About a week ago, Brandon Biro left the rink with some strong words for a Penn State team that nearly botched a 4-0 third-period lead against Sacred Heart, just hanging on for a 5-4 win.

Biro felt they had lost focus, concerned themselves more with padding stats than playing fundamentally sound hockey, and generally failed to live up to Penn State’s mindset.

Thursday, Penn State’s captain sparked a dominant closing effort.

He scored early in the third period to set the tone, and Penn State (3-0) used the final 20 minutes to turn a solid win into a 7-0 rout over Alaska Fairbanks (2-3).

“We were able to come in between periods and say, ‘Hey, we said a lot, let’s see if we meant it or if it was just words,’” Gadowsky said.

Safe to say they meant it.

Holding a 4-0 lead entering the period, Penn State held the Nanooks to six shots in the final frame while scoring three times — including Biro’s snipe — to put a touchdown on the scoreboard.

Thursday’s win was one that came without the caveats and warning signs that accompanied Penn State’s opening weekend sweep.

In posting their first shutout since December 2, 2017, the Nittany Lions produced a much better defensive showing.

They needed some big saves by Peyton Jones — who earned his fourth career shutout, a school record — to keep the Nanooks off the scoreboard. But the third period effort from Penn State was much improved, and, Gadowsky said, fueled partially by embarrassment for how they closed last Saturday's game.

“We were embarrassed for that, and we wanted to make up for it,” Gadowsky said. “[Jones] certainly deserved a shutout, but we played a lot better in the third for him than we did last time.”

Just as encouraging was the performance of Denis Smirnov, who picked up his 100th career point with his fourth assist of the season before sniping one home on the power play to score his first goal of the year.

It looked like vintage Smirnov, and the senior winger seems to have rebounded off a shaky season a year ago, when he was plagued by injury and illness.

“Everybody on the bench said, ‘Man that was beauty.’ I think he is playing with confidence, and I think he’s in much better shape,” Gadowsky said.

A four-goal first period chased Alaska Fairbanks netminder Gustavs Grigals. Included in that barrage was Tyler Gratton’s first collegiate goal, Liam Folkes’ first of the year, a tally from Aarne Talvitie (2), and a goal from Paul DeNaples (1) — the sixth goal by a Penn State defenseman already this season.

Both teams went scoreless in the second period. In the third, goals by Biro (3) and Smirnov (1) bookended a power-play tally by Nikita Pavlychev (1), who made his season debut after sitting out opening weekend with an injury.

More than anything, though, Thursday’s win was a response — and one the Nittany Lions felt they had to make.

“I thought we responded pretty well,” Jones quipped after the game. “Don’t you?”