No. 8 Penn State men’s hockey (8-0-1, 0-0-0 Big Ten) capped off its non-conference series with Robert Morris (3-6-1, 2-3-1 Atlantic Hockey Association) with a resounding 11-6 victory.

Nine different Penn State players found the back of the net on Saturday night. Nikita Pavlychev and Kris Myllari scored twice and were joined by Nate Sucese, Sam Sternschein, Liam Folkes, Evan Barratt, Cole Hults, Alex Limoges and Max Sauvé. Defense was apparently optional during Saturday’s game, as the two teams combined to score 17 goals on Saturday.

Peyton Jones picked up the victory by making 34 saves on 40 shots.

How It Happened

Penn State couldn’t have gotten off to a better start on Saturday night. Liam Folkes took a stretch pass from Kevin Kerr and buried it past Robert Morris goalie Francis Marotte to give Penn State a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game.

Robert Morris scored a shorthanded goal after Alex Robert was ejected for boarding. Luke Lynch converted on a 2-on-1 rush after an Alex Stevens turnover at the blue line. To make matters worse, an Alec Marsh interference penalty led to another Robert Morris goal with 10:05 to play in the first period.

Nikita Pavlychev responded for the Nittany Lions with his sixth goal of the season. He jammed the puck in on a rebound to tie the game at 2 with 7:33 to play in the first period.

Penn State went back to the power play 70 seconds after the big Russian’s goal, and Evan Barratt cashed in with his fifth goal of the season. Alex Stevens picked up the lone assist on the goal, but Robert Morris got a break and equalized less than a minute later.

Nick Prkusic capitalized on a brutal bounce to tap the puck into a wide open net. Peyton Jones thought the puck was going to ring around the boards, but it hit an imperfection in the boards and fell right to the sophomore winger. The period was wide open and, to put it lightly, complete chaos, but it ended in a 3-3 tie after a flurry of saves from Peyton Jones.

If you thought the game would calm down in the second period, sorry friend, you were wrong. The two teams once again combined for six goals, but the Nittany Lions scored five of those, including four unanswered tallies to end the frame.

Max Sauvé scored his first NCAA goal amidst the chaos to give him a multiple-point effort. Nikita Pavlychev also scored, giving him consecutive two-goal games, and the two forwards were joined by Kris Myllari, Nate Sucese, and Sam Sternschein.

Kris Myllari and Cole Hults added goals in the early stages of the third period to extend Penn State’s lead to 10-4 with just under 17 minutes to play. Hults’ goal gave the Nittany Lions a double-digit tally of goals in a game for the first time since the first round of the 2017 NCAA tournament. Penn State famously took down Union 10-3 in its national tournament debut.

Alex Limoges then scored a record-breaking goal to give Penn State an 11-4 lead, but Robert Morris’ Alex Tonge completed his hat trick to trim Penn State’s lead to just six goals. The game then quieted down, and it ended with the Nittany Lions’ eighth victory in nine games this season after another Robert Morris goal with 18 seconds left.

Takeaways

• This is a huge understatement, but Saturday’s game was complete anarchy in the form of a college hockey game. Neither team could keep the puck out of the net throughout the game, and it was a ton of fun to watch the two teams trade goals (well, until Penn State took over with seven unanswered).
• Nikita Pavlychev is a grown man, and he is on a tear. He bullied the Colonials all game long and extended his point streak to eight games with another two-goal game. Evan Barratt also extended his active point streak to eight with a goal and an assist tonight.
• Penn State got significant goal scoring from its defensemen tonight for the first time. Alex Stevens and Kris Myllari were the only two defensemen to score goals this season, but Cole Hults joined them with a third-period tally. Myllari added two more tonight to grow his season total to three.
• Congratulations are in order for freshman Max Sauvé — he scored his first goal as a Nittany Lion in his college hockey debut and added an assist for good measure. Sauvé scored 22 points in 23 games for the same high school that current NHL players Jonathan Quick, Nick Bonino, and Hall of Fame defenseman Brian Leetch played for.

What’s Next

The Nittany Lions will open Big Ten play next weekend with a series against Michigan at Pegula Ice Arena. Game one of the series will be played at 7 p.m. Friday.