Feb. 14, 2017
ROSEMONT, Ill. - Freshman classmates Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) and Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) have been named the Big Ten men's ice hockey First and Second Stars of the Week as announced by the league office Tuesday morning.
For Smirnov this marks his fourth weekly award and second First Star honor after receiving the same accolade on November 22 after a hat trick and four-goal weekend against Arizona State.
This past weekend during a sweep of No. 17 Wisconsin, Smirnov tied for the Big Ten lead with five points on three goals and a pair of assists to break out of a five game scoring drought, he also finished the weekend plus-6. In doing so, the rookie jumped back to the national lead for points by a freshman with 34 on the season.
Smirnov currently leads the team with 34 points, good for tied third in the Big Ten, and is second with 20 assists and 14 goals, which places him tied-sixth and tied-fifth in the conference, respectively. The rookie leads the Big Ten in all three categories for freshmen.
Sucese earns his second career weekly honor after a five-point weekend himself scoring a pair of goals and adding three assists. The rookie also led the entire nation with a plus-7 rating over the weekend. The freshman assisted on both game-winning goals against the Badgers and scored the first two goals of the game during a 5-2 Saturday night victory to help complete the sweep.
Sucese is now tied for second in the Big Ten in goals by a freshman with 10 while his 21 points is fourth best amongst league rookies.
Penn State returns home this weekend as they welcome No. 5 Minnesota to Pegula Ice Arena for a pair of nationally televised contests at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 8 p.m. on Saturday.