ROSEMONT, Ill. – Following an offensive explosion of 18 goals during a weekend sweep over Robert Morris a pair of Penn State men's ice hockey players have been recognized with Big Ten weekly awards announced by the league office on Tuesday morning. Junior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) earned Big Ten First Star of the Week accolades while sophomore Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) secured Big Ten Second Star of the Week laurels.
This marks the first time in each of their careers that the duo has earned weekly recognition joining junior classmates Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) and Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) who have been named Big Ten Second and Third Star of the Week, respectively, earlier this season.
Pavlychev becomes the first player for the Nittany Lions to earn First Star of the Week accolades since junior Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) on February 14, 2017. That same week was also the last week that Penn State had two members in the same week earn weekly accolades as junior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) garnered Second Star honors.
The 6-foot-8 center paced the entire NCAA for the weekend with seven points on four goals and three assists extending his career-long point streak to eight games. Pavlychev had a career-best performance on Friday night registering four points with a pair of goals, including the eventual game-winner, while adding two assists. The junior backed that up with two more goals on Saturday with one helper for three points. Pavlychev's back-to-back two goal efforts were the first two of his career.
The junior's 16 total points through nine games are already a new career-high surpassing the 14 he had as a sophomore last season.
Limoges is also currently riding a career-long eight game point streak after turning in a pair of three point performances this past weekend to tie his career-high each night. The sophomore scored one goal while adding two assists during victories over RMU on Friday and Saturday evening. His four assists paced the Big Ten for the weekend while his six points were second behind Pavlychev and both marks were good for tied first and second nationally for the two games.
Both Pavlychev and Limoges are tied for the overall Big Ten lead in goals (7), assists (9) and points (16) while their 16 points rank second nationally behind the 17 of ASU's Johnny Walker. Both their goals and assist totals are also top-10 nationally ranking tied for fifth and tenth, respectively.
The fifth-ranked Nittany Lions return to action this weekend as they welcome No. 16 Michigan to Pegula Ice Arena to open Big Ten Conference play on Friday and Saturday evening with puck drop slated for 7 p.m. each night.
FULL BIG TEN RELEASE