No. 12 Penn State men’s hockey (4-1-0) defeated Robert Morris (3-4-0) 2-1 Friday night at Pegula Ice Arena. Penn State’s season debut of its grey alternate sweaters was a success, as team captain Brandon Biro scored his 100th career point on the game-winning goal early in the third period.

The game was a surprisingly low-scoring match, especially considering Penn State outscored the Colonials 30-14 in their last four games, with their last meeting resulting in 17 combined goals.

Since the game was a defensive battle, the Nittany Lions’ biggest standout was Peyton Jones, who saved 21-of-22 shots and made some impressive saves during crucial penalty-kill minutes.

How It Happened

The Nittany Lions had scoring opportunities early and often in the first period after receiving a power play from a slashing penalty 44 seconds into the game. After killing the penalty, the Colonials responded with a few offensive attacks of their own, but all were handily broken up by Penn State.

Robert Morris brought the physicality tonight, but Penn State, once again led by Phillips, responded strongly, going blow for blow with the Colonials. Their goalie, Justin Kapelmaster, even got involved with the scrappy play, attempting to trap Nittany Lion winger Denis Smirnov inside his net until Smirnov knocked him off balance with a swift elbow check.

A little more than two minutes into the second period, Penn State became the first team on point after freshman center Connor MacEachern scored his second goal of the year on a deflection from defenseman Paul DeNaples.

Robert Morris responded two minutes later with a one-timer scored by center Grant Hebert. The goal was an exclamation point of sorts for Hebert, who welcomed two Nittany Lions to the ice in an impressive display of brutality 30 seconds prior to scoring.

Robert Morris spent way too much time in Penn State’s zone in the second period, but Penn State’s defense and a stellar performance by netminder Peyton Jones prevented the Colonials from capitalizing on most of their opportunities.

After a steady back and forth to start the third, captain Brandon Biro broke the tie seven minutes in the game with a scorching one-timer from an Evan Barratt feed to put the Nittany Lions up 2-1. With this goal, Biro became the sixth-ever Nittany Lion to join the 100-point club, and the second this season, following Denis Smirnov’s three-point effort against Alaska-Fairbanks last Thursday.

Around halfway through the third, Alex Limoges and Nikita Pavlychev received questionable penalty calls back to back, Limoges for tripping and Pavlychev for slashing. Luckily, Penn State’s penalty kill team delivered with big saves from Jones and a huge body-sacrificing block from Connor McMenamin.

This penalty kill effort was the turning point of the game, and all but sealed the win for the Nittany Lions until their defensive unit impressed once again with a six-on-five empty net kill to close out the game.

Takeaways

• The Nittany Lion’s minute-and-a-half, five-on-three penalty kill was one of their most impressive defensive displays all season and the most crucial part of their victory tonight. That’s saying something, considering their stellar penalty kill performance in five games this season. They’ve allowed just two goals in 24 opportunities.
• Once again, congrats are in order for Brandon Biro for becoming Penn State’s sixth 100-point scorer in program history. Head coach Guy Gadowsky mentioned after the game how crucial Biro has been to the organization, and how his 100th point coming from a game-winning goal exemplifies that perfectly.
• I can’t overstate say enough about how sharp the defense looked tonight. I was wondering how it would respond to last week’s 4-0 loss to Alaska-Fairbanks, and the defense made it clear that the loss was the wake-up call they needed to adjust for the remainder of the season.
• Penn State’s offense went stagnant during the second period, registering most of its shots from the blue line. The Nittany Lions made up for it in the third, but they need to provide three full periods of steady offensive attack to succeed against bigger opponents later in the season.
• It sounded like DJ PJ Mullen was unimpressed with Kanye’s new album Jesus Is King, as his music choices tonight definitely hinted a yearning for the “Old Kanye.” Same, brother. Same.

What’s Next?

Penn State men’s hockey will return to Pegula Ice Arena next Friday on Halloween night to take on Wisconsin, their spookiest competitor of the season so far, in a two-game series. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday and 6 p.m. on Friday.