Ice Hockey: Men's

Thirty-four seconds.

That's the only time the Penn State Icers found themselves down to Mercyhurst on Friday night at the Ice Pavilion.

Mercyhurst notched the first goal of the contest, but Icers junior forward George Saad tallied a power-play goal just 34 seconds later off a rebound.

And from then on, it was all Penn State.

Brian Dolan's slapper from the top of the right circle hit the crossbar and went behind Mercyhurst's goalie, putting the Icers ahead 2-1.

Paul Daley and Jake Friedman registered goals in the second as well. Friedman finally got back on the scoring sheet after being in a two-month drought with a wrister that went five-hole.

Icers coach Guy Gadowsky said he never talked to Friedman about his scoreless two months.

"I think he’s consistently one of our hardest workers," Gadowsky said about Friedman. "He probably scores as much as anybody in practice. He works really hard at it. He shows us a lot. He’s got a great attitude, and he’s one of the guys that you just hope that it’s going to come. It certainly wasn’t from lack of effort. He puts the work in in practice. I’m very happy to see it, but hopefully this will open the floodgates for him a little bit."

Nate Jensen, Mike McDonagh and Saad added to the Icers in the third period. The No. 1 Icers went to 24-3-1 after the 7-1 victory.

For Saturday's matchup against Mercyhurst, freshman forward Dan Meiselman will return to the lineup after being sidelined with a concussion, Gadowsky said. The first-year Penn State coach also said Matt Madrazo will start Saturday, unlike Friday's game which saw P.J. Musico between the pipes.

Gadowsky said he is going to give Eric Steinour, George Saad and Kurt Collins the day off. In place of the three forwards, Forrest Dell, Dom Morrone and Tim Acker will step into the lineup.

The Icers faceoff at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday for a second game against Mercyhurst.