ST. PAUL, Minn. – Sophomore Tyler Paquette (Collegeville, Pa.) potted a pair of goals as Penn State defeated St. Thomas, 5-1, in non-conference action on Tuesday Evening at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- St. Thomas (1-14-0) opened the scoring taking advantage of a five-minute major penalty on junior Kenny Johnson (Ann Arbor, Mich.) as Trevor LeDonne ripped a shot from the point that deflected off a Nittany Lion stick and fluttered over the left shoulder of senior goaltender Oskar Autio (Espoo, Finland) for the 1-0 Tommie lead at 18:39 of the first period.
- Penn State (8-6-0) evened the contest with a man-advantage tally of its own as senior Clayton Phillips (Edina, Minn.) ripped a one-timer from the high-slot into the back of the net off a feed from classmate Ben Copeland (Edina, Minn.) for the 1-1 score at 3:15 of the middle frame.
- The Nittany Lions grabbed their first lead of the game as Copeland dropped the puck back to the slot and freshman Ryan Kirwan (DeWitt, N.Y.) skated into a one-timer that beat Tommie net-minder Jacob Berger past the glove for the 2-1 lead at 12:35 of the second period.
- Penn State extended that lead just under three minutes later as Paquette motored up the far side of the ice and sent a centering pass from below the goal line that hit off a St. Thomas Skate out front and got through Berger for the 3-1 margin at the 15:03 mark.
- Paquette potted his second of the game as he collected the puck just outside the crease and shifted from the forehand to the backhand and roofed it over the blocker of Berger for the 4-1 advantage at 13:10 of the third period.
- The Nittany Lions then tallied their fifth-straight goal as freshman Ben Schoen (Maumee, Ohio) cleaned up the garbage in front of the net for the 5-1 final at the 15:41 mark.
GOALTENDING
Autio improves to 6-4-0 on the year after stopping 12-of-13 shots while Berger drops to 0-5-0 on the year after collecting 44 saves in the defeat.
NOTES
- With the Tommies scoring first it marked just the fourth time this season the Nittany Lions haven't opened the scoring in a game, however, the victory is Penn State's first this season when failing to score the first goal as they improve to 1-3-0 in such games.
- With a pair of assists, Copeland extends his point streak to five games to tie his career-best mark that dates to his freshman season at Colorado College. Copeland has now registered at least one point in nine of his last 10 games and leads Penn State with six powerplay points. The senior also secured his third multi-point effort this season and the 14th of his career.
- Kirwan extended his career-long point streak to four games with his second period goal while with the secondary assist on that goal sophomore Jimmy Dowd Jr. (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.) extends his point-streak to three games which is a new career-best.
- Paquette tallied the second two-goal game of his career and of this season marking the second multi-point game of his career and of the season.
- Freshman Carson Dyck (Lethbridge, Alberta) collected the primary assist on both of Paquette's goals registering his second multi-point effort of the season and of his career.
- The Nittany Lions registered at least five goals for the sixth time this season improving to 6-0-0 when doing so as they are now 88-1-2 all-time when scoring five or more goals.
- Penn State improves to 7-2-0 on the year when scoring a powerplay goal and the Nittany Lions are now 7-1-0 when leading entering the third period.
- With his third period goal, Schoen has now extended his point streak to a career-best three games.
- Wall extended his point streak to four games with his first period assist to tie his career-best mark which he has achieved twice in his career including earlier this season.
- Penn State held the commanding 49-14 edge in shots on goal while going 1-for-6 on the powerplay and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.
- The Nittany Lions are also now 4-0-0 this season in games against teams they hadn't previously played prior to the 2021-22 campaign.
NEXT UP
The two teams return to the St. Thomas Ice Arena tomorrow evening to conclude the season series with puck drop slated for 7:00 p.m. (CT) / 8:00 p.m. (ET).
For more information on the 2021-22 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.