Feb. 16, 2017
| WEEKEND PREVIEW | |
| 18-6-2 (7-4-1-0 B1G) | 18-8-2 (9-3-0-0 B1G) |
| Friday at 6:30 p.m. | Saturday at 8:00 p.m. | |
| PEGULA ICE ARENA | UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. | |
| GAME DAY CENTRAL |
FRIDAY LIVE COVERAGE |
| Radio: Penn State Sports Network (Affiliates) |
| TV: Big Ten Network |
| SATURDAY LIVE COVERAGE Video | Audio | |
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| TV: Big Ten Network |
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Friday FACILITY BAG POLICY
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| INSIDE THE NUMBERS | ||
| PSU | MINN | |
| 18-6-2 | Overall Record | 18-8-2 |
| 7-4-1-0 | Conference Record | 9-3-0-0 |
| 11 | Goals Scored | 109 |
| 67 | Goals Allowed | 679 |
| 4.27 | Goals Scored/gm. | 3.89 |
| 2.58 | Goals Allowed/gm. | 2.82 |
| 1204 | Shots | 957 |
| 46.3 | Shots/gm. | 34.2 |
| 183 | Assists | 192 |
| 25-122 | Power Plays | 35-129 |
| .205 | Power-Play Pct. | .271 |
| 86-104 | Penalty Kills | 95-114 |
| .827 | Penalty-Kill Pct. | .833 |
| 612 | Saves | 676 |
| 2 | Shutouts | 4 |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The ninth-ranked Penn State men's ice hockey team will welcome the No. 5 Minnesota Golden Gophers to Pegula Ice Arena to close out the regular season series with a pair of contests pitting top-10 opponents against each other.
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State welcomes the fifth-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers to Pegula Ice Arena for a two-game series during THON weekend.
- The Nittany Lions trail the all-time series 3-11-0 and have dropped four of the last five meetings all by three goals or more.
LAST TIME THEY MET
- Penn State dropped a pair of road contests at Mariucci Arena earlier this month by 5-1 and 5-2 scores. David Goodwin, Alec Marsh and Trevor Hamilton were the goal scorers for the Nittany Lions.
HOW TO WATCH
- Both games this weekend will be broadcast nationally on the Big Ten Network and will be available on BTN2Go with Friday's contest starting at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m.
LIONVISION VR
- On the concourse Friday night LionVision VR will be available for fans to stop by, learn about the Penn State Athletics virtual reality system and app, and even have the chance to get a free pair of virtual reality glasses.
A HAMIL - TON OF POINTS
- Junior Trevor Hamilton has already set the Penn State single-season record for assists by a defenseman with 17 and he has added six goals for 23 points. He now sits just one point shy of tying the single-season Penn State defenseman record of 24 set last season by Luke Juha '16. He is also just two goals shy of tying the single-season defenseman goal record on eight, which both Juha and Vince Pedrie attained in 2015-16.
- Hamilton also became just the second blue-liner in Penn State history to record a short-handed goal as he trailed the play to bang in an easy shorty off the stick of Nate Sucese during last Friday's 6-3 victory. Connor Varley '16 is the only other Penn State defenseman to register a short-handed tally, which he did as he found the empty net during a 5-1 victory over Air Force on November 10, 2012.
EVERY WIN IS A GOOD - WIN
- Senior Captain David Goodwin registered four points last week including a pair of goals in Friday night's 6-3 victory. The senior netted the eventual game-winning tally in that game to give him seven for his career, which ties Tommy Olczyk '16 for the Penn State career record.
- Goodwin is also riding a six-game point streak where he has scored four goals and added four assists. The streak is just one game shy of his career-best seven game streak, which he has done twice in his career.
SKATE FOR FIVE
- When scoring 5+ goals in a game this season Penn State is 12-0-0 including winning both games last weekend against Wisconsin. However, when allowing 5+ goals in a game the Nittany Lions are 0-5-0, including both games earlier this season against the Gophers.
EVERYDAY A STAR IS BORN
- Freshman classmates Denis Smirnov and Nate Sucese were named the Big Ten Conference First and Second Stars of the Week after their five-point weekends against Wisconsin. For Smirnov this marks his fourth weekly award this season and second First Star while Sucese garners his second weekly award.
- Smirnov currently leads the entire nation in freshman scoring with 34 points while his 14 goals and 20 assists are also top-5 nationally and pace the entire Big Ten for Rookies.
- Sucese currently ranks fourth in the Big Ten in scoring with 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points.
- Their five points each this past weekend tied for the Big Ten lead. Sucese and Smirnov were also first and second in the entire nation for the week with a plus-7 and plus-6 rating, respectively.
- As a team Penn State ranks third nationally in freshman scoring with 40 goals and 61 assists for 101 points, which accounts for 34 percent of their offense.
- The Nittany Lions also boast a 17-3-1 record when a freshman scores a goal and they are just 1-3-1 when the rookies are kept off the scoreboard.
THE BIG GADOWSKY
- Guy Gadowsky achieved career win 250 last Friday night against Wisconsin and his last three benchmark wins have come against ranked opponents. His 150th career win achieved at Princeton was a 4-3 overtime victory against No. 12 Quinnipiac. His 200th win, which happened just two seasons ago, was over No. 4 UMass-Lowell and now his 250th against No. 17 Wisconsin.
- Gadowsky holds a 78-74-12 record as Bench Boss at Penn State.
RECAPPING WISCONSIN
- Penn State never trailed while earning their seventh weekend sweep of the season, but first on the road after defeating the Badgers 6-3 and 5-2. This also marks the first road sweep for the Lions over a ranked team in program-history and first sweep of a ranked team since March 6-7, 2015 vs. No. 16 Michigan.
- David Goodwin scored a pair of goals on Friday while finishing the weekend with four points and freshmen Denis Smirnov and Nate Sucese each scored twice on Saturday and finished with five points on the weekend.
- Freshman Peyton Jones was strong in net all weekend stopping 57 of 62 shots including his third game of 30 or more saves and he improves to 1-1-1 in such contests.
SCOUTING MINNESOTA
- Minnesota is coming off a split at Ohio State last weekend as they captured a 6-5 victory on Saturday night after a 5-4 loss on Friday.
- The Gophers are currently leading the Big Ten with a 9-3-0 record and 27 points while Wisconsin is second with 24 points and Penn State in third with 22 points.
- Minnesota is paced on offense by Tyler Sheehy's 41 points on 17 goals and 24 assists. Sheehy has 71 points in just 65 games, which places him fourth in the nation for sophomore's in career scoring.
- The Golden Gophers went 7-for-12 with the man-advantage over the weekend including scoring all of their goals on Saturday on the power play going 6-for-10 in the game. They raised their PP percentage to .271, which ranks second in the Big Ten and fourth in the entire nation. Minnesota also boasts the second best PK in the conference at 83.3 percent.
- Minnesota ranks sixth in the country in goals scored with 109 while their 3.89 goals per game average is good for fourth in the nation.
- Senior Justin Kloos ranks third in the country in career points as he has compiled 141 points in 145 games scoring 59 goals and adding 82 assists.
- Minnesota has 12 NHL draft picks on their 2016-17 roster, but their top-5 leading scorers are all undrafted. Minnesota's 301 points as a team ranks third in the nation behind Union (312) and Ohio State (316).
NEXT TIME OUT
- Penn State travels to Michigan State for a pair of crucial late season Big Ten contests at Munn Ice Arena.