Offensive Outburst Leads to Another Series Opening Win for No. 5 Penn State
In its first game in nearly three weeks, No. 5 Penn State put on an offensive clinic in a 6-1 rout of No. 20 RIT.
It was all Nittany Lions in the first frame, with senior forward Kevin Wall opening up the scoring just three minutes into the contest.
The Carolina Hurricanes prospect had one of his best showings of the season, adding another goal later in the contest and an assist for his third multi-point game this year.
His five-game point streak also ties a career high he set last November.
THe night was filled with several records, as senior captain Paul DeNaples played in his 154th consecutive game, tying the Penn State Iron Man streak set by Chase Berger in 2019.
The fifth-year defenseman has never missed a game in his career, and has a chance to break the record in the second game of this home-and-home series.
One of the trends in this historic season has been bursts of quick scoring, and the blue and white had more of that against the Tigers, with Tyler Paquette and Ashton Calder scoring 19 seconds apart to end an eventful first period.
Calder would score the lone power-play goal of the night for the blue and white, giving him his first multi-goal game of the season.
That first period was cut short after one of the bench doors was blown off following a body check to Penn State forward Christian Berger, with the leftover 2:53 being added onto the second period.
The unorthodox intermission got the Nittany Lions out of sync early into the middle frame as they gave up a goal a minute into the second period.
However, that was the only time Penn State faltered in the game, as Wall and Calder would regain and extend the lead for the blue and white.
The second period would continue with the weirdness, as the Tigers received 17 minutes of penalties, including a five minute major for boarding and a 10 minute game misconduct.
The orange and black finished the game with 19 minutes of penalties as opposed to Penn State’s two.
The long winter break didn’t stop the Nittany Lions from keeping tradition and piling on the shots, ending the game with a commanding 47-29 edge in the shot department.
Junior netminder Liam Souliere continued his monster season with a 28-save performance, including some very timely stops in the second and third period to keep the Tigers off the board.
The two ranked opponents will finish the home-and-home series at Pegula Ice Arena as both teams will look to end 2022 on a high note.
Joshua Bartosik is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jsb6137@psu.edu.
