New Yorkers Lead The Way As Penn State Tops LIU 5-2
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa—Start spreading the news, the New Yorkers came to play.
Two New Yorkers, Christian Sarlo and Danny Dzhaniyev, combined for three total points to complete the sweep over Long Island by the score of 5-2 Monday night at Pegula Ice Arena.
When asked about being back home with fans and scoring eight goals in two games, coach Guy Gadowsky simply said: “It felt more at home, that’s for sure.”
Both teams came out of the gate flying as Penn State peppered LIU netminder, Kris Carlson, with four early shots, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
At 5:16 of the opening frame, the Lions caught the first break of the evening as a major penalty on the Sharks’ Tanner Schachle, led to a five-minute power-play.
Christian Berger’s first goal of the season and first career goal as a Nittany Lion came from an awkward angle at 9:24 of the first period to give PSU a 1-0 lead.
Just a mere 2:21 later, Xander Lamppa, playing on an aggressive forecheck, lit the lamp on a backhand shot over the glove of Carlson, and Penn State increased its lead to 2-0 at 11:45.
Shortly thereafter, LIU slashed the lead in half on a power-play goal courtesy of Jordan DiCicco making the score 2-1 and that margin remained after the first 20.
Once the second period began, it took just: 56 seconds for Penn State to increase its lead.
Long Island native Christian Sarlo jumped out of the penalty box, caught a breakaway pass from Paul DeNaples and sniped the biscuit past Carlson for a 3-1 lead.
The second period saw very little action after the Sarlo goal, but the Brooklyn native Danny Dzhaniyev sent Pegula into a frenzy with his first career goal at 17:10 to give the Nittany Lions a 4-1 lead going into the final frame.
“It was pretty special to play against them [LIU],” Dzhaniyev said.
LIU changed netminders for the third as Vincent Purpura took over for Carlson, who surrendered four goals on 25 shots which resulted in a .840 save percentage.
Penn State wasn’t done adding to the goal total just yet though.
Clayton Phillips added the fifth goal of the night on a tic-tac-toe play from Kevin Wall and Connor MacEachern at 5:42 to make the PSU lead 5-1.
“It was a great pass by Waller. I gotta give him credit for sure,” Phillips said.
LIU’s Max Balinson added a goal at 10:34 on a wide-open net from the left circle to cut the deficit to 5-2, but it wasn’t enough.
Gadowsky’s team won the game by that same score of 5-2 to complete the sweep and outshot the Sharks 80-43 for the series.
Amid the two losses, LIU blocked a combined 77 shots in the series.
Next up, Penn State will welcome the Canisius Golden Griffins to Pegula Ice Arena for a Friday/Saturday series on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Christopher Hess is a fifth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email christopherhess22@gmail.com.
