Penn State Men’s Hockey Defeats St. Lawrence 3-2
Penn State men’s hockey (3-1) survived a hectic first period to defeat St. Lawrence (4-3) 3-2 in its home opener.
Danny Dzhaniyev, Reese Laubach, and Keaton Peters all found the back of the net, while Penn State’s penalty kill continued its strong start to the season.
How It Happened
St. Lawrence opened the scoring just 49 seconds into the game after Tomas Mazura intercepted an errant pass from behind the Penn State net. Felikss Gavara received a pass in the slot and beat Arsenii Sergeev up high.
The Nittany Lions answered right back after surrendering the early goal, with Dzaniyev burying a Jimmy Dowd Jr. pass behind goaltender Mason Kucenski to tie the game at one with just two minutes gone in the opening period.
After weathering a good shift from Penn State, the Saints got their lead back after Gavars fired a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Greg Lapointe, who slapped a one-timer past Sergeev to make it a 2-1 game.
Penn State’s penalty kill was tested for the first time after Nicholas DeGraves was sent to the box for cross-checking at 13:03. With multiple successful zone clearances, the Nittany Lions’ penalty kill remained perfect on the season, and play returned to even strength.
With the help of consistent pressure from the Dane Dowiak line, St. Lawrence took its first penalty of the game as Lapointe was sent to the box for holding at 18:13 of the period. On the power play for the first time in the game, Penn State did not capitalize before the period expired but began the second period with 13 seconds of carry-over time on its power play.
St. Lawrence killed off the remainder of the Lapointe penalty as the second period began, with Penn State only accounting for one shot on goal during the man advantage.
Laubach nearly tied the game after a nice drop pass from Aiden Fink with just under two minutes gone in the period, but the sophomore’s shot rang off the post and play continued with Penn State still trailing by one.
Penn State would once again head to the penalty kill after Matt DiMarsico was sent to the box for holding at 5:59 of the period. Once again, the Nittany Lions penalty kill was strong and allowed just one shot on its second successful kill of the game.
It appeared Penn State was headed to its second power play of the evening after Jan Olenginski hooked Charlie Cerrato, but the freshman was also sent to the box for an embellishment penalty. The Nittany Lions controlled the puck for nearly all of the two minutes of four-on-four hockey, with their best scoring chance coming off a shot in the slot from Simon Mack, but Kucenski batted the puck away with his blocker, and the teams returned to five-on-five.
Sergeev made his best save of the evening with just over five minutes remaining in the period, as he padded away a shot from the point that was deflected by Gunnar Thoreson to keep the Penn State deficit at one.
After flirting with a goal with multiple early scoring chances, Laubach finally got on the board as he received a pass in the slot from Fink and fired a shot over the stick of Kucenski to tie the game at two just before the period came to a close. Ben Schoen also added an assist on the goal.
It was a fast start to the final period for the Nittany Lions, as Peters scored his first collegiate goal on a wrist shot over the glove of Kucenski, giving Penn State the lead just one minute and 28 seconds in. JJ Wiebusch and Cade Christenson added the assists.
St. Lawrence had an opportunity to tie the game on the power play after Dowiak was sent to the box for interference at 6:27 of the period. For the third time of the night, Penn State killed the penalty with the only scoring chance coming after the power play expired, where Sergeev made a nice low glove save.
Mack nearly extended the Penn State lead after he rang a shot from the point off the post on a delayed penalty, with Isaac Tremblay being sent to the box for cross-checking once St. Lawrence touched the puck. On the power play, Penn State could not extend its lead with the Saints doing a good job of creating traffic in front of Kucenski.
Penn State was awarded a five-minute power play after Isack Bandu caught Dzhanyiev up high with an elbow, leading to Bandu being called for a game misconduct and getting ejected from the game at 15:30 of the final period.
Needing a goal to send the game to overtime, St. Lawrence opted to pull Kucenski for an extra skater with 45 seconds remaining in the game. Penn State fought off a last-ditch effort from the Saints to secure the victory in its return to Pegula.
Takeaways
- Penn State’s penalty kill put in another strong performance in game one of this series, killing off all three of the St. Lawrence power play opportunities. The Nittany Lions are a perfect 19-for-19 on the penalty kill five games into their season.
- The Schoen-Laubach-Fink line was once again outstanding for Penn State, burying one goal and consistently applying offensive pressure. Laubach was perhaps the most impressive of the three, notching one goal with multiple scoring chances.
- After giving up two goals on the first two shots he saw, Sergeev rebounded to save the final 14 shots from the Saints to earn his third victory with the Nittany Lions.
What’s Next?
The Nittany Lions return to Pegula Ice Arena for game two of its series against St. Lawrence, with puck drop set for 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 26.
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