No. 10 Penn State men’s hockey completed its second consecutive series sweep to kick off the 2018-19 season with a 4-1 victory over Niagara.

The Nittany Lions smothered the Niagara attack, and goaltender Peyton Jones stood tall in net with 36 saves. Nikita Pavlychev, Chase Berger, Alex Limoges, and Kris Myllari scored Penn State’s goals.

How It Happened

The game got off to a chippy start with the Purple Eagles taking the physical play to Penn State. Niagara appeared to be a bit grumpy following its 8-2 drubbing at the hands of the Nittany Lions last night.

The Purple Eagles’ physicality quickly came back to bite them when captain Nick Farmer was sent to the penalty box for boarding. Niagara defenseman Jared Brandt was called for hooking less than two minutes later, giving the Nittany Lions a brief 5-on-3 power play.

Penn State didn’t waste the opportunity to take an early lead, as Nikita Pavlychev fired the puck home to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 advantage at the 7:24 mark of the first period.

Niagara goaltender Cole Weaver would become very stingy from that point on, closing the door on the Nittany Lions for the rest of the period.

The second stanza began with more of the same. Consistent pressure from Penn State was consistently met by stellar goaltending from Weaver. The Purple Eagles took advantage of the strong play from their netminder and equalized the game off of a goal from Justin Kendall.

Penn State committed a sloppy turnover off of a neutral zone draw which led to a 2-on-1 rush for Niagara. Eric Cooley surged into Penn State’s defensive zone after collecting the loose puck and fired a shot that ricocheted off Jones and right onto Kendall’s stick.

Penn State continued to carry a large majority of the play, but Weaver had an answer for everything the Nittany Lions threw at him. Weaver finished the second period perfect, stopping all 21 shots that Penn State fired on target in the period.

The Nittany Lions were finally able to solve Weaver again in the third. Penn State captain Chase Berger got the team rolling by burying a rebound off of a shot from Aarne Talvitie just 1:45 into the period.

Alex Limoges quickly doubled the Penn State lead. Limoges camped out in front of the net, and received a pinpoint pass from Evan Barratt and only had to redirect the puck into an open net.

Kris Myllari was able to seal the game late for the Nittany Lions with a 200-foot shot into an empty Niagara net.

Player of the Game

Peyton Jones | Junior | Goaltender

Despite Penn State’s dominance over the course of the game, the team was unable to pull away due to a strong performance from Cole Weaver. The Nittany Lions needed their goaltender to match Weaver save for save, and that’s exactly what Jones did. The Langhorne, PA native finished the game with 36 saves on 37 shots. His save percentage is now .972 in two appearances this year

What’s Next

Penn State will continue its season with another home game at 7 p.m. Friday against No. 14 Princeton.