UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sophomore Aarne Talvitie (Espoo, Finland) scored once while adding a pair of assists as No. 12 Penn State knocked off No. 7 Wisconsin, 6-1, on Thursday night in the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams.
The Nittany Lions move to 5-1-0 on the year and 1-0-0-0 in conference action with the victory while the Badgers fall to 4-3-0 and 0-1-0-0 in Big Ten action with the loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State wasted little time getting on the board as junior Sam Sternschein (Syosset, N.Y.) redirected a point shot from senior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) past Badger net-minder Daniel Lebedeff for the 1-0 edge just 47 seconds into the contest.
- The Nittany Lions extended their lead right off the draw during a power-play as freshman Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) won it clean back to junior Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) who let it rip from the point through traffic and into the back of the net for the 2-0 advantage.
- Wisconsin cut the deficit in half late in the opening period taking advantage of a slashing call against the hosts as Cole Caufield skated into the slot and fired a shot over the blocker of PSU senior net-minder Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) with just 4.9 seconds remaining for the 2-1 score.
- Penn State regained the two-goal margin early in the middle frame as junior Alex Stevens (Plymouth, Minn.) fired a shot from the right circle that deflected off a Badger stick and past Lebedeff for the 3-1 score just 63 seconds into the period.
- PSU extended its lead with another man-advantage goal as Pavlychev ripped a shot off the end boards that bounced right to senior Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia) at the left dot and he ripped a one-timer into the back of a yawning net for the 4-1 edge at 8:05 of the second period.
- The Nittany Lions took advantage of a five-minute major penalty against Wisconsin's Roman Ahcan late in the third period and tallied twice on the ensuing power-play as senior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) batted the puck out of mid-air for a score at 17:53 before Talvitie slammed in a rebound for the 6-1 final just 27 seconds later.
GOALTENDING
- Jones was spectacular in net again stopping 38 shots while moving to 5-0-0 on the season.
- Lebedeff falls to 4-3-0 on the year after making 38 saves in the setback.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
OPENING STATEMENT
That was the highest quality game we've played by far this year and certainly the highest quality game by both teams so far. I mean, that's fun to watch. They're an excellent hockey team, they're really skilled both up front and their backend and we had to be extremely good to have a chance to beat them. I'm grateful to the energy we got tonight.
Q: What did you do right today that made you feel [this was the closest game to your identity]?
A: There are a lot of things. Some of it is stuff that the guys just know in the locker room, and it's a feeling. I guess if you want to encompass it in one word, we want to play fast, we want to play hard, and I thought we saw a lot of both of those tonight.
Q: How would you assess how your team played against their offensive line [Turcotte, Caufield, Weissbach] and the overall defensive performance?
A: I thought we did really well. They still had close to forty shots, they're extremely skilled. I think even if we played close to a perfect game, I think they're going to get their chances because of that. But, I thought we did really well. I thought it was a really good team defensive effort and obviously Peyton played very very well.
NOTES
- Penn State held the slim 44-39 edge in shots while going 4-for-8 on the man-advantage marking the second game this season scoring four power-play goals. Wisconsin went 1-for-5 on the power-play.
- The Nittany Lion power-play and penalty kill both move up to second in the Big Ten and fifth and 13th in the nation, respectively.
- The teams combined for 24 penalties for 59 minutes including six coincidental minors. Ahcan had five penalties and a game misconduct for a total of 23 minutes.
- PSU is now 5-0-0 this season when scoring first and improves to 18-12-3 all-time against Wisconsin including a 10-5-1 mark at home.
- Jones moves to third in the nation with a .950 save percentage while his now ranks ninth at 1.60. The senior leads the Big Ten in both categories.
- Penn State had four players with multi-point effort this evening led by Talvitie's three points, which tie his career-high. That was the second multi-point game this season for the sophomore and the fifth of his career.
- Sternschein added an assist with his first period goal marking his second multi-point effort this season and the sixth of his career.
- Senior Brandon Biro (Sherwood Park, Alberta) and Pavlychev each added a pair of assists for their fourth and first multi-point games this season and the 27th and 10th of their careers, respectively.
- With his third period goal, Sucese is now just one-goal shy of Andrew Sturtz's program record of 54.
- Biro and Smirnov are now tied with each other for fifth on the all-time points list with 103 career points.
NEXT UP
- Both teams return to Pegula Ice Arena tomorrow evening to close out the weekend series with a 6 p.m. puck drop.
- Penn State will host its annual Teddy Bear Toss during the second intermission and the game will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
For more information on the 2019-20 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: the Official Bookstore of Penn State Athletics, visit the men's hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.