UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Junior Cole Hults (Stoughton, Wis.) registered the eighth hat-trick in program history and the first by a defenseman as No. 13/10 Penn State defeated Sacred Heart, 8-2, in the 2019-20 season opener on Friday night at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State moves to 1-0-0 and improves to 5-2-1 all-time in season opening contests and remains a perfect 4-0-1 at Pegula Ice Arena. The Pioneers fall to 0-1-1 with the setback.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring with the man-advantage early in the first period as junior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) redirected a point shot by classmate Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) past Pioneer net-minder Josh Benson for the 1-0 edge at 3:32 of the opening frame.
- The Nittany Lions extended the lead to 2-0 as senior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) slipped a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Hults who skated into the slot and fired back post high over the blocker at 9:31 of the first period.
- A sloppy second period got interesting late as the teams traded power-play goals within a two-minute span. Marc Johnstone chipped a shot over the right shoulder of Penn State senior goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) from in tight at 15:19 before Hults threw one on net from the blue-line that Benson never saw for his second of the game at 17:11 for the 3-1 lead.
- Hults then tipped the hat-trick early in the third period during a 5-on-3 power-play as he let one rip from the left face-off dot at 1:54 for the 4-1 advantage.
- Penn State got another man-advantage tally with some slick passing by Biro and senior Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) to set up senior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) for a one-timer and the 5-1 margin at 4:15 of the final frame.
- The Pioneers got one back just 53 ticks later as Matt Tugnutt slipped one past Jones before the Nittany Lions regained the four-goal cushion on sophomore Aarne Talvitie's (Espoo, Finland) first goal of the season at 8:12.
- Junior Sam Sternschein (Syosset, N.Y.) added some insurance at 16:23 making the score 7-2 before freshman Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) finished off an all-rookie goal with the first of his career at 18:55 for the 8-2 final.
GOALTENDING
Jones was impressive early and finished the contest with 29 saves to begin the season 1-0-0 while Benson falls to 0-1-1 after stopping 22 shots over the opening 44:15 before being relieved by Luke Lush. Lush made eight saves over the final 15:45 of game action.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening statement
Actually, it's not often in an 8-2 game that you think your goaltender saved you, but I really feel that way because we really weren't ourselves until the third, but Peyton was mentally tough and he was ready to play. We needed him early and he made huge saves, where we could have easily been down going into the third period. He was good when we weren't and he gave us a chance to get our legs and get our game, which I think we did in the third.
Q: Guy, what do you make of Cole's [Hults] performance? Obviously, the hat trick, you know the first defenseman ever in program history to make one.
A: What we've seen in him from day one, he does everything. You hear of guys that do everything well; he does everything just really, really well. He just does so many things at such a high level and it makes him overall just such an effective player. Obviously, it was nice for him to get the goals, but he's so good in so many areas and he's been like that. I mean, we've talked about it before, he's a guy that's just so, so effective and not flashy. And that can be a really good thing as a defenseman. He's an excellent player, I don't know what else to say other than so many aspects of his game are at an excellent level. He's just really good.
Q: Obviously, a lot of new faces in the lineup too. What did you make of the newcomers' performance?
A: Yeah, first of all the freshmen line, I thought was our best line. For the first half of the game, I honestly think that our returners were trying to be pretty cute. We certainly weren't playing our game and they were one line that seemed to buy into our identity. I do think we got it back in the third after we had a power play that got us a little momentum, a little tempo and we started carrying it from there. I thought for instance that line played extremely well and looked more like Penn State hockey than our returning starters.
Q: Coach, what did you see from your power play tonight and how do you think it improved as the game went on?
A: Well, I think our power play had a great night. I do think we were way better as the game went on and we just seemed to move much quicker and played at a higher tempo. Maybe it's just a matter of getting into the first game, but to me that was the difference. We did get one early obviously with Limo getting the deflection, but our power play was really good tonight. I think at the end of the third, I thought everyone was moving around pretty well.
Q: Coach, you have to be happy with the outcome of the 8-2 win. What do you think the team can learn moving forward?
A: A lot. A lot. And that's what I said from the start, if it wasn't for Peyton Jones, I think we might be learning a much different lesson right now. I mean, he was really on and was one of the few players we had that was on right at the start of the game. And fortunately, he was our most important player. I think we can learn a lot. Number one, we have to play to our identity. We're never going to get away not doing that. I think we played way too fancy and I think we played a long game instead of a short, explosive game. And all those things take commitment. It's part of our identity and it's hard to do. It sounds easy, but it's hard to get into that rhythm.
NOTES
- Penn State held the 38-31 advantage in shots including a 19-7 margin in the third period while going 4-for-8 on the power-play. Sacred Heart went 1-for-4 with the man-advantage.
- Friday night marked the 20th time in program history Penn State has scored seven or more goals while the eight goals are a new opening night high for the Nittany Lions.
- The five-goal third period ties a program record for most goals in a single period, a feat Penn State has now achieved six times.
- Penn State had seven players register multi-point efforts as the Nittany Lions improve to 5-0-0 all-time against Sacred Heart and 32-14-2 all-time vs. Atlantic Hockey schools.
- Hults secured his first career multi-goal game and the 13th multi-point game of his career. He also became the eighth Nittany Lion in program history to record a hat-trick and the first-ever defenseman to accomplish that feat.
- Hults also jumped into a tie for fourth with Trevor Hamilton '18 on the Penn State all-time goals list by defenseman with 12 for his career. The junior is also now just one point shy of Vince Pedrie and senior Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario) for fifth on the all-time points list by defensemen as he has 51 for his career.
- Sucese picked up a trio of assists and a third period goal for the 24th multi-point effort of his career and in the process moved past Andrew Sturtz for fourth on the Penn State all-time scoring list with 106 career points. The four points and three assists are both single-game career-highs.
- Sucese also pulled even with Chase Berger '19 for second on the Penn State all-time goals list with 51 for his career just three shy of program leader Andrew Sturtz.
- Biro tied his career-high with three points on three assists marking the 24th multi-point effort of his career while Smirnov collected a pair of helpers for his 24th career multi-point game.
- Both Talvitie and Sternschein turned in a one goal and one assist evening to secure the fourth and fifth multi-point games of their careers, respectively.
- Freshman Mason Snell (Courtice, Ontario) chipped in a pair of assists from the blue-line to collet his first collegiate multi-point game.
- Junior Clayton Phillips (Edina, Minn.) picked up his first point as a member of the Nittany Lions with a secondary assist on Limoges' power-play tally in the first period.
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow evening to close out the season series with a 4:30 p.m. puck drop. The game will be streamed live on BTN+.