Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky will not listen to the hockey analysts who say what happens at the faceoff dot doesn’t matter.

Not after his 10th-ranked Nittany Lions posted a 46-21 effort in the circle that led them to a 4-2 win over No. 13 Princeton, as Penn State moved to 5-0, continuing its best start in program history.

“I think it’s huge,” Gadowsky said. “I know there’s some analytics guys that would argue with me. I think it’s big. I think it’s really big. I think it’s not only the win or the loss, but the mentality that comes with it.”

Much of Penn State’s improvement in the faceoff category has stemmed from graduate transfer Ludvig Larsson, and the Nittany Lions expected that from the Swede, who won 20 of his 23 draws on Friday.

Gadowsky has said that he didn’t expect for the rest of his game to be as polished as it is, however. And Larsson, along with linemates Nate Sucese and Brandon Biro, once again fueled a significant portion of the Penn State offense against the Tigers, scoring a pair of goals that helped keep Princeton out of reach for most of the game.

The first such instance came after Princeton, playing its first game of the season, cut a 2-0 Penn State lead in half early in the second period.

Sucese skated hard into the Penn State offensive zone to negate an icing, won a battle for the puck and fed Biro, catching Princeton netminder Ryan Ferland out of position. Biro then easily deposited the puck into the net to reclaim the Nittany Lions two-goal advantage.

“To me, the play of the night was Nate Sucese,” Gadowsky said. “He showed so much speed and so much courage to go in dangerous areas, and just an unbelievable job to fore-check that puck for [Biro].”

Then, after Princeton opened the third period with a goal to cut Penn State’s lead to 3-2, Larsson ripped a wrist shot into the far corner of the net to give the Nittany Lions their cushion back.

“You see it in practice and you expect it,” Penn State defenseman Cole Hults said, “but still when you’re out there and they do something it’s like, ‘Oh.’ They work really well together and so they’re fun to watch.”

Denis Smirnov and Alex Limoges scored the other pair of Penn State goals, and that was all goaltender Peyton Jones and the rest of the Nittany Lion defense needed.

Jones held the Tigers, college hockey’s second-highest scoring team from a season ago, to two goals, saving 32 of the 34 shots sent his way.

The Nittany Lion defense corps, which got perhaps its most important member in Kevin Kerr back from injury Friday, certainly deserves credit, but Jones was the star of that unit on Friday.

“Really good goaltending makes your defense look pretty good,” Gadowsky said.

The only Penn State line that didn’t score may have made the most important impact.

Nikita Pavlychev, Aarne Talvitie and Blake Gober matched up against Max Veronneau and Ryan Kuffner, college hockey’s two highest-scoring returners from last season.

That duo was held to just one combined assist, which came on the power play, and went a combined minus-3 for the night.

“I thought that Pav’s line was great tonight,” Gadowsky said. “...They deserve a lot of credit for this victory.”