UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Junior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) registered a new career-high with four points scoring twice, including the game-winner, while adding a pair of assists as No. 10 Penn State defeated Niagara, 8-2, in non-conference action this evening at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State improves to 3-0-0 on the year while the Purple Eagles fall to 1-2-0.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Niagara wasted little time opening the scoring as Reed Robinson ripped home a juicy rebound off Niko Kovachis initial bid for the 1-0 lead just 69 seconds into the first period.
- Penn State tied things up as junior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) won a battle along the half wall and skated into the offensive zone on an odd-man rush dropping the puck back to senior Ludvig Larsson (Malmo, Sweden) who fired under the glove of Purple Eagle net-minder Joe O'Brien for the 1-1 score at 12:28 of the opening frame.
- The Nittany Lions then took the lead right after a successful penalty kill as senior Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) slipped the puck into a yawning net off a feed from freshman Aarne Talvitie (Espoo, Finland) for the 2-1 advantage at 18:46 of the first period.
- Penn State stretched the lead to a pair of goals early in the middle period as Folkes picked up the garbage in front of the net for his second of the year at 1:42 for the 3-1 score.
- The Nittany Lions extended the lead to 5-1 with a pair of goals in just 44 seconds as sophomore Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) slipped the puck five-hole with help from Folkes and Limoges at 4:31 and sophomore Alex Stevens (Plymouth, Minn.) ripped home his first career goal off a great cross-ice feed from Biro at 5:15.
- The Purple Eagles cut into the deficit scoring a 4-on-4 goal as Stephen Kleysen fired one to the back of the net from the slot at 9:41 of the middle stanza.
- Sophomore Adam Pilewicz (Sewickley, Pa.) then added his first collegiate goal as he went off the post and in after a great feed from Berger for the 6-2 advantage at the 4:00 mark of the final period.
- Folkes and Larsson each added their second goals of the evening late in the third period to account for the final score.
GOALTENDING
Senior Chris Funkey (Orland Park, Ill.) collected his second win in as many chances this season after stopping 28 shots to improve to 2-0-0 on the year while O'Brien made 55 saves, but falls to 0-1-0 with the setback.
NOTES
- Penn State has yet to score the first goal of a game this season, but remain unbeaten at 3-0-0. The Nittany Lions are now 3-0-1 all-time against Niagara while outscoring the Purple Eagles 19-5 in those four games.
- This marks the fifth time in program history the Nittany Lions have registered at least eight goals in a game and the first since registering 10 against Union during the 2017 NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinals.
- The Nittany Lions have now registered at least five goals in a game 56 times in program history and improve to 54-0-2 in such games.
- Penn State held the large 63-30 shot advantage firing 60+ shots on goal for the first time this season and the first time since ripping 61 on net against Minnesota on February 23, 2018.
- The Nittany Lions went 1-for-6 with the man-advantage and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
- With the 39th goal of his career in the first period, Berger has moved into solo fourth on the Penn State all-time goal list breaking his tie with Eric Scheid '16.
- Six players registered multi-point efforts this evening with Folkes leading the way with his career-high four point effort. The junior collected his first multi-point effort this season and the seventh of his career as well as the third multi-goal game of his career.
- Biro and junior classmate Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) each registered their third-straight multi-point game to begin the season with a pair of assists each. For Biro it's the 14th of his career and the 17th for Sucese.
- Berger collects his second-consecutive multi-point game and the 18th of his career after a one goal and one assist effort also running his season opening point-streak to three games.
- Barratt ties his career-high with three points on one goal and one assist marking his first multi-point game this season and the fourth of his career. His two helpers are also a new career-high.
- Larsson became the first Swedish born player to light the lamp in Hockey Valley as he collected a pair of goals to tie his career-high marking the first time he has done that since February 6, 2018 at UMass. This marks his fourth career multi-goal game and the 12th multi-point game of his career and second this season.
COACHES CORNER
Opening Statement
"Obviously a really good team effort all around. I think it was really nice to see Luda [Ludvig Larsson] get his first two as a Nittany Lion, and Adam Pilewicz scored a great goal for his first, and then Alex Stevens had a really strong game overall, not just the goal, but nice to get his first. I thought that was great."
Q: You guys seemed to be getting a ton of goal scoring from a bunch of different sources. I believe tonight was the first game where a player had multiple goals in the same game. How do you feel the offense is clicking overall?
A: We always try for that. That's a goal of ours to get balanced scoring with all four lines, it's something we try to do. Doesn't always work out that way but so far so good. I think regardless of pucks going into the net I think all four lines were really productive in terms of the chances they generated. I liked all four lines tonight.
Q: In particular one line of Limoges, Barratt and Folkes looks really good. You kept that line together from the end of last year. How do you asses their first three games?
A: Excellent. Excellent. They generate a lot. You look at specifically all of them, and specifically Folkes he does such a good job of caring for the puck. They're a pretty high producing line in terms of offensive opportunity, but they do it in a pretty safe way too. I thought they were excellent.
NEXT UP
Both teams have a quick turnaround as they return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow afternoon to close out the season series with a 3:30 p.m. puck drop.