UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Junior Evan Bell (Livonia, Mich.) scored a pair of goals as Penn State defeated Ottawa, 5-0, in the fifth installment of the International Game on Sunday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions open the 2019-20 regular season next weekend with a pair of games against the Sacred Heart Pioneers on Friday, October 11 and Saturday, October 12. Tickets for each contest are still available and can be purchased HERE.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring as Bell slipped his own rebound past the pad of Gee Gee goaltender Nick Hodgins off a feed from freshman Tyler Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) for the 1-0 edge at 5:22 of the first period.
- Just over two minutes later senior James Gobetz used some nifty moves to enter the zone before dropping the puck to classmate Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) and the senior skated below the right dot and beat Hodgins below the blocker for the 2-0 advantage at 7:46 of the opening frame.
- The Nittany Lions wasted little time opening the scoring in the middle frame as the top line went to work with junior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) springing senior Liam Folkes (Scarborough, Ontario) and junior Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) on a 2-on-1 rush where Folkes fed Barratt by the far dot and he went bar-down over the right shoulder of Hodgins for the 3-0 lead just 48 ticks into the period.
- Bell then notched his second of the game as he was left alone in the slot and fired one into the top corner of the net for the 4-0 margin at 2:59 of the second period.
- Penn State extended the lead to 5-0 early in the third period as sophomore Max Sauve (Acushnet, Ma.) redirected a point shot from freshman Kenny Johnson (Ann Arbor, Mich.) in the slot at 1:22.
GOALTENDING
- Senior Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) started the game stopping all 14 shots he faced in 30:04 of game action before being relieved by sophomore Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) who collected 11 saves over the final 29:56 to preserve the shutout.
- Hodgins made 26 saves on 31 shots as the lone goalie for the Gee Gees.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening statement
Obviously, there was a little bit of a rust but it's nice to get some competition against a real team to knock some of that rust off. We have work to do. I want to mention the one group that seemed to be in good mid-season form was the Roar Zone with the dances. Other than that, happy to get going.
Q: What did you think of Evan Bell today?
A: I thought he was great today. Not just the goals, but his feet and his ability to play quick because of his feet, defensively, especially was excellent tonight.
Q: How has the process of Evan Bell filtering in after sitting out last fall been?
A: You have to give him a ton of credit because he's the guy that during the first half of the last year he didn't just come to practice, he would have double workouts, and when he did come to workouts he was exhausted. He really used his time to get as explosive as he could, and again, was often practicing when his arms were dead, legs were dead. He really used that half year to get into shape. However, jumping in at the halfway point is tough and I think it was a lot to ask, and I think for him to be able to come along with everybody at the same time [this season] is going to mean a lot to him. If tonight was any indication, he's really excited to see improvement from last year.
Q: How have you seen Oskar [Autio] mature since arriving on campus?
A: It was a little bit of a tough situation for him because he was very well aware, and we were very honest, about what he was walking into. He did want to come and learn from Peyton [Jones] and a guy like Chris Funkey, who's a great teammate, and he knew he could develop a lot and I think he took that attitude. He worked very hard off the ice, but you can see the practices he's had earlier this year have been a little more intense than when he just knew he wasn't going to play last year. That's how he's matured, his practice habits and intensity on the ice right now has elevated and that's really good to see, for him personally and for the team.
Q: How did you feel about the performance by Kevin Wall in his first game?
A: I thought all the freshman played well, there wasn't any glaring information that we got that made us feel like "oh boy, we have to do this." I think he probably wants the one in front of the net back. He's a goal scorer, I think that's one that he would expect himself to bury. But, I think in other aspects of the game I think he looked really comfortable physically and that's a big strong team, they're older guys and that didn't seem to bother him one bit. In that sense, I think his transition is going to be fine.
Q: What did you think of Tyler Gratton's performance?
A: I think Gratton was excellent. Gratton is a little bit like Pav in the sense that he's going to do a lot of things that you need to win that don't necessarily show up on the score sheets. That really nice goal by Evan Bell from the offensive zone faceoff was set up all by Gratton the shift before. He's got such jump in his legs, he plays quick defensively and he was the one that caused the icing to get that offensive zone faceoff. Actually, I thought he was great, he's been really good in preseason. His ability to play with tempo has been really good, the coaching staff has been really impressed.
NOTES
- Penn State improves to 4-1-0 all-time in the International Game including 3-0-0 when they score the first goal of the game.
- The Nittany Lions secured their second shutout in International Game competition and are now outscoring opponents 24-8 in the five contests. The other shutout was an 8-0 victory over Queens to kick-off the 2016-17 season.
- Four Nittany Lions secured multi-point afternoons with Bell notching a pair of goals while Limoges and senior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) added two assists each and Barratt scored once while adding an assist.