For all of the success that Penn State hockey has had at home during its brief Division I tenure the road has been far less forgiving. That wasn’t the case on Saturday night though as the Nittany Lions knocked off Canisius, 6-1 to open the season at 1-0.
“It was a bit of a scrambly game,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said after the game. “And [Loik] had two huge shifts in a row, and then had another one [later on], I think he had three points on the first three goals and got us going a little bit. I thought Kenny Brooks was excellent on that line as well and Chase Berger scoring his first goal that line was clicking early. They certainly held us through the first period and gave us a little time for the other lines to get going, which they did.”
It was a scorekeepers dream for Penn State as Four Nittany Lions tallied multi-point games as David Goodwin had a goal and two assists, David Glen added two goals and Kenny Brooks dished out a pair of assists.
Goaltender Eamon McAdam gave up just one goal in his start, making 27 saves.
Penn State scored twice in the opening minutes of the game as Curits Loik stole the puck and backhanded it into the net just over 90 seconds into regulation.
Only 27 seconds later, Ricky DeRosa found the back of the net to double the one goal advantage.
Freshman Chase Berger added one more tally with 6:01 remaining in the first. It was Berger’s first collegiate goal as Penn State had a 15-11 edge in shots in the opening 20 minutes.
In the second period Penn State took advantage of a major penalty and an eventual 5-on-3, as captain David Glen sniped a shot from a sharp angle to take a 4-0 lead with 11 minutes left in the second period.
On the continuing five-minute penalty, Goodwin cashed in on his first of the year, putting away a shot from the near slot to make it 5-0.
The Lions dominated the second period with a 15-5 shot total.
In the third period play was even between the two teams and Canisius finally got on the board with a power play tally midway through the frame. Ralph Cuddemi put away a Shane Conacher feed on the backdoor to cut the lead, 5-1, with 9:40 to play.
Glen’s second goal came in the final second of regulation to seal the final 6-1 margin.
Penn State will open the home slate against Notre Dame next Friday and Saturday at the Pegula Ice Arena.
