Dec. 2, 2016
WAKEFIELD, Mass. - Freshman Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) has been named the NCAA Division I National College Hockey Rookie of the Month after an impressive month of November as announced by the Hockey Commissioners Association earlier Friday morning.
The rookie led the entire Big Ten in scoring and was second in the nation with 13 points on six goals and seven assists while registering multi-point efforts in five of Penn State's six games last month.
He opened November with a career-high three-point effort against Niagara with a pair of goals and one assist in a 5-1 victory. The following night he registered three assists for a six-point weekend which landed him as the Big Ten's Second Star of the Week.
Smirnov added another career-best performance in the opening game against Arizona State as he registered the fourth hat trick in Nittany Lion program history which included the game-winning goal during a 7-4 victory.
The rookie assisted on the winning tally the following night to complete the sweep and help Penn State to a program best No. 7 ranking and an 11-game unbeaten streak to close out the month. Smirnov was named Big Ten First Star of the Week for his efforts against ASU.
The Moscow, Russia native currently leads the entire freshman class across the nation in points (25), assists (16) and points per game (1.79). His points total also ranks second in all of college hockey while his assists tie him for first.
Smirnov now sits just two points shy of the Penn State freshman record of 27 held by Casey Bailey and Andrew Sturtz. His 16 assists also tie the freshman single-season record set by Scott Conway during the 2014-15 season.