Kevin Wall Tallies Twice in His Homecoming as No. 5 Men’s Hockey Downs No. 20 RIT, 6-1

Rochester, NY – Senior kevin wall (Penfield, NY) scored twice and added some sort of homecoming assist to lead Penn State to a 6-1 win over No. 20 RIT in extra-conference action Friday night at the Gene Polisseni Center.

The Nittany Lions improve to 16-5-0 overall with the win and a perfect 9-0-0 this season in non-conference play, while the Tigers fall to 12-5-0 in the year with the setback.

Penn State will look to wrap up its first-ever flawless non-conference season in the series finale tomorrow night at Pegula Ice Arena.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Wall opened the scoring as he ran coast to coast before getting the puck down center and deflecting it off a RIT player and through the legs of Tiger goaltender Tommy Scarfone for a 1-0 lead at 3:05 of the could bring the first third.
• The Nittany Lions extended their lead with two goals in just 19 seconds and took a 3-0 lead as juniors late in the first period Tyler Paquette (Collegeville, Pennsylvania) finished a breakaway at 5:35 p.m. ahead of the senior Ashton Calder (Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.) laid down his own rebound at the 17:54 mark of the opening stanza.
• The Tigers put the deficit up early in the second half when Tyler Mahan found the back of the net at the 1:07 mark for a 3-1 deficit.
• Penn State regained the three-goal lead as a sophomore Ryan Kirwan (DeWitt, NY) rebounded a backhand pass to Wall during a 2-on-1 onslaught and he finished the gauntlet of Scarfone for his second of the game for a 4-1 lead at 5:39 of the second period.
• The visitors extended the lead with a power play record as Calder secured his second goal of the night after a beautiful feed from sophomore Danny Janiyev (Brooklyn, NY) for the 5-1 advantage at 2:45 p.m. of the second frame.
• Penn State continued to extend the lead early in the third period when Wall found the senior Connor MacEachern (Brooklin, Ontario) on the welcome mat for a tap in score and the 6-1 lead at 4:49 of the final verse.

GOAL CLOSURE

• Junior Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) improves to 14-4-0 on the year after making 28 saves in the win, while Scarfone falls to 11-3-0 after stopping 41 shots in the loss.
• Souliere’s 14 wins put him ahead of Eamon McAdam and fifth on Penn State’s single-season winners list, while his 22 career wins break a tie with him Oscar Audio ’22 for third place on the Nittany Lions all-time winners list. He is now 10 away from Matt Skoff in second place.

REMARKS

• The teams went into the locker rooms 2:53 early for the first break as one of the RIT bench doors needed repairs after being blown off its hinges following a body check.
• Penn State held the dominant 47-29 edge on shots while going 1-for-4 with the man advantage and a perfect 1-for-1 on penalties.
• Senior Captain Paul DeNaples played his 154th straight game, tying the Penn State Iron Man streak established by Chase Berger ’19. Like Berger, DeNaples has yet to miss a game in his Nittany Lion career.
• Wall’s opener marks the 15th time in 21 games this season that Penn State has made its record 13-2-0 in such competitions for the first time.
• Wall secured his first multi-goal game of the season and fifth of his career while racking up his third multi-pointer of the season and 17th of his career.
• Wall has now scored at least a point in five straight games to tie his career-long five-game point streak he scored last November.
• Calder scored his first multi-goal game as a Nittany Lion and the 11th of his career, while racking up his second multi-point effort of the season and the 32nd of his career.
• MacEachern and Senior Ture Linden (Great Falls, Virginia) each collected their fourth and fifth multi-point attempts of the season and 13th and 19th of their respective careers, MacEachern with one goal and two assists and Linden with two assists. MacEachern’s three points tie his career high.
• Penn State improves to an all-time 98-1-2 if they score five or more goals.
• The Nittany Lions are now 6-5-0 against ranked opponents this season and remain at a perfect 11-0-0 when leading after two thirds.

NEXT UP

The two teams will wrap up the weekend series tomorrow night at Hockey Valley with a puck drop at 5:30 p.m. at Pegula Ice Arena. Tickets are available HERE.

For more information on the 2022-23 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: Official Bookstore of Penn State Athletics, visit the men’s hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday 1-800-NITTANY