UNIVERSITY PARK – After several weeks early in the season where Penn State was struggling to find the right balance between improving their defense without sacrificing their potent offensive identity, it appears the Nittany Lions have found their groove through the first three weekends of Big Ten play.
Penn State swept Minnesota on the road for the first time in program history to improve to 5-1 in Big Ten play. For senior Nate Sucese, Saturday night's game against the Golden Gophers was a night where his incredible consistency throughout his career put him in the history books.
The Nittany Lions trailed early in the second period, but Sucese knotted the score up at 3-3 after tipping a pass from junior Evan Bell and it sailed over the shoulder of Minnesota goaltender Jared Moe into the back of the net. The goal was the first of two on the night for Sucese and the 55th of his career, breaking Andrew Sturtz's program record for career goals.
Sturtz's last season was in 2017-2018, back when Sucese was a sophomore. Sturtz was a mentor and one of Sucese's best friends during their time together at Penn State. Sucese looked up to Sturtz's ability to focus on one week at a time and consistently perform at the highest level each day.
Sucese now has six goals and 12 assists for a total 18 points, all of which lead the team, but he had previously gone three games without finding the back of the net after scoring twice in the series against Wisconsin.
"It was a relief honestly," Sucese said. "I hadn't scored in a few games so I think it was kind of in the back of my mind a little bit, maybe a little too much, but to finally get over the hump and get that one and then get another one in the third period was relieving. I'm super proud of my accomplishment and ready to build on it."
Sucese made an immediate impact as a freshman back in 2016-2017 when he scored 17 goals and added 19 assists for 36 points, good for fourth on the team. He followed that up with a 29-point sophomore season and then set career-highs as a junior with 19 goals and 37 points, which ranked third and eighth in the Big Ten, respectively.
Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky was not immediately aware Sucese had broken the record, but was not surprised in the slightest upon finding out minutes later.
"That's a great accolade and he really deserves it," Gadowsky said. "His mentality to produce consistently, you really have to admire and respect that. You really do. That's a very, very difficult thing to do and his mental toughness to produce in every type of game and whoever he is playing with is awesome.
"If you look at his statistics, they're very consistent year in, year out. He scores highlight reel goals, but he also scores gritty goals…he's not just a one-trick pony. He just finds a way to produce."
Sucese credits his consistency to watching hours of film each week from the last series and nitpicking things to improve on so he can build on what is working well for him.
In a smaller seven-team conference like the Big Ten, where each team plays one another four times in the regular season, plus potentially several more times in the Big Ten Tournament, finding ways to adapt to different types of defenses and scoring in different ways has been key to Sucese's sustained productivity.
"I think it starts with a shoot-first mentality. That's kind of our whole team's mentality," Sucese said. "It's not so much the first opportunity but being able to get second and third opportunities is how we scored a bunch of goals this weekend if you look at it. Not many goals were scored within two or three feet outside the crease, so I think it's just the mentality of getting to the net and outworking your opponent."
Sucese pointed to not getting to the net enough to generate those second and third chances as the main reason for Penn State's lone Big Ten loss thus far, which came via a 2-0 shutout to Michigan State two weeks ago. Despite getting 48 shots on net in that game and Gadowsky calling that game one of the best offensive games Penn State has played during his tenure, Sucese pointed to the team not creating enough traffic around the net as the culprit for being shut out in that one.
Generating those second and third chances around the net will be a key this weekend against Ohio State, which is allowing the fifth-fewest goals in the nation and ranks ninth nationally in the penalty kill.
Penn State, on the other hand, ranks third in the nation in scoring offense with Sucese leading the way and now sitting at the apex of the program's scoring total. Penn State will need his consistency to carry over once again into next weekend.
"The goal of any athlete is being able to perform at your highest-level day in and day out." Sucese said. "I came in here as a freshman. I wanted to make a statement to be the best player I could be every single day and be a player that everyone knew what they were going to get every single Friday and Saturday night. I'm pretty proud of the way I've done that through three and a quarter years. There are about 28 games left to keep it going and leave that last impression."
