UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sophomore Ben Schoen (Maumee, Ohio) tied his career-high with three points on one goal and pair of assists to help lead No. 20 Penn State past Mercyhurst, 6-3, in non-conference action on Thursday night inside Pegula Ice Arena.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State (3-0-0) wasted little time opening the scoring as senior Ture Linden (Great Falls, Va.) won the draw clean back to senior Paul DeNaples (Moscow, Pa.) and he went D-to-D to freshman Dylan Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) who connected back with Linden at the blue line as the senior skated through the slot uncontested firing past the glove of Laker net-minder Tyler Harmon and inside the far post for the 1-0 edge just seven ticks into the game.
- Mercyhurst (0-5-0) evened the score as Rylee St. Onge collected an errant pass along the far half wall and fired it past Nittany Lion junior goaltender Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) for the 1-1 score at 3:48 of the opening frame.
- Penn State regained the lead midway through the second period as Schoen dangled Harmon at the crease and slipped the puck past his right pad for the 2-1 margin at the 11:32 mark.
- The Lakers had a quick answer again as an odd-man rush resulted in a yawning net for Jonathan Bendorf and he didn't miss evening things up 2-2 at 13:12 of the middle stanza.
- The Nittany Lions then scored two goals just 1:29 apart as senior Kevin Wall (Penfield, N.Y.) finished at the near post off a great backdoor feed from Linden at the 15:49 mark before freshman Dylan Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) fired through traffic from the high slot and his shot deflected off a Mercyhurst skater and into the back of the net for the 4-2 advantage at 17:10 of the second period.
- The lakers would get one back with under a minute remaining in the second frame as Eric Esposito created a high-turnover and skated in on a breakaway for a shorthanded tally and the 4-3 deficit with just 42 seconds remaining.
- Penn State regained the two-goal lead as junior Christian Berger (St. Louis, Mo.) collected the puck after classmate Xander Lamppa (Rochester, Minn.) won the draw and skated right to the crease slipping the puck through the five-hole of Harmon with the backhand for the 5-3 score at 6:56 of the third period.
- Senior Tyler Gratton (Pottstown, Pa.) capped the scoring for the night as he slotted home a rebound after freshman Carter Schade's (Mars, Pa.) initial bid was turned aside at the 15:21 mark of the final period.
GOALTENDING
Souliere improves to 2-0-0 on the year after turning aside 20 shots in the victory while Harmon drops to 0-4-0 on the year following a 45-save performance in the setback.
NOTES
- Linden's goal just seven seconds into the first period marks the fastest goal to open a game in program history, surpassing the 13 seconds it took Casey Bailey to score back on January 5, 2013, against UConn.
- Linden collected his third-straight multi-point effort as he added an assist to go with his opening goal for the 17th multi-point game of his career.
- Schoen collected his first multi-point effort this season and the seventh of his career tying his career-best with three points on one goal and two assists while extending his career-long point-streak, that carries over from the end of last season to six games.
- Both Gratton brothers tallied one goal and one assist while going plus-3 on the night marking the first career multi-point effort for each.
- Sophomore Danny Dzhaniyev (Brooklyn, N.Y.) collected a pair of assists to tie his career high as he registered the fifth multi-point game of his career.
- The Nittany Lions held the commanding 51-23 edge in shots on goal while going 0-for-3 with the man-advantage and perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
- Penn State is now 3-1-0 all-time against Mercyhurst with the winning team having scored at least six goals in each game.
- Penn State is now 44-15-2 all-time against Atlantic Hockey teams while improving to 42-14-4 in the month of October and 95-1-2 all-time when scoring five or more goals.
- With one assist each, junior Jimmy Dowd Jr. (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.) and senior Paul DeNaples (Moscow, Pa.) remained tied with each other for eighth on the all-time points list for Nittany Lion defensemen with 35 points.
- With his third period goal, Berger has now scored all four of his career goals in the month of October and has nine points in his last nine career games during the month.
NEXT UP
The two teams will wrap up the season series with the second leg of the home-and-home tomorrow evening up in Erie with puck drop slated for 7 p.m.
POSTGAME QUOTABLES
Opening Statement: There's negative takeaways of wins and there's a lot of positive things to losses. Tonight, there's a little bit of both but I will start with the positive. Pretty cool night for the Gratton's, four points and plus-6 combined. That's awesome. I think that's so cool. So that was nice to see. But obviously we gave up too many, three on ones, breakaways and easy chances, so that we have to clean up.
Q: Kevin Wall with a goal tonight talk about his presence. What's that been like this season?
A: Well Waller you know, he took a really big step the three weeks, to a month of the season last year. If you've watched the game our team played by far the best hockey on the road against Ohio State and that we played all year. That was the best hockey I have seen him play and to be honest with you, he was thinking like he could have had, I think he had a few points but it wasn't about that. He just He did all the little things right. And if you look at one of the aspects of our team is shifts way too long. Like we're just we didn't do a good job that way. But he's a guy that I mean, even last weekend, he's watching his shift length, he's back checking well, he's blocking shots. He's doing a lot of little things that help you win.
Q: You mentioned with Gratton brothers getting four points can you talk a little bit more about their chemistry?
A: I tell you what, it's cool watching them. The coaches made comments if you saw them during training camp. Like Tyler is a tough kid, and he plays hard. He practices hard, but he hits way harder on Dylan than anybody else. I mean, we saw it right away. So it's a cool, I like the way the brothers are and it brings a little more competitiveness, I think to everybody, so it's cool watching them and so that's the chemistry that I see.
Q: You talked about wanting to improve the penalty kill after the Canisius series. Today, you held them off the board on their two opportunities. How were you guys able to do that?
A: We gave up one shot, which was big and our clears were a lot better. So, we actually had to kill a lot less than our own zone. Our players were way better number one, and then I just think it's getting in sync so on PK, obviously you have to be together when you go hunt pucks and you have to be together when you are very passive. And I think we were together. When we did both. Against Canisius, we had some guys do one and some guys do on the other. I think we were more together tonight. Obviously, we only gave up two opportunities. So, I don't want to pat us on the back too much because that's just two opportunities, but it was nice to see them only get one shot.
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