ROCHESTER, N.Y. – RIT first-year forward
Tyler Mahan scored his sixth goal of the year, but it was No. 5/5 Penn State earning a 6-1 victory over the No. 20/20 Tigers, Friday night, at the Gene Polisseni Center.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Penn State opened the scoring with 16:55 left in the first period after Kevin Wall centered a puck from the left wing on a rush that deflected into the goal off a Tiger defenseman.
- The teams took the first intermission with 2:53 left in the period after an ice door needed to be repaired. The Nittany Lions scored twice in 47 seconds after the restart to build a 3-0 lead with 2:06 on the clock.
- Mahan put the Tigers on the board with a short-handed tally 1:07 into the second period, jumping on a loose puck inside the RIT blue line and skating the other way to snap home a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle.
- Penn State retook a three-goal lead with 14:21 left in the second on Wall's second of the game, before Ashton Calder's second of the night made it a 5-1 game with 5:15 on the clock.
- Connor MacEachern scored the lone goal of the third period with 15:11 left in regulation.
GAME NOTES
- Tiger sophomore goaltender Tommy Scarfone compiled a career-high 41 saves, eclipsing the 39 he totaled on two occasions, including the 1-0 Atlantic Hockey Tournament Semifinal victory over Sacred Heart (Mar. 11) last spring.
- Mahan scored for the first time since notching tallies in back-to-back games at Air Force (Oct. 21) and home versus Holy Cross (Oct. 28).
- RIT finished 0-for-1 on the power play while killing 3-of-4 penalties.
- RIT was held to one goal after entering the game ranked fifth nationally with 3.81 goals per game.
- Penn State finished with 47 shots on goal - the most against RIT since Arizona State took 41 in a 4-1 win over the host Tigers on Jan. 15, 2022.
- The game was the first ever matchup of two nationally ranked teams at the Gene Polisseni Center.
WHAT'S NEXT
RIT will head to University Park, Pa. for a rematch with the Nittany Lions on Saturday (Dec. 31) at 5:30 p.m.