| WEEKEND PREVIEW | |
| 14-2-1 (3-1-0-0 B1G) | 4-13-1 (0-4-0-0 B1G) |
| Friday at 7:00 p.m. | Saturday at 7:00 p.m. | |
| PEGULA ICE ARENA | UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. | |
| GAME DAY CENTRAL |
FRIDAY LIVE COVERAGE |
| Radio: Penn State Sports Network (Affiliates) |
| Tickets: Friday | Saturday |
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| SATURDAY LIVE COVERAGE Video | Audio | |
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| TV: Big Ten Network |
| GAME NOTES Penn State | Michigan State |
| TEAM STATISTICS Penn State | Michigan State |
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| INSIDE THE NUMBERS | ||
| PSU | MSU | |
| 14-2-1 | Overall Record | 4-13-1 |
| 3-1-0-0 | Conference Record | 0-4-0-0 |
| 77 | Goals Scored | 40 |
| 33 | Goals Allowed | 72 |
| 4.53 | Goals Scored/gm. | 2.22 |
| 1.94 | Goals Allowed/gm. | 4.00 |
| 813 | Shots | 441 |
| 47.8 | Shots/gm. | 24.5 |
| 127 | Assists | 71 |
| 21-95 | Power Plays | 13-94 |
| .221 | Power-Play Pct. | .138 |
| 67-74 | Penalty Kills | 60-86 |
| .905 | Penalty-Kill Pct. | .698 |
| 3376 | Saves | 472 |
| 2 | Shutouts | 0 |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The fourth ranked Penn State men's ice hockey team returns home to Pegula Ice Arena for a weekend set against the Michigan State Spartans on Friday and Saturday evening.
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- This weekend marks the 15th and 16th meetings between the two schools with the Spartans holding the 6-5-3 series advantage. However, Penn State swept the season series last year outscoring MSU 18-6 over the four games.
LAST TIME THEY MET
- The two teams played their tightest game of the season in the series finale last season on February 13, 2016. After 65 minutes, the score was tied 2-2, but the Nittany Lions secured the extra point with a shootout win as Ricky DeRosa lit the lamp and Eamon McAdam stopped all three chances by the Spartans.
SERIES FINALE TO BE AIRED ON BTN
- Saturday's series finale will be aired across the nation on the Big Ten Network and will be available on BTN2Go from your mobile device.
RANKING SHAKEDOWN
- Penn State has been ranked in both the uscho.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national polls for ten consecutive weeks, which is a new program-best.
- They have been in the top-10 of the polls for seven consecutive weeks, including the last five weeks inside the top-5.
- Last week Penn State reached an all-time program high with a No.2 ranking in each poll and this week they set new program records for first-place votes receiving six in the uscho.com poll and eight in the USA Today poll.
- The Nittany Lions have also been consistently in the No. 1 or No. 2 spot in the PairWise rankings for the last few months.
RECORDS ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN
- In just 17 games played this season freshman Denis Smirnov has already broken two Penn State single-season freshman records for assists (18) and points (28).
- The Rookie broke the latter with his assist on Chase Berger's empty net goal to ice the victory for the Nittany Lions against Ohio State last Saturday.
- Smirnov currently leads all freshman in the country with his 28 points, which also ranks first in the Big Ten and 12th in the nation. He has nine multi-point games on the season and has only been held off the scoresheet twice.
- His 18 assists also lead the conference and place him 11th nationally, but first amongst first-year players while his 10 goals are tied for third in the nation for freshman and lead the Big Ten.
TURN UP YOUR AUTIO
- Junior defenseman Erik Autio caused a defensive zone turnover before skating into the offensive end where he fired a wicked wrister beating OSU goaltender Christian Frey over the glove, off the post and in for a third period goal during Saturday's 4-2 victory.
- The goal, just the fifth of his career and second of the season, gave the Finn 36 career points placing him one clear of teammate Vince Pedrie for second all-time for Penn State blue liners trailing just Luke Juha `16 (60).
OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN
- Not many d-man shoot the puck more than Vince Pedrie. In fact averaging 5.06 shots per game, the sophomore ranks third in the country and is the only blue liner in the top-20 nationally. His 86 shots on goal lead the team and rank fifth in the nation.
- Pedrie is also third on Penn State's all-time scoring list for defenseman with 35 points on 13 goals and 22 assists. His 13 goals rank second all-time for his position at Penn State as he is just two back of Luke Juha `16 for the all-time record.
JONES EYEING McADAM
- Freshman Peyton Jones secured his 12th win of the season against Ohio State on Saturday and he now sits just a single victory away from tying Eamon McAdam for the Penn State single-season record, which he achieved last season.
- The freshman's 12 wins are already a Penn State freshman record and rank tied for fifth in the nation.
- Jones also ranks seventh in the country with a 1.98 goals against average while his .919 save percentage ties for 18th nationally. The rookies GAA tops the Big Ten while his save percentage is good for second behind Michigan's Hayden Lavigne.
KILL OR BE KILLED
- The Nittany Lions possess the best penalty kill in the nation holding opponents off the scoreboard 90.5 percent of the time with the man-advantage.
- Penn State even killed off two 5-on-3 power plays in Saturday's win against No. 11 Ohio State, however, when trying to kill a third such situation they surrendered their first PPG in their last 21 chances.
WE'VE GOT THE POWER "PLAY"
- Penn State ranks 11th in the country on the power play scoring 21 times in 95 chances (22.1 percent) in their first 17 games averaging more than 5.5 power-plays per game.
- In conference play, Penn State has converted 5-of-15 (33 percent) man-advantage chances into goals.
FINAL COUNTDOWN
- Penn State has been great at finishing teams off this year as they hold a 13-0-1 record when leading after the second period.
- The Nittany Lions are outscoring their opponents 26-14 during the final 20 minutes on the season. This past weekend at Ohio State, PSU held a 17-3 shot advantage in the final period as they tried to erase a two-goal deficit on Friday night. On Saturday, they netted three third period goals to pull away and secure the victory.
- Last Friday marked just the second game all season that Penn State has not scored a third period goal. The other was during a 3-3 tie against Notre Dame on October 21, 2016.
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END
- Friday night's loss broke a number of current streaks for Penn State including their program-best 13-game unbeaten streak and 11-game winning streak.
- The loss also snapped a seven-game streak of scoring first in games and when doing so Penn State holds an 11-0-1 record this season.
DEFENSIVE DANDY
- Junior defenseman Trevor Hamilton has rattled opposing offenses with powerful hip checks and a team leading 38 blocked shots.
- With an assist during Saturday's victory, the junior is now just three assists shy of tying Luke Juha `16 for the Penn State single-season record by a defenseman with 16 during the 2015-16 season.
- Hamilton is currently second on the team in points with 16, which tie for the Big Ten lead for defenseman. His blocked shots total also tie for third in the conference.
A CLASS OF THEIR OWN
- Penn State is led by their freshman class with 75 points, which ties for the national lead in freshman scoring. The rookies have potted 30 goals and added 45 assists. This accounts for 36 percent of Penn State's total offense.
- The sophomore class is second with 58 points (28G, 30A). Together the two classes combine for 65 percent of PSU's total offense and an eye-popping 75 percent of goal scoring. Safe to say the future is in good hands!
RECAPPING OHIO STATE
- After 34 days off Penn State was shutout, 3-0, in the opening game of the series. This was the first time since a 5-0 loss at Minnesota on March 13, 2015 that the Nittany Lions had been held without a goal.
- Penn State fell to just 1-4-0 in their first game back from winter break since making the leap to the Division I ranks during the 2012-13 season.
- The Nittany Lions came back to earn a split with a 4-2 victory on Saturday night. Penn State outshot Ohio State 99-47 over the two games.
- Freshman Brandon Biro collected the first multi-point game of his career while senior Ricky DeRosa potted the fifth shorthanded goal of the season for Penn State and it proved to be the game clinching tally.
SCOUTING MICHIGAN STATE
- Michigan State enters the weekend losers of seven straight games and besides a 5-1 victory over the USA Under-18 team, the Spartans haven't beaten an NCAA opponent since a 4-3 upset at North Dakota on November 26, 2016.
- MSU is being outscored 33-13 over their seven-game losing streak including a pair of 5-1 setbacks last weekend at Wisconsin.
- Michigan State is led by Winnipeg Jets draft pick Mason Appleton with eight goals and nine assists for 17 points. Only freshman Taro Hirose has also registered double-digit points so far this season as he has 11 (3G, 8A).
- The Spartans are only averaging 2.22 goals per game which ranks them 52nd in the nation while they are allowing 4.00 goals per game by their opponents to rank 56th nationally.
- The Spartans also struggle on special teams as they hold the worst penalty kill in the nation stopping just 69.8 percent of the opposition's man-advantage chances while only scoring on 13.8 percent of their own power play opportunities to rank 46th in the country. Their 13 PPG's this season also ranks tied 50th ahead of just six other teams.
- MSU has not found consistency between the pipes this season after losing Jake Hildebrand to graduation. Junior Ed Minney has seen the majority of action appearing in 15 games with a 4-9-1 record, 3.54 goals against average and a .882 save percentage. Freshman John Lethemon has made four appearances with a 0-4-0 record, 4.76 goals against average and a .842 save percentage.
NEXT TIME OUT
- Penn State remains home as Ohio State pays a visit to Pegula Ice Arena to close out the four-game season series on January 20-21.