SATURDAY COLLEGE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: Fink, No. 18 PSU upset No. 1 Michigan State, No. 5 Minnesota now tops in B1G; No. 3 WMU salvages points with OT win at No. 12 ASU; No. 8 Providence rallies past No. 13 UML for key league points; Army ends Riley era in West Point with OT win

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Penn State jumped to a 3-0 lead early and then held off the nation’s top team Michigan State, holding on for a 3-2 victory in Lansing on Saturday.

Combined with Friday’s 2-2 tie where Penn State won the shootout, the Nittany Lions held  Michigan State to just a single Big Ten point this weekend allowing Minnesota to move into first place with one weekend left in the regular season. The Gophers swept Ohio State this weekend, 4-1 and 6-3.

Charlie Cerrato opened the scoring for Penn State just 59 seconds into the game and JJ Wiebusch extended the lead 41 seconds later.

In the second, Aiden Fink scored his 22nd goal of the season to momentarily take the national lead in points, one ahead of Michigan State’s Isaac Howard.

Penn State’s 3-goal lead survived a rally in the third as Tommi Mannisto scored with 7:58 left and Karsen Dorwarf tallied with nine seconds left. Howard assisted on the Dorwarf goal pulling him into a tie for Fink for the scoring lead.

The five-point weekend for Penn State pulls the Nittany Lions within a single point of Michigan for the final home ice spot in the playoffs.

SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | POLL | PAIRWISE

No. 3 Western Michigan 4, No. 12 Arizona State 3 (F/OT)

Iiro Hakkarainen scored at 2:49 of overtime to complete a comeback for Western Michigan and salvage two points in the NCHC standings.

With two weekends to play, the Broncos now lead Arizona State by five points and third-place Omaha by 10. Western Michigan can clinch the NCHC title with a win in its final four games.

The Broncos never led in the game as Arizona State took leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2. But Liam Valante’s goal with 7:01 remaining tied the game at 3 and forced the overtime.

No. 8 Providence 4, No. 13 UMass Lowell 2

In a key game for positioning in the Hockey East standings, host Providence scored three third-period goal to overcome a 2-1 deficit against UMass Lowell in a 4-2 win.

Nick Poisson, a graduate student for the Friars playing his final regular-season game at home, netted a hat trick, scoring the game’s opening goal, the tying goal in the third and a late empty-netter. Logan Sawyer scored what turned out to be the game-winner.

Scout Truman scored on a penalty shot for UMass Lowell and Pierson Brandon scored in the final two minutes of the second to send the River Hawks to the third with the lead.

Army West Point 3, AIC 2 (F/OT)

Vincent Salice made sure Saturday night that the Riley Era in West Point ended on a high note.

Salice’s overtime tally gave the Black Knights a 3-2 victory over AIC in what was coach Brian Riley’s final game behind the bench at Tate Rink. A member of the Riley family (father Jack, brother Rob) has been head coach at Army for 75 years, a streak that ends this season.

AIC did everything it could to rain on Army’s parade late in regulation as John Lundy scored for the Yellow Jackets with 1:09 left to tie the game.

Saturday was also AIC’s final regular season game as a member of Atlantic Hockey. The program will reclassify to Division II next season.

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