UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Junior Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) registered 36 saves to help No. 10 Penn State complete the weekend sweep of Niagara with a 4-1 victory on Saturday afternoon in non-conference action to close out the season series at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State moves to 4-0-0 to start the season while The Purple Eagles fall to 1-3-0.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Nittany Lions opened the scoring as junior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) banged in a shot on the doorstep during the power-play off a great pass by classmate Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario) for the 1-0 score at 7:24 of the first period.
- Niagara tied the contest midway through the second period as Justin Kendall knocked a rebound out of midair off Eric Cooley's initial bid at 8:35 of the frame for the 1-1 score.
- Penn State regained the lead early in the final stanza as immediately following a power-play senior Chase Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) received a beautiful feed out front from freshman Aarne Talvitie (Espoo, Finland) and finished with a nifty move going forehand-backhand and through the five-hole of Purple Eagle net-minder Cole Weaver for the 2-1 margin at 1:17 of the third period.
- The Nittany Lions were able to extend their lead to a pair of goals after sophomore Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) sent a pass from behind the net to classmate Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) right in front for the easy finish and 3-1 advantage at the 4:07 mark of the third period.
- Junior Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario) then hit the empty net from behind his own goal line at 17:16 of the third period for the 4-1 final.
GOALTENDING
Jones registered his second-straight 30-plus save effort to open the season stopping 36-of-37 pucks to move to 2-0-0 on the year while Niagara freshman Cole Weaver collected 47 saves in his collegiate debut falling to 0-1-0 with the loss.
NOTES
- This afternoon marked the first time this season that Penn State has scored the opening goal of a game as the opponent had opened the scoring in each of the first three games this season.
- The Nittany Lions outshot Niagara 51-37 while going 1-for-7 on the power-play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. For the weekend PSU was 9-for-9 on the PK.
- Penn State improves to 4-0-1 all-time versus Niagara while outscoring the Purple Eagles 23-6.
- Dating back to last season Penn State is unbeaten in its last nine games at home including eight consecutive victories. The all-time Penn State record for consecutive home wins is 12 from October 28, 2016 through January 14, 2017.
- Berger sees his season opening point-streak stretch to four games after his third period goal.
- Barratt registers his second-consecutive multi-point effort after collecting a pair of assists while Limoges scored once while adding one assist for his first multi-point game this season and the fourth of his career. For Barratt it is the fifth of his career.
- Myllari ties his career-high with three points on one goal and a pair of assists for his first multi-point effort this season and the fifth of his career.
- Freshman Paul DeNaples (Moscow, Pa.) registered his first collegiate point with the secondary assist on Myllari's empty-net goal.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening Statement
"I'd like to say that we need to give Niagara a lot of credit. I thought they played very hard. They obviously came back and didn't like what happened yesterday. I thought they played really well and they kept it very tight and I thought they deserved better because Peyton (Jones) had to be excellent and he was. We gave up 37 shots so we didn't play our best defensively but we have to give Niagara a lot of credit and give Peyton (Jones) a lot of credit too."
Q: You have two very capable goalies, Jones and Funkey. What goes into deciding who plays each given night?
"It changes every week. We do not make any promises. All we promise is that they are both going to get opportunities this year. That's what we promise them and that's what we're doing. In the future there's no promises as to what teams and what times they will play. We play it by week. Obviously the way things are going now, it seems like nothing is broken so why should we fix it."
Q: There goalie (Cole Weaver) seemed to be giving you guys some trouble in the first two periods, and for the third period it seemed like you made a big emphasis on getting to the net. Is that something that you guys talked about in the locker room?
"Yes, that's what gave us success yesterday. All three periods that was what we were able to do. We didn't quite do it to our expectations or comparably to what we did yesterday, but that's exactly what we talked about between the periods."
NEXT UP
Penn State remains home for its fifth game of this eight-game home stand as they welcome in No. 14 Princeton for a single contest next Friday night at 7 p.m.