Feb. 9, 2017
| WEEKEND PREVIEW | |
| 16-6-2 (5-4-1-0 B1G) | 15-8-1 (8-2-0-0 B1G) |
| Friday at 8:00 p.m. | Saturday at 8:00 p.m. | |
| KOHL CENTER | MADISON, WIS. | |
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| INSIDE THE NUMBERS | ||
| PSU | MINN | |
| 16-6-2 | Overall Record | 15-8-1 |
| 5-4-1-0 | Conference Record | 8-2-0-0 |
| 100 | Goals Scored | 89 |
| 62 | Goals Allowed | 75 |
| 4.417 | Goals Scored/gm. | 3.71 |
| 2.58 | Goals Allowed/gm. | 3.12 |
| 1129 | Shots | 824 |
| 47.0 | Shots/gm. | 34.3 |
| 167 | Assists | 152 |
| 24-116 | Power Plays | 28-133 |
| .207 | Power-Play Pct. | .211 |
| 80-95 | Penalty Kills | 97-111 |
| .842 | Penalty-Kill Pct. | .874 |
| 555 | Saves | 561 |
| 2 | Shutouts | 1 |
MADISON, Wis. ââ'¬" The tenth ranked Penn State University men's ice hockey team concludes its season long five-game road swing as the travel to No. 17 Wisconsin for a two game set against the Badgers on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. EST.
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State leads the all-time series 9-7-0 including winning eight of the last nine matchups with the only loss coming last year in the final game of the four-game regular season series, a 4-3 loss in Madison.
- The Nittany Lions are 4-4-0 all-time at the Kohl Center
LAST TIME THEY MET
- Penn State finally defeated Wisconsin 5-2 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals last season at the Xcel Energy Center. Senior Ricky DeRosa potted the eventual game-winning goal in the second period and added an assist. Classmate David Goodwin added a pair of helpers in the victory. Luke Juha '16 had three assists in the victory while Eric Scheid '16 scored a pair of goals.
ANDY'S APPLES
- Sophomore Andrew Sturtz is currently riding a four-game point streak, just one game shy of his career-high, but he was held without a goal this past weekend. Instead the right-winger dished out three terrific passes to have a hand in each of the three goals Penn State scored against the Gophers.
- Sturtz had three assists in the two games, which doubled his season total as he had just three in his previous 20 games. His second assist on Saturday night marked the 50th point in his Penn State career in just his 59th game played.
- The sophomore now has 14 multi-point games to his credit and has had two assists in a single-game on three occasions.
NOT SO SPECIAL TEAMS
- Since Winter Break, the Nittany Lions' once vaunted penalty-kill is just 18-for-28 over the last nine games and they have allowed at least one power-play goal in each of the last eight games. They slid from first in the nation at 92.5 percent at the beginning of January to 21st in the country now at 84.2 percent. Penn State entered January killing off 16 consecutive opponent power plays.
- Their own man-advantage unit has not fared much better as the Nittany Lions have converted just 4-of-28 opportunities, but still rank 13th in the nation converting at 20.7 percent. Penn State is just 1-for-13 with the man-advantage during this five-game winless streak.
FEW TOO MANY
- Last weekend at Minnesota, Penn State was held to their fewest weekend goal total as they lit the lamp just three times, which was one goal less than the weekend they were shutout against Ohio State, but came back to score four the next night. It was also one goal shy of last weekend's total when they only played a single game, but registered four goals against Princeton.
- However, the Nittany Lions maintain the national lead averaging 4.17 goal per contest, which is slightly better than the 4.08 Ohio State is managing. PSU has scored 100 goals this season in 24 games, good for tied fifth in the country. This marks the third straight season Penn State has scored at least 100 goals.
DRIVE FOR FIVE
- When scoring 5+ goals in a game this season Penn State is 10-0-0, however, when allowing 5+ goals in a game the Nittany Lions are 0-5-0.
FOUR SCORE AND MANY GAMES AGO
- During their four game skid the Nittany Lions have really only had four bad periods of play. They allowed three goals in each of the second periods against Minnesota and during the final period of Princeton and Ohio State. They have been outscored 12-2 over those four periods ultimately leading to a loss each night.
- Heading into the Ohio State series on January 20-21, the Lions were outscoring opponents 32-15 in the third period including coming off a four-goal final frame in a 5-3 victory over Michigan State. Since that game, they have only buried one third period goal and haven't lit the lamp in the last four third period's.
RECAPPING MINNESOTA
- Penn State was swept for just the first time all season and was outscored 10-3 over the weekend in Minneapolis.
- David Goodwin and Andrew Sturtz extended their point-streaks to four games each while Chase Berger saw his career-high six-game streak snapped on Friday.
- Chris Funkey earned his first Big Ten Conference start between the pipes on Friday and secured a career-best 25 saves on the evening.
SCOUTING WISCONSIN
- The Badgers enter the weekend surging as winners of their last five and seven of their last eight as they are tied with Minnesota for first-place in the Big Ten and rank 17th in the nation.
- Wisconsin is coming off back-to-back weekend sweeps against Ohio State and Michigan State with two of those games decided in overtime.
- The Badgers have had at least one game in their last three weekend series go into overtime and they are 2-1 in those games with the only loss a 4-3 decision against Minnesota.
- Wisconsin has nearly doubled their win total from a season ago where they finished 8-19-8 and almost tripled their conference wins after managing just three throughout the entire 2015-16 season.
- Wisconsin scored just 93 goals all of last season and they have already potted 89 so far this season averaging 3.71 per game, which is good for fourth in the Big Ten, but sixth in the nation as only Michigan and Michigan State rank outside the top-10 nationally in scoring for Big Ten teams.
- Wisconsin boasts the top PK unit in the Big Ten and rank sixth nationally killing off 87.4 percent of odd-man opportunities against while the convert on 21.1 percent of their power-play chances to place them 11th in the country.
- The Badgers have eight NHL draft picks listed on their 2016-17 roster including their top four scorers Luke Kunin (MIN), Trent Frederic (BOS), Grant Besse (ANA) and Cameron Hughes (BOS). Kunin leads the team with 26 points and 17 goals, which ties for second in the Big Ten. Frederic is the only other Badger with double-digit goals as he has ten while Hughes leads Wisconsin with 17 assists.
- The time between the pipes has been shared by a couple under classmen this season as freshman Jack Berry and sophomore Matt Jurusik have each started 12 games and have posted similar numbers. Jurusik leads in wins with eight while Berry holds the slim margin in save percentage (.899) and goals against average (2.50).
NEXT TIME OUT
- Penn State returns home after closing out their season long five-game road swing as they host the No. 5 Minnesota Golden Gophers for a pair of games both available on the Big Ten Network on February 17-18.