STATE COLLEGE, PA. – Sam Warning usually can be found helping his teammates score goals. Monday night at Pegula Ice Arena, he took care of the job himself.
The winger scored twice and collected three points, helping the No. 1-ranked Gophers record their first road sweep since October and the first road sweep in the Big Ten this season with a 5-2 victory over Penn State in front of an announced crowd of 6,154.
"Ever since [winter] break, I've been trying to get pucks on net and have four or five shots a game," Warning said. "Last night, I didn't get any breaks, but tonight, I got some breaks and was fortunate to have two goals.
"I think I was wanting to make the pass more when I had a shot sometimes, and I just really need to bear down when the shot is there. There's a time for a pass and a time for a shot."
The Gophers (15-2-3, 4-0-1 Big Ten) scored once in each of the first two periods before blasting a pair of shots past Nittany Lions goalie Eamon McAdam (20 saves) and adding an empty-netter late in the third. Travis Boyd, Nate Condon and Justin Kloos also scored for the Gophers.
Gophers goalie Adam Wilcox made 36 saves.
After a gritty 3-2 victory in the series opener Sunday night, the Gophers gained an insurmountable lead this time around despite being outshot 38-25, all while never putting themselves into a position in which they needed to rally for a decisive goal.
The Gophers scored first 2:25 into the first period on a power-play goal from Boyd, and built the lead to 3-0 early in the third after Warning beat McAdam with a wrister for his second goal. Penn State's Kenny Brooks banked a loose puck off the back of Wilcox to cut the deficit to 3-1 with 10 minutes to play, but Condon scored 17 seconds, winning a battle in front of McAdam before beating him to the blocker side.
The Nittany Lions (4-12-1, 0-4) canceled out Condon's score and again got within two goals when Curtis Loik's snipe from in tight flew over Wilcox's right shoulder with 3:30 to play, but the hosts never drew closer. Kloos' empty-netter finished the scoring.
"It's something we talked about," Gophers coach Don Lucia said of the road sweep. "We had the first home sweep when we played Wisconsin over Thanksgiving [break], and that's something we talked about coming in here, especially after winning Sunday.
"We got off to a good start on both nights. Tonight, we got the power play going and the guys moved it around pretty well and scored, but I thought Penn State played very well. It became our speed versus their size a little bit tonight."
Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said he would have felt his side played "pretty well" had he been told before the set that they'd lose by a goal to the top team in college hockey Sunday before outshooting it Monday.
"I thought we did play better tonight," Gadowsky said. "I thought we generated a lot more chances. We felt really good about the chances we had, and what doesn't show up [in the boxscore] is that we hit a crossbar, hit a post, and I think we missed an open net on a 2-on-1.
"I thought we generated some open chances. [The atmosphere] was fantastic."