UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania - In a high-scoring affair, the American International College ice hockey team fell to No. 11 Penn State University, 7-5, in the first game of a two-game nonconference series on Thursday, October 19.

FAST FACTS:
Final score: AIC 5, Penn State 7
Records: AIC moves to 0-5-1, while Penn State moves to 3-2.
Location: Pegula Ice Arena (University Park, Pennsylvania)

STATS LEADERS:
AIC
Alex Murray (34 saves)
Martin Mellberg (one goal, one assist)
Hugo Reinhardt (one goal, one assist)
Dominik Florian (one goal)
Kyle Stephan (one goal)
Shawn McBride (one goal)

Penn State
Peyton Jones (28 saves)
Brandon Biro (one goals, two assists)
Chase Berger (three assists)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• AIC opened the scoring at the 5:01 mark of the first period when sophomore forward Martin Mellberg scored his first of the year off a pass from freshman defenseman Brennan Kapcheck.
• Despite 20 first-period saves from senior goaltender Alex Murray, Penn State ended the frame with a 2-1 advantage off a power-play goal from Trevor Hamilton and a shorthanded goal from Andrew Sturtz.
• Penn State's lead grew to 3-1 at the 5:27 mark of the second period off a goal from Liam Folkes.
• Sophomore forward Dominik Florian scored off an assist from senior forward Jackson Dudley to bring the score within 3-2 at 7:38 of the second. However, the Nittany Lions scored just 1:25 later to bring their lead back to two. They later added another goal at the 15:13 mark.
• Just 28 seconds later, though, sophomore forward Kyle Stephan tipped in a shot from classmate and linemate Joel Kocur to bring AIC within a score of 5-3.
• Penn State extended its lead to 7-3 by the 5:13 mark of the third, but AIC used a shorthanded tally from junior forward Shawn McBride at 10:58 and a power-play goal from sophomore center Hugo Reinhardt at 15:54 to come within 7-5.

BUZZWORTHY:

• Freshman goaltender Stefano Durante saw the first minutes of his collegiate career in the contest, playing more than 14 shutout minutes for the Yellow Jackets and making six saves.
• AIC allowed a season-high 47 shots on goal in the contest; however, Penn State led the nation a year ago in shots on goal per game (44.08).
• AIC's five goals are the most it has scored this season and its highest total since a 7-2 win over Niagara on January 21, 2015.
• The 12-goal output from the Yellow Jackets and Nittany Lions marks the most goals that AIC and an opponent have combined to score since the Yellow Jackets fell to Air Force by a score of 10-3 on March 7, 2015.

COACH'S CORNER:

• "To state the obvious, that's a really good hockey team we played tonight," said AIC ice hockey head coach Eric Lang. "Big Ten champs for a reason. I thought they transitioned really well, they made us pay for mistakesA couple things that I'm encouraged about from our end, is that we're able to get five goals on the road in a tough place to score. And I thought we didn't quit. I thought we played 60 minutes there. It gets to 7-3, it'd be easy to lay down there, and I don't think we did that."

NEXT UP:

• AIC and Penn State close out the series at Pegula on Friday, October 20 at 7 p.m.

STAY CONNECTED:

• For more updates about the AIC ice hockey team, follow @AIC_Hockey on Twitter and Instagram, and like AIC Hockey on Facebook. For updates on all AIC Yellow Jackets teams, follow @AICAthletics on Twitter and Instagram, and like AIC Yellow Jackets on Facebook.