10/13/2022 other sports Edit

The Gratton brothers lead the Nittany Lions in a 6-3 win over Mercyhurst

Kathryn Brody • Happy Valley Insider

Staff Writer

I am a Journalism major at Pennsylvania State University and cover a few different Penn State teams.

The Gratton brothers (Tyler and Dylan) lead Penn State Hockey today to a 6-3 home victory against Mercyhurst in game one of their multi-game series.

It did not take long for the Nittany Lions to score a goal; Ture Linden scored just seven seconds into the game, marking it the fastest goal in program history.

“He’s been everything we have hoped,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said.

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Now it didn’t take long for the Mercyhurst Lakers to get right back in the game, as they tied it just 3:41 later on a breakaway.

“We gave up a lot of three-on-ones and breakaways,” Gadowsky said.

Penn State struggled with clearing the puck last weekend against Canisius, but they only had one shot against in the four minutes they were a man down.

The power play was not as strong tonight as they wanted it to be. The Nittany Lions had four shots on goal between three powerplays and just one goal against.

The first period was not goaltender Liam Soulieres' best period but, he bounced back very quickly.

“I was happy to see him bounce back from a mistake early in the game, and I thought he started playing really,” Gadowsky said. “He certainly forgot about it pretty quickly and played really well.”

While it was not the sharpest of games for the Nittany Lions, the Gratton brothers had a great night, each getting a goal and an assist.

Dylan assisted Ture Linden's opening goal in the first period and then Tyler got his assist on Ben Schoen's goal 11:32 into the second. Less than six minutes later, Dylan notched his first collegiate goal with his brother on the ice.

“It was pretty special,” Dylan said. “I didn’t even know he was on the ice, so when he came over to the pile, it was even cooler.”

“It was pretty cool. It was awesome that I was able to be put on the ice to experience it.” Tyler said.”

Dylan’s goal was an experience neither of them could forget. Then, to top the night for the Gratton brothers, Tyler scored with less than five minutes remaining.