Sept. 30, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's ice hockey team opens their 2016-17 slate by hosting the International Game on Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. face-off. Tickets for this contest remain available and can be purchased HERE.
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
Penn State begins its 2016-17 campaign with a preseason contest against Queen's (Ontario) on Sunday, Oct. 2 at Pegula Ice Arena. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m.
- This marks the second-straight season Penn State has opened play against a Canadian Interscholastic School (CIS) after entertaining Windsor last season. The Lions won that contest 5-2.
- This game will not count toward official standings, neither will the stats.
- This marks the first meeting ever between the two schools.
SCOUTING Queen's
The Queen's University (Ontario) Gaels enter Sunday's contest already playing four exhibition games on the season.
- Queen's went 18-10-3 last season bowing out in the opening round of the OUA Playoffs to UOIT in a three-game series.
- The Gaels took the first game 4-3 before losing a pair of 4-3 contests to the Ridgebacks.
- The Gaels return their top-7 scorers from a season ago including Eric Ming who paced the squad with 32 points on a team-best 17 goals and 15 assists. Spencer Abraham is also back after tallying a team-high 19 helpers while adding nine goals for 28 points, good for second on the squad.
- Slater Doggett, Patrick McGillis, Ryan Bloom, Darcy Greenaway and Steve Trojanovic also return as players who contributed double-digit points during the 2015-16 season.
- Queen's returns both goaltenders who saw action one season ago led by Kevin Baili who started 23 games securing a 14-9 record with a 2.18 goals against average and a .942 save percentage on the year. Jacob Brennan started five games last year going 3-2 with a 2.33 GAA and .934 save percentage.
- Queen's plays their home contests at the Kingston Memorial Centre in Kingston, Ontario. The arena seats 3,300 and opened in 1951.
- Queen's was founded in 1841 via a royal charter issued by Queen Victoria and the university predates the founding of Canada by 26 years. It is a co-educational university with more than 23,000 students spread across 10 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools over 3,500 acres of land throughout Ontario.
RECAPPING 2015-16
Penn State put together its best season during it's young existence earning the first 20-win campaign for Guy Gadowsky as the Nittany Lion Bench Boss with a 21-13-4 record while posting their second-straight winning season in Big Ten play (10-9-1-0).
- Penn State set 7 new single-season program standards during 2015-16 including most wins (21), most points (366), most goals (140), most assists (226), most shots (1,579), most shots/game (41.55) and most goals/game (3.68).
- For the third straight season the Nittany Lions won their opening Big Ten game by defeating Michigan State at home, 4-2. They followed that up with a 6-1 victory the following night to earn a sweep in the first conference series for the second straight season after doing the same to Wisconsin in 2014-15.
- Nittany Lions climb to as high as No. 14 in the uscho.com poll on numerous occasions while also earning their first-ever USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine ranking debuting at No. 15 in the December 14, 2015 poll.
- Penn State sweeps Wisconsin January 15-16, 2016.
- Penn State beats Minnesota, 5-3, at Mariucci Arena marking the first Nittany Lion victory in Minneapolis, February 6, 2016.
- Vince Pedrie earns All-Big Ten Second Team honors as well as All Freshman Team laurels.
- David Goodwin earns second-straight All-Big Ten Honorable Mention honors.
NITTANY LIONS PICKED FOURTH
- Penn State, entering its fifth season of varsity hockey, was picked fourth for the second consecutive year in the Preseason Coaches' Poll behind Minnesota, Ohio State and Michigan, but ahead of Wisconsin and Michigan State in the preseason poll.
- The Nittany Lions were picked sixth in both 2013-14 and 2014-15. Penn State exceeded expectations last season, leading the Big Ten for stretches of the season and finished third in the regular season and advanced to the Big Ten semifinals.
NEXT TIME OUT
- Penn State begins its regular-season on Thursday October, 6 against No. 16 St. Lawrence at 7 p.m.