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| Final | ||||
| Queen's | 9 | 6 | 4 | 19 | |
| Penn State | 11 | 16 | 23 | 50 |
| Final | ||||
| Queen's | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-2 | |
| Penn State | 0-1 | 1-2 | 3-7 | 4-10 |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- On Sunday afternoon inside Pegula Ice Arena the result was never in question as the Penn State men's ice hockey team cruised to an 8-0 victory over the Queen's (Ontario) University Gaels during an exhibition contest.
This was the first test of the season for the young Nittany Lions before they open the regular season against No. 16 St. Lawrence on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Penn State jumped out early as they took a 3-0 lead into the locker room at the first intermission, but it wasn't until midway through the opening period that they really seemed to get their legs under them.
Freshman Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) got the Lions on the board as he redirected sophomore Kevin Kerr's (Bensalem, Pa.) blue line blast past Queen's net minder Kevin Bailie for the 1-0 advantage at 9:27.
Freshman Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ont.) then tilted the score to 2-0 as he received a nice feed from classmate Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alb.) during a nifty 2-on-1 break and the freshman was able to finish on the right side of the crease at 13:42.
It was then senior David Goodwin (Des Peres, Mo.) collecting the final goal of the opening frame as he punched home a rebound out front after Richard's initial bid was denied for the 3-0 edge at 17:22.
Despite being almost even in shots in the first period (11-9 PSU), Penn State upped the pressure in the final two frames firing 39 shots on net while holding the Gaels to only 10. Five of those shots went in for the Lions including four with the man-advantage.
Sophomore Andrew Sturtz (Buffalo, N.Y.) opened the second period with an early goal as freshman Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) used his long stick to intercept a pass in the neutral zone, he then found sophomore skating through the slot and after some fancy stick work Sturtz fired high glove for the 4-0 lead at 1:46 of the frame.
Sophomore Vince Pedrie (Rochester, Minn.) added a power play goal later in the second as he collected a loose puck in the slot and rifled it home for the 5-0 margin at 5:40.
Smirnov, Sturtz and Biro each collected man-advantage scores in the final period as Queen's committed eight penalties in the third stanza alone, including a major penalty for cross-checking as well as a pair of game-misconduct calls.
Sturtz's goal was of the 5-on-3 variety at 13:07 while Smirnov and Biro found the back of the net at 1:25 and 16:52, respectively.
Freshman Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) picked up the win in net after getting the start and collecting 14 saves over the opening 31:32.
NOTES
- Penn State had eight players record multiple points while both Smirnov and Sturtz had a pair of goals.
- 11 different Nittany Lions recorded at least one point
- Queen's committed 13 penalties for a total of 45 minutes and PSU went 4-for-10 with the man-advantage.
- Jones stopped 14 shots over the first 31:32 of the game while sophomore Chris Funkey added five saves in 28:20 of game action to combine for the shutout.
- Penn State outshot Queen's 50-19
- Pedrie led the way with a plus-3 rating
- The Smirnov -- Richard -- Goodwin line turned in a plus-2 rating and contributed seven points (3 goals, four assists.
- Queen's committed a pair of game misconduct penalties