No. 6 PSU Travels to No. 7 Minnesota for B1G Weekend Series

Feb. 2, 2017

WEEKEND PREVIEW
16-4-2 (5-2-1-0 B1G)	15-7-2 (6-2-0-0 B1G)
Friday at 8:00 p.m. | Saturday at 8:00 p.m.
MARIUCCI ARENA | MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS
PSU		MINN
16-4-2	Overall Record	15-7-2
5-2-1-0	Conference Record	6-2-0-0
97	Goals Scored	89
52	Goals Allowed	66
4.41	Goals Scored/gm.	3.71
2.36	Goals Allowed/gm.	2.75
1060	Shots	823
48.2	Shots/gm.	34.3
161	Assists	155
24-112	Power Plays	26-114
.214	Power-Play Pct.	.228
79-92	Penalty Kills	87-103
.859	Penalty-Kill Pct.	.845
507	Saves	570
2	Shutouts	4

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The sixth ranked Penn State men's ice hockey team looks to rebound from back-to-back losses as they travel to No. 7 Minnesota for a Big Ten weekend series at Mariucci Arena.

HOW TO WATCH

• Both games will be available to viewers on BTN2Go while Saturday's contest will be broadcast nationally on the Big Ten Network. Both games begin at 8 p.m. EST.

THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP

• Penn State travels to Minneapolis to battle the seventh ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers.
• Minnesota leads the all-time series 9-3-0 and the Nittany Lions are just 1-5-0 at Mariucci Arena being outscored 25-10 on the Gophers home ice.
• This weekend's series will be played on an Olympic sized sheet of ice (200 ft. by 100 ft.) as opposed to the normal college size sheet of 200 feet by 85 feet.

LAST TIME THEY MET

• Penn State finally defeated Minnesota at Mariucci last February to close out the season series with a 5-3 victory. Senior Zach Saar scored the game-winning goal as five different Lions recorded goals and Chase Berger and David Goodwin each added a pair of assists.

HOBEY HOPEFULS

• On Monday the list of 66 nominees from 40 NCAA Division I institutions for the 2017 Hobey Baker Memorial Award was revealed and Penn State had three nominees.
• Andrew Sturtz: The sophomore right-winger potted a pair of goals against Princeton giving him 17 on the season to tie for the Big Ten lead and rank him tied for fourth nationally. In just 57 career games played, he already ranks fourth on the Penn State all-time goal list with 35, just one back of David Goodwin for third and ten behind Casey Bailey's all-time record of 45.
• Denis Smirnov: Although he has been held without a single point in three games and only has three points to his credit in seven games since returning from winter break, the freshman left winger has already set two Penn State single-season freshman records for points (29) and assists (18) both which currently lead the team and rank third and second in the Big Ten, respectively. Smirnov's 29 points is also second in the nation among freshman while his 11 goals tie for first in the nation for rookies.
• Peyton Jones: Jones has been one of the top goalies all season not only in the Big Ten, but in the nation as well. The freshman has already set a new Penn State single-season record for wins with 14 and was unbeaten in his first 13 starts (11-0-1). He currently ranks second in the Big Ten with a 2.45 goals against average while his .905 save percentage is good for fourth in the conference.

BLOCK PARTY

• Last Saturday freshman Kris Myllari blocked eight shots and is averaging 4.2 blocked shots over his last five games to lead the nation. His 21 blocks during that time is also good for first in the Big Ten and second in the nation. His 41 total blocks ranks second on the team and eighth in the Big Ten.
• The rookie is also riding a career-best, three-game point streak and has scored a goal in back-to-back contests.

LINEMATES SERVE OPPOSING TEAMS A 'GOOD' 'BERGER'

• Sophomore Chase Berger is currently riding a career-best, six-game point streak (4-6-10) with four multi-point games over that span. He has also registered six power-play goals to lead the team and his nine PPG's for his career tie for second in program history. The sophomore also leads the nation with a .613 faceoff percentage and 283 faceoff wins.
• Senior David Goodwin is the all-time point leader at Penn State and the only 100-point scorer in program history with 111 points to-date. Goodwin also holds the program record for assists with 75 and is just two games shy of tying Tommy Olczyk '16 for the program record of 132 games played by skaters. Goodwin is currently third on the team with 21 points (3G, 18A) this season.

HOCKEY HUMANITARIAN

• Announced on Thursday David Goodwin is also one of five finalists for the 2017 Hockey Humanitarian Award.
• On the ice, Goodwin is a two-time Big Ten Honorable mention while off the ice he is maintaining a 3.65 grade point average as a double major in Spanish and Economics and is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, an honor he will most likely receive again in May.
• The most impressive thing about David is his ability to put others in front of himself not only in the local community, but abroad as well. Along with volunteering at special needs schools and working 1-on-1 with mentally challenged students, David continuously sacrifices his personal time over the summer to travel to less fortunate countries and make an impact on the community. He has helped teach at local elementary schools as well as build retaining walls in El Salvador and Nicaragua, he has spent time in Mexico strengthening his Spanish to get closer to fluency and most recently, he taught an English course at a university in Cuba. All of his efforts have also made David a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award.

GREEN EGGS AND HAMILTON

• Junior Trevor Hamilton has had an easy transition to Penn State during his first season in Hockey Valley. The defenseman easily won over the Roar Zone with his physical play and more specifically a bone crunching hip check against Michigan.
• Now, while Hamilton leads the team in blocked shots with 53, good for second in the Big Ten, and has been extremely consistent in the defensive zone it has been his offensive outburst that may have come as a surprise to some.
• Hamilton is tied with Andrew Sturtz for fourth on the team in scoring with 20 points and last Saturday against Princeton, he broke the Penn State single-season record for assists by a defenseman as he tallied his 17th of the season. His 20 points and 17 assists currently lead all Big Ten defensemen and place him 13th and fifth in the nation, respectively.
• Hamilton also excels with the man-advantage as he leads the Big Ten with 11 power-play points (three goals, eight assists), which is tied for 11th in the nation.

RECAPPING PRINCETON

• Penn State lost consecutive games for the first time all season with their 5-4 loss in the fifth-annual Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff last Saturday.
• The Nittany Lions have played in all five of these events and fall to 3-2 all-time while Princeton was playing in their first Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff.
• Andrew Sturtz registered a pair of goals while Chase Berger and Kevin Kerr each collected two assists on the night.
• The loss marked just the first time all season Penn State has lost after leading at the end of two periods as they fall to 14-1-2 in such contests on the year.
• The Nittany Lions have now been outscored 6-0 in the third period over their last two games.

SCOUTING MINNESOTA

• The Gophers enter the weekend winners of eight of their last 10 games, which included a seven-game winning streak from December 9 - January 20.
• Minnesota is tied for first-place in the Big Ten with a 6-2-0 record and 18 points. Their only two conference losses came against Ohio State and at Wisconsin.
• Since the inception of the Big Ten Conference for the 2013-14 season, the Golden Gophers have posted a 27-5-2 record inside the friendly confines of Mariucci Arena including a 5-1-0 record against the Nittany Lions.
• Minnesota has 12 NHL draft picks (seven defensemen, five forwards) on their 2016-17 roster, none of which are in their top-5 in scoring for the season.
• The Gophers are paced offensively by Tyler Sheehy with 15 goals and 18 assists for 33 points and Justin Kloos with 12 goals and 16 helpers for 28 points. Vinni Lettieri and Brent Gates Jr. have each added 11 goals.
• Eric Schierhorn has locked down his spot between the pipes for the second consecutive season. The sophomore is 15-7-2 with a .898 save percentage and a 2.66 goals against average.
• Minnesota has the fifth highest scoring offense in the nation averaging 3.71 goals per game while their defense ranks 28th allowing 2.75 goals per game for the opposition.
• The Gophers have the seventh best power-play in the nation and second best in the Big Ten as they convert 22.8 percent of the time (26-for-114).

NEXT TIME OUT

• Penn State remains on the road as they travel to No. 18 Wisconsin for a pair of games at the Kohl Center.