A little over 13 minutes into Saturday’s contest between No. 13 Penn State and No. 6 Ohio State, a feeling of deja vu filled Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions had just tied the game 50 seconds earlier when Nikita Pavlychev cleaned up a rebound initially put on goal by James Gobetz. But it wasn’t Pavlychev’s eighth goal of the year or even the sea of white that filled Penn State’s student section, the Roar Zone, that brought forth the familiar feeling.
For the second straight weekend, Penn State was forced to play for almost an entire game without one of its key emotional leaders.