advantage less than three minutes later. Mike Jacober tallied the final goal of the quarter at the 8:53 mark, giving the visitors a 7-5 lead after 45 minutes of action.
Notre Dame’s Devin Ryan (Kensington, Md.) halted Penn State’s three-goal rally with his third score of the game with 13:30 remaining as the Notre Dame closed the gap to 7-6. The Nittany Lions answered with consecutive goals by Will Jones and Will Cutler to extend Penn State’s lead to 9-6 with 8:12 left to play.
Freshman Matt Malakoff (Bayshore, N.Y.) began the Irish rally at the 6:59 mark on an unassisted score for his first collegiate goal. Sophomore Matt Howell (Huntington, N.Y.) answered with a scored with 4:11 remaining off an assist from John Flandina (West Islip, N.Y.) to pull the Irish to within 9-8. Flandina, who finished with five four assists on the afternoon, also had the assist on Berger’s game-tying goal.
Penn State jumped out to a 2-0 advantage early on the first quarter on scores by Sean Droogan and Marc Young. Howell tallied his first score of the game on an unassisted goal, while Ryan knotted the contest at 2-2. Jesse Tarr scored right before the end of the first quarter to give the Nittany Lions a 3-2 advantage.
Howell, who recorded his first career hat trick in an Irish uniform, tied the game at 3-3 off an assist from Flandina at the 13:07 mark before Jones scored his first goal off an assist from Rob Bateman with 6:26 remaining to give Penn State a 4-3 advantage.
Kyle Frigon (Salem, Mass.) tied the game at 4-4 with 5:25 left before the intermission, while Ryan’s goal off an assist from Flandina with 25 seconds sent the Irish to the break with a 5-4 advantage.
Sophomore Stewart Crosland (Bethesda, Md.), playing in his first collegiate game and making his first career start, finished with 18 saves on the afternoon , while Penn State goalie Chris Garrity recorded nine saves.
Notre Dame returns to action on Sat., March 2 for a 1:00 p.m. contest at Pennsylvania.