UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) became the Penn State career leader in shutouts after making 29 saves as the No. 9/8 Nittany Lions defeated Alaska-Fairbanks, 7-0, on Thursday night inside Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State improves to 3-0-0 to begin the season while the Nanooks fall to 2-3-0 with the setback.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Nittany Lions wasted little time getting on the board as freshman Tyler Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) redirected a point shot from senior Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario) to the back of the net just 32 ticks into the first period for the 1-0 advantage.
- Penn State extended the lead to 2-0 after sophomore Aarne Talvitie (Espoo, Finland) one-timed a pass from freshman Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) below the right dot at 6:37 of the opening frame.
- PSU added on even more scoring twice before the first period ended as senior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) snuck one past the pad of Nanook net-minder Gustavs Grigals for his first of the season at 9:12 before sophomore Paul DeNaples (Moscow, Pa.) fired one off a defenseman's stick and into the back of the net at 12:31 for the 4-0 margin.
- After a scoreless second period, the Nittany Lions exploded for a trio of goals in the final stanza as senior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) went far post and in off a great feed from classmate Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) at 6:36 for the 5-0 edge before a pair of power-play tallies capped the scoring.
- Senior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) jammed in a rebound on the doorstep at 8:42 before classmate Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) let one rip from the slot into the top right corner at 15:20 for the 7-0 final.
GOALTENDING
- Jones earned his fourth career shutout improving to 3-0-0 this season with his 29 save performance moving into first all-time on the Penn State career shutouts list.
- Grigals stopped just six shots while allowing four goals in just 12:31 of action falling to 2-2-0 before being relieved by Anton Martinsson who made 30 saves over the final 47:29.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening Statement
Tonight was really great for two reasons, one really nice for Denis [Smirnov], played really well to get his 100th point and then obviously a really good shutout by Peyton [Jones]. We were in this spot five days ago and got a lot of information that we had to improve, and it was nice to see us do a better job in the third.
Q: What was different about this third period, I mean obviously beyond the results? What kind of change worked for your guys?
A: The biggest thing I think honestly all of us, coaching staff, players, is that we were all embarrassed about our performance last Saturday and I think a little remorseful on what we did to Peyton. He played such a great game and in the third period we completely played individual hockey and left him out to dry multiple times. I think the biggest difference is that we were embarrassed for that and we wanted to make up for that. He certainly deserved a shutout but we played a lot better in the third than the last time.
Q: What role did Brandon [Biro] kind of play in setting that tone, because at least with us [postgame Saturday] his words were pretty powerful about that third period performance. Did he say anything to you or the guys that you noticed?
A: He spoke, there's a number of guys that spoke and certainly we are honest with each other. I believe it was on Tuesday. A lot of the leaders spoke, but I think the loudest anybody speaks is what they do on the ice. Certainly, he's a part of that and I think you got to give it to Kris [Myllari] when you are up 6-0 and you keep playing for your team and playing for Peyton by blocking shots late in the third period, that says a lot.
Q: Do you get more information from four goals in the first, nothing in the second or the response in the third?
A: This time for sure the ladder. I mean we specifically were in this exact spot ironically five days ago. So, it might have been a good thing we did not score in the second. So, we were able to come in between periods today we spoke a lot, let's see if we meant it, or we just spoke words.
NOTES
- Penn State held the 43-29 edge in shots including an eye-popping 18-6 in the third period while going 2-for-8 with the man-advantage and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. PSU has now scored at least seven goals in a game twice this season and 21 times in program history. The Nittany Lions are also now 70-1-1 when scoring at least five goals including 3-0-0 this season.
- The Nittany Lions secured their first shutout since December 2, 2017 at Ohio State and their first shutout at home since March 4, 2017 against Wisconsin.
- Penn State had five players with multi-point efforts paced by Smirnov who became the fifth member of the 100-point club at Penn State with his three-point night, one goal and two assists. The senior now has 101 career points after securing his second multi-point game this season and the 25th of his career.
- Talvitie tied his career-high with a five-game point streak following his first period goal.
- With a goal and assist, Folkes collects his first multi-point game this season and the 18th of his career while junior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) also secures his first multi-point effort this season and the 20th of his career with a pair of helpers.
- Folkes is also now tied with Eric Scheid '16 for seventh on the Penn State all-time goals list following his 38th career tally and he also tied Casey Bailey for seventh on the all-time points list with 80 for his career.
- Both Limoges and classmate Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) along with Sucese and Biro each have a three-game point-streak to open the season.
- Sucese collected his third-straight multi-point effort to open the season and the 26th of his career with a trio of assists tying his career-high.
- Biro added one goal and one assist marking his third-straight multi-point effort to open the season and the 26th of his career. The senior is now just one point shy of the 100-point milestone.
NEXT UP
Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena on Friday night to conclude the weekend series with another 7 p.m. puck drop.