Gophers men’s hockey team defeats Penn State on Jimmy Clark’s goal with 26 seconds to play

Jimmy Clark scored with 26 seconds remaining to lift the No. 4 Gophers men’s hockey team to a 1-0 victory over Penn State on Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The goal — Clark redirected Luke Mittelstadt’s shot from the point into the top left corner of the net — was Clark’s third of the season. He scored the Gophers’ final goal into an empty net in Friday’s 3-1 victory over the Nittany Lions.

Liam Souliere earned his first shutout of the season against his former teammates. Souliere, a graduate transfer who spent four seasons at Penn State, had 28 saves. Making his fourth start for the Gophers, he improved to 3-1.

“I thought it was a great, gutsy effort from both teams, and I’m really proud of how we just continued to dig in,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “Both goalies were dueling it out, and both looked great. The few times [Liam] was really under pressure, he never felt it, and then made some critical saves.”

The victory was the sixth in a row for the Gophers (7-1, 2-0 Big Ten), who were outshot 20-6 in the first two periods and 28-12 for the game.

After outshooting the Gophers 11-4 in the first period, the Nittany Lions (4-3, 0-2 Big Ten) opened the second period on a five-minute power play due to a contact-to-the-head penalty on the Gophers’ Jimmy Snuggerud in the final seconds of the first period. The Nittany Lions outshot the Gophers 9-2 in the second period.

The Gophers play at Wisconsin next weekend.