Sucese Sets All-Time Point Record as No. 6 Men’s Hockey Defeats Robert Morris, 6-2
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Senior Nate Sucese (Fairport, N.Y.) collected a trio of assists to pass David Goodwin ’17 and move into first on the Penn State all-time scoring list with 129 career points as No. 6 Penn State defeated Robert Morris, 6-2, on Saturday night in non-conference action at PPG Paints Arena.
The Nittany Lions improve to 16-6-0 on the year with the victory and close out non-conference play with an 8-2-0 record. Bobby Mo drops to 7-9-3 on the year with the loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Nittany Lions opened the scoring just 13 seconds into the game with a power-play tally as junior Sam Sternschein (Syosset, N.Y.) redirected a point shot from classmate Cole Hults (Stoughton, Wis.) in the high-slot that snuck through RMU goaltender Justin Kapelmaster for the 1-0 lead.
Just over two minutes later Penn State extended its lead as freshman Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) one-timed a feed from classmate Kevin Wall (Penfield, N.Y.) in the slot for the 2-0 margin at 2:29 of the opening frame.
PSU pushed the lead to 3-0 as freshman Mason Snell (Courtice, Ontario) finished off a back-door feed from junior Evan Barratt (Bristol, Pa.) snapping one inside the far post at 9:32 of the first period.
Senior Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario) then flicked a wrist shot through traffic from the blue-line that slipped under the glove of Kapelmaster for the 4-0 lead at 14:38 of the first period.
Justin Addamo cut into the deficit midway through the second period for the colonials as he wired a wrister from the slot that beat Nittany Lion senior net-minder Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) past the glove for the 4-1 score at 8:46 of the middle frame.
Penn State answered as sophomore Max Sauve (Acushnet, Mass.) finished near the far post off a clean faceoff win from Sucese for the 5-1 advantage at 12:19 of the second period.
RMU answered to once again cut the deficit to three as Grant Hebert fired past the glove of Jones during an odd-man rush for the 5-2 score at the 15:41 mark.
The Nittany Lions sealed the deal as junior Alex Limoges (Winchester, Va.) hit the empty net with just 12 seconds remaining for the 6-2 final.
GOALTENDING
Jones moves to 14-5-0 on the year while improving to 7-1-1 in NHL buildings for his career following a 42-save effort.
Kapelmaster drops to 7-7-2 with the setback after stopping 31= shots.
NOTES
RMU held the 44-37 edge in shots while Penn State went 1-for-3 with the man-advantage and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. The Nittany Lions are now 17-for-17 on the PK over their last six games.
Sternschein’s first period power-play goal just 13 seconds into the game tied Casey Bailey’s program record for fastest goal to open a game, which Bailey did nearly seven years ago to the day against UConn on January 5, 2013.
With a trio of assists, Sucese collects his sixth multi-point game this season and the 29th of his career while passing David Goodwin ’17 for first on the Penn State all-time points list with 129 for his career.
The Nittany Lions improve to 16-12-1 all-time in NHL buildings and pull even at PPG Paints Arena with a 5-5-0 record. Penn State has now won six-straight games against Robert Morris improving to 8-4-0 all-time.
PSU is now 8-0-0 this season when a freshman scores a goal as both MacEachern and Snell lit the lamp tonight.
With another assist tonight, Hults has at least one assist in six of his last eight games played and is currently riding a mini three-game point streak. Senior Nikita Pavlychev (Yaroslavl, Russia) also extends his point streak to three games with a first period assist.
With his empty net goal, Limoges extends his point-streak to 10 games tying his career-high and is now just one game shy of the Penn State record for longest point-streak.
With a pair of assists Barratt registers his sixth multi-point game this season and the 23 rd of his career.
The Nittany Lions improve to 13-1-0 on the year when scoring first and move to a perfect 12-0-0 when leading after two periods of play.
Penn State is now 37-14-2 against Atlantic Hockey competition including a 19-2-0 record since the start of the 2016-17 season.
