UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sophomore goaltender Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) secured his second shutout in-a-row leading Penn State to a weekend sweep with a 2-0 victory over Niagara on Saturday evening in non-conference action at Pegula Ice Arena.
The win pushes Penn State to 15-6-0 this season while the Purple Eagles fall to 4-11-3 with the setback.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring for the second consecutive night as freshman Connor McMenamin (Collegeville, Pa.) saw a Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) shot bounce off his shin and through the five-hole of Niagara net-minder Brian Wilson for the 1-0 lead at 2:51 of the first period.
- After a scoreless second period the Nittany Lions wasted little time taking advantage of a 5-on-3 power-play early in the third period as Pavlychev cashed in at the doorstep off a feed from junior Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) for the 2-0 margin just 21 seconds into the frame.
GOALTENDING
- Autio wasn't tested much, but when called upon was up to the task stopping all 24 shots he faced, eight in each period, to improve to 2-1-0 on the year.
- The sophomore has now posted 140:35 of consecutive scoreless minutes spanning his last four appearances and is a little more than half a period shy of the Penn State all-time scoreless streak record of 151:13 held by Matt Skoff from January 26 through February 9 of 2013.
- Autio's two shutouts this season also tie the Penn State single season record shared by current teammate Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) and Skoff.
- Brian Wilson stopped 42 shots between the pipes for the Purple Eagles to fall to 4-6-2 on the year.
GADOWSKY POSTGAME
Opening Statement
"Great crowd. It was nice to have that tonight especially because it was one of those trudging games we couldn't get momentum. Great crowd that helped us through it and in the end a good defensive effort and good win."
Q: Seems like that might be a theme for the weekend, trying snag momentum. Do you have an explanation for that?
"We started out well in the first and I'm not sure if [losing momentum] was due to the penalties. We couldn't sustain the momentum and the second [period] we were on the penalty kill the whole time. I thought we came out well in the third, that was our best period. The powerplay got us momentum and we maintained it for the most part. For some reason we are obviously in an offensive rut. This is new for us and we need to figure it out."
Q: What went into Oskar [Autio] being in goal tonight and what did you see from him?
"That was predetermined. We have always said, it feels good when you know you have two goaltenders that no matter what happens your team has a lot of faith in. We were going to give Oskar the start regardless. I think that if you look at what is going on in hockey you do not see a lot of goaltenders going back to back games and obviously this is little different with college. I think its valuable to rest Peyton [Jones] at certain times to make sure he's fresh and rested at the end of the year. Oskar was rock solid tonight, I thought he looked really really good. Not only making the saves, but really composed and stood his ground really well.
Q: How do you assess your penalty kill tonight?
"I though we killed very well. Obviously, the guy that runs their powerplay was out this weekend [Ludwig Stenlund] and I think we were able to capitalize on that. That being said, I thought we stayed in shooting lanes very well and actually were able to clear pucks and be aggressive. We're very happy about that and we only gave up two shots I believe in the entire ten minutes."
NOTES
- Penn State held the commanding 44-24 edge in shots on goal while going 1-for-5 on the power-play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. The Nittany Lions are now 15-for-15 on the PK over their last five games.
- McMenamin has now scored a goal in back-to-back games for the first time in his young career.
- With another assist tonight, junior Cole Hults (Stoughton, Wis.) has at least one assist in five of his last seven games played.
- With one goal and one assist, Pavlychev now has three multi-point efforts this season and 12 for his career.
- The Nittany Lions improve to 12-1-0 on the year when scoring first and move to a perfect 11-0-0 when leading after two periods of play.
- The three shutouts this season by Penn State ties a single-season record for most shutouts. The Nittany Lions also had a trio of shutouts during the 2016-17 season.
- Penn State is now 6-0-1 all-time against Niagara and 36-14-2 against Atlantic Hockey competition including a 18-2-0 record since the 2016-17 season.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions take a short trip west to conclude the season series with Robert Morris with a single contest on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
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.