Penn State hockey’s Aarne Talvitie, Nikita Pavlychev find success far from home

Aarne Talvitie and Nikita Pavlychev sat next to each other in the study room downstairs in the Pegula Ice Arena. Notebooks, open textbooks and backpacks were scattered around the room. They bantered with each other like brothers, Talvitie teasing Pavlychev.

It was announced in 2010 that Penn State’s men’s ice hockey program would join the NCAA as a Division I team starting in the 2012-13 season, and Guy Gadowsky was appointed head coach.

While the Penn State Nittany Lions men’s ice hockey program is relatively new as a varsity program, this has not stopped it from attracting athletes globally. Of the 29 men on the team, 10 are international students. Included in those 10 are Talvitie, of Finland, and Pavlychev, of Russia.

Following a dream at Penn State

For Talvitie and Pavlychev, hockey is a major component of their college careers and lives at Penn State.

In order to keep chasing his dream of playing hockey, Talvitie had to venture outside of Finland. Talvitie is from the city of Espoo, which is located in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

“The university here is pretty much the only chance to play at a high level and get a good education as well,” Talvitie said. “I heard everything I needed from this place, and it sounded awesome, so that’s why I chose to come here. It was an easy (choice), I didn’t have to think that through.”

Talvitie, a sophomore forward, got involved in hockey at a three years old, crediting his interest to his older brother.

“I think it just brought us together, and we both played hockey to have fun and make friends,” Talvitie said.

While Talvitie started playing at a young age, his interest in the sport never wavered.

“I think I didn’t take it that seriously when I was younger, and then when I started to be like 14, 15, then I realized that I might have some good chances to make something out of this,” he said. “That’s when I started to take it seriously. Been going pretty well now, so let’s hope I’ll be able to keep it going.”

Being an international student comes with its own challenges, as well as being a D1 athlete at a Big Ten university. Balancing schoolwork and athletics is no easy feat.

Talvitie, who plans to major in labor and employment relations, said that learning how to manage time is an important factor in achieving success as a student.

“I think at the end of the day it’s about priorities; if you want to be good at school you have to put effort into that, and if you want to be good at hockey you have to do the same thing,” Talvitie said.

Talvitie is a prospect of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and was drafted in the sixth round in 2017. Before coming to Penn State, he played for the Espoo Blues.

In 2019, Talvitie was captain of the Finnish National Team that took home a Gold Medal during the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.

“Playing for the national team, it’s not a team you play with the whole year, so there’s kind of a different dynamic there. When you consider here, we’re so close and we hang out everyday,” Talvitie said. “The style of play we play here, compare to the way we play on the Finnish National Team, is also different. Here it’s more fast paced and more straightforward compared to how we played in the Finnish National Team.”

While adjusting to life in a new country can be hard, Talvitie said after the first month of being at Penn State, he felt almost fully adjusted. Talvitie said that he visited the United States frequently growing up, which gave him an idea of what life was like in the United States.

“There’s of course a little culture shock, It’s way different compared to Finland. It’s a lot different,” Talvitie said. “I would say people here are probably more open to strangers. We don’t do small talk in Finland, like you guys do here. If you don’t know a person, you pretty much don’t talk to them.”

Talvitie said one of the most challenging adjustments was getting used to American cuisine.

“(Finnish food is) not as greasy,” Talvitie said. “Not that big of portions, let’s put it that way. And I miss Finnish fish. Well I don’t know, I haven’t had it that many times. I haven’t eaten that many times fish here, and when I’ve done it’s not as good as in Finland.”

He also emphasized the superiority of Finnish chocolate to American chocolate.

“Best in the world. Hands down,” he said with a smile.

Nikita Pavlychev, Penn State’s ‘enforcer’

Pavlychev is from Yaroslavl, Russia, about four hours northeast of Moscow.

“I was about five turning six, and my dad was always a big hockey fan back in Russia,” Pavlychev said. “He took me to a lot of hockey games, so I was always really intrigued by the sport and decided one day to try it myself, and kind of fell in love from there.”

Pavlychev is a prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins and was drafted in the seventh round in 2015. Prior to coming to Penn State, he played with the Des Moines Buccaneers, a tier 1 junior ice hockey team.

At 6-foot-7, Pavlychev, a senior forward, is known for being an aggressive player on the ice and has embraced that at Penn State. Pavlychev could be described as an enforcer, which a player who responds aggressively toward violence against his teammates from opposing teams.

“I think it started coming along when I realized what role I have to do on the team. I started realizing that my style of play has to be more aggressive, and if I want to go forward with my career then this is what I have to do,” Pavlychev said.

But off the ice, balancing schoolwork and athletics was a struggle for Pavlychev, who is majoring in business management. He summed up his efforts with one word and a laugh — “bad.”

“I learned how to be able to dedicate time to studying,” Pavlychev said. “I mean we have so (much) help and facilities here, we have tutors that allow us to always stay on top of our work, as well as the Morgan Center, which is a place where we can always get away from everything else and really focus on our (studies).”

Pavlychev said that while being an international student doesn’t necessarily make learning material harder, there was a language barrier at first, and that he still struggles occasionally.

“Obviously my English is still not ideal, so every once in a while I will run into some words or phrases that I’m unfamiliar with, but it always just helps me rather than sets me back,” Pavlychev said. “It’s a new word or phrase that I get to learn everyday, and it’s kind of been building on ever since I’ve been here.”

While Pavlychev said he’s been very Americanized, what he misses most about home, besides family and friends, is the food.

“I think the simplest example is our lunch. In Russia, every time you have lunch you have soup, and then maybe have the second part of the meal, but soup is ... necessary,” Pavlychev said. “Rather than in the United States, a lot of the times we have a sandwich or something like that, and if you’re lucky, sometimes you’ll get a soup.”

“That was like something that was kind of difficult to get used to. Mom’s cooking, always missing that,” Pavlychev said with a smile.

Pavlychev said that while he feels he’s acclimated to living in the United States, he still tries to bring his “Russian side” to things alongside fellow Russian teammate, Denis Smirnov.

“We always have something — like an ongoing jokes that we usually just speak in Russian, like there is no way to translate those jokes. We always laugh over some sort of social media — Russian stuff that comes up on our feeds,” Pavlychev said. “There is nothing in specific, besides, you know, having someone who speaks the native language, giving you that feeling of being almost at home while you’re still so far away from your native (country).”

While free time is few and far between, the athletes enjoy relaxing like many other college students do.

“I either spend time with friends, go to the movies, watch movies at home. Sometimes we’ll play something else other than hockey, other sports like table tennis or we sometimes play big tennis,” Pavlychev said. “We try to stay active but sometimes you have to be a little lazy and have a day just sitting on the couch watching movies or something.”

Talvitie agreed with Pavlychev, and said that he enjoyed hanging out with his friends when he has free time, as well as watching football and hockey games.

“Vegas Golden Knights is always fun to watch. They’re really good,” Talvitie said.

Next steps for the hockey players

In the hallway outside the media room at Pegula, Gadowsky talked fondly about his players.

“I think they have very similar strengths off the ice, in the sense that they’re both very, very intelligent. To come to a new country, to go to school in a different language, you have to be quite an intelligent person,” he said. “They’re really good guys and fun guys. The team just really likes to take command and be a part of them, I think that really has a big part of their success.”

Pavlychev and Talvitie have integrated well with the Nittany Lions, and have really bonded with their teammates, Gadowsky said.

“On the ice, it’s a matter of helping the team. And they do it in very different ways. They’re both great hockey players that I think any team in the NCAA would love to have,” he said.

While the NCAA D1 program is still relatively new, it hasn’t stopped the athletes from achieving success with Penn State.

“Our freshman year we won a Big Ten championship and that was a really special moment for me, that I will probably remember for the rest of my career,” Pavlychev said. “I’m hoping to achieve that once again and go for the NCAA tournament.”

As for the future, the athletes have big plans. Talvitie and Pavlychev hope to play professionally in the NHL.

Pavlychev is less than a year away from possibly playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins or their AHL team, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who have signing rights on him until Aug. 15, 2020.

As for Talvitie, he still has two years left at Penn State, or he could be called up by the New Jersey Devils or their AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Devils.

“That’s the goal. Let’s see where I get after college but that’s certainly my goal,” Talvitie said.

This story was originally published December 26, 2019 at 6:50 AM.