March 2, 2017
| WEEKEND PREVIEW | |
| 20-8-2 (9-6-1-0 B1G) | 18-11-1 (11-5-0-0 B1G) |
| Friday at 7:00 p.m. | Saturday at 8:00 p.m. | |
| PEGULA ICE ARENA | UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. | |
| GAME DAY CENTRAL |
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| INSIDE THE NUMBERS | ||
| PSU | WIS | |
| 20-8-2 | Overall Record | 18-11-1 |
| 9-6-1-0 | Conference Record | 11-5-0-0 |
| 125 | Goals Scored | 110 |
| 80 | Goals Allowed | 97 |
| 4.17 | Goals Scored/gm. | 3.67 |
| 2.67 | Goals Allowed/gm. | 3.23 |
| 1366 | Shots | 995 |
| 45.5 | Shots/gm. | 33.2 |
| 207 | Assists | 190 |
| 28-141 | Power Plays | 35-156 |
| .199 | Power-Play Pct. | .224 |
| 97-116 | Penalty Kills | 113-130 |
| .836 | Penalty-Kill Pct. | .869 |
| 710 | Saves | 747 |
| 2 | Shutouts | 1 |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The eleventh-ranked Penn State men's ice hockey team will close out their 20-game home schedule as they welcome the No. 16 Wisconsin Badgers to Pegula Ice Arena for a pair of games this weekend.
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Friday's game will begin at 7 p.m. while Saturday will feature an 8 p.m. puck drop and will be available nationally on American Sports Network and locally on WJAC-TV.
- The Nittany Lions lead the all-time series 11-7-0 after sweeping the Badgers at the Kohl Center in February with scores of 6-3 and 5-2.
- Penn State has also won 10 of the last 11 meetings between the two schools with Wisconsin's only win coming in the season finale last season at the Kohl Center.
LAST TIME THEY MET
- Penn State swept the Badgers on the road in early February. The two wins snapped Wisconsin's five-game winning streak and the Nittany Lions' five-game winless streak.
- Denis Smirnov collected five points over the weekend with three goals and a pair of assists and had a career-best four-point effort during the second game. Nate Sucese also collected five points over the weekend with two goals and three assists including a two-goal game on Saturday. David Goodwin collected four points of his own and scored twice in the series opener.
SATURDAY SENIOR NIGHT
- Saturday marks the final home contest in the careers of David Goodwin, Dylan Richard, Zach Saar, Ricky DeRosa and David Thompson.
- Each player will be honored on the ice following the conclusion of warmups as part of the Senior Ceremony Presented by The Penn State Alumni Association. This ceremony will take place at about 7:40 p.m. so make plans to arrive early and be in your seat!
CAPTAIN CONSISTENCY
- Senior Captain David Goodwin is currently riding a career-best 10-game point streak where he has scored six goals and added six assists for 12 points. This streak ties the current Penn State record for longest point streak, which was set earlier this season by Denis Smirnov.
- The senior has also registered 30 points in a season for the third straight year. His 121 career points is a program record as earlier this season he became the first Penn State player to eclipse the 100-point plateau. Goodwin's 80 assists are also a program standard while his 41 goals are second behind the 45 of Casey Bailey.
- Goodwin is 11th in the entire NCAA for career points by active players with his 121 points. That mark is good for third in the Big Ten behind Minnesota's Justin Kloos (146) and Ohio State's Nick Schilkey (125).
LENDING A HAND
- Penn State currently has 207 assists as a team this season, which is good for sixth in the nation. They are currently just 19 shy of their program record of 226 set during last season.
- The single-season records by freshman and defenseman have already been re-written this season and Goodwin and Smirnov are approaching Goodwin's single-season record of 27 he accumulated last season. Both players currently have 23 to tie for the team lead.
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS
- With their sweep of Michigan State last weekend and an earlier sweep of Wisconsin on the road, Penn State has won four consecutive road games and four consecutive Big Ten road games for the first time in program history. It is also the first time they have swept two road series as well as two Big Ten road series in the same season.
- Penn State has now secured eight series sweeps this season which is the most they've had in a single-season. The Nittany Lions have also been swept twice against Minnesota while splitting a series with St. Lawrence and Ohio State and playing to a win and a tie versus Notre Dame and a tie and a loss against Ohio State.
RUSSIAN RECORD BREAKER
- Having already set the Penn State freshman record for points and assists in a single-season, Denis Smirnov is just one goal shy of tying Andrew Sturtz' freshman record of 18 set last season.
- Last weekend, Smirnov also tied Casey Bailey's Penn State single-season program record for points with his 40th against the Spartans. His 40 points currently leads all freshman in the nation. Bailey's previous mark has stood since the 2014-15 season.
- Smirnov has also tied the Penn State single-season record for game-winning goals after he tallied his fourth of the season during Saturday's 4-1 victory over Michigan State. The record is also held by David Goodwin and Ricky DeRosa.
THE IN'VINCE'IBLE ONE
- Sophomore d-man Vince Pedrie earned his first weekly accolade on Tuesday when he was named the Big Ten Conference Second Star of the Week after leading the league with four points over the weekend.
- The sophomore assisted on four of the eight goals the Nittany Lions scored against Michigan State including a helping hand in each game-winner.
- Pedrie now has 25 points on the season, which is a new single-season record for defensemen in the brief five-year history of Penn State. He passed Luke Juha's mark of 24 set last season.
- Pedrie's 18 assists also tie teammate Trevor Hamilton for the Penn State single-season record for assists by a defenseman.
- The sophomore is also just one goal shy of setting a new Penn State career record for goals by a defenseman passing Luke Juha's mark of 15, which he is currently tied with.
YOU CAN'T SCORE IF YOU DON'T SHOOT
- In true Penn State fashion the Nittany Lions once again pace the entire country in shots per game at 53 and their 1,366 total shots are 151 more than their closest competitor.
- PSU's single-season record for shots and shots on goal were set last season and currently stand at 1,579 and 41.55. Therefore, if they keep up this torrent pace, the Nittany Lions are well on their way of setting new standards once this season ends.
NATE THE GREAT
- Freshman Nate Sucese is currently riding a career best six-game point streak where he has scored five goals and added five assists for 10 points. His 26 points currently rank fourth in the Big Ten.
- Sucese along with Smirnov are currently the highest scoring freshman duo in Penn State history as their 66 points is well above the 53 points registered by Andrew Sturtz and Chase Berger one season ago.
- Penn State's 117 points from their freshman class is good for third in the country, but their 1.57 goals per game, 2.33 assists per game and 3.90 points per game all lead the nation.
LESS IS MORE
- Penn State is 14-0-0 when allowing two goals or less this season.
- The last three goals scored during Saturday's 4-1 victory over Michigan State were 4-on-4 tallies and Penn State had two of them giving them three 4-on-4 goals on the season.
PACKING THE PEG
- Pegula Ice Arena has been sold out for 70-of-72 total games including 55 straight and all 18 so far this season. The Nittany Lions are currently ranked fourth in the nation in total attendance as 108,417 fans have packed into the Peg so far this season. After Friday's game Penn State will have a new single season total attendance record.
- Penn State is currently tops in the nation in capacity percent as Pegula averages 6,023 fans this season, which is 105.6 percent of the 5,704 seats available in the venue.
GET AHEAD, STAY AHEAD
- Dating back three weeks to their sweep over Wisconsin on the road, Penn State has only trailed seven percent of the time.
- In that series at the Kohl Center, the Nittany Lions never trailed. Against Minnesota the following week, Penn State was only behind 25:29 or 21 percent of the time despite being swept.
- Last weekend at Michigan State the Lions trailed for just 13 brief seconds all weekend en route to the sweep.
BLUE LINE BEAUTIES
- Penn State's defenseman are first in the Big Ten with 95 points (24 goals, 71 assists) this season, which places them fifth in the entire country.
- However, their 0.80 goals per game ranks first in the nation and their 3.17 points per game places them second.
- Pedrie's 25 points place him tied for 15th in the nation while Hamilton ranks 18th with his 24 points. Both only trail Minnesota's Jake Bischoff for first in the Big Ten as the New York Islander draft-pick has 28 points on the season.
ANDY VALLEY
- Sophomore Andrew Sturtz once again paces the team with 19 goals this season, which is one greater than his season total from last year. With one more goal he will become only the second Nittany Lion to register 20 goals in a single season as he trails Casey Bailey's record of 22 by only three tallies.
MR. JONES
- Freshman Peyton Jones currently has 628 saves on the season and is just 28 saves shy of the Penn State single-season record set by Matthew Skoff during the 2013-14 season.
RECAPPING MICHIGAN STATE
- Penn State swept the season series against the Spartans winning 4-2 and 4-1 last weekend in East Lansing.
- David Goodwin and Nate Sucese extended their career-long point streaks to 10 games and six games, respectively.
- The Nittany Lions only trailed for 13 seconds on the entire weekend and used a three goal third period on Friday and a three goal first period on Saturday to clinch the series.
SCOUTING WISCONSIN
- Wisconsin enters the weekend after a series split against Minnesota last week. The Badgers took the first game 3-2 before dropping the second game by the same score.
- Wisconsin comes into the weekend 18-11-1 and have already won ten more games than they did the previous year and six more games than they did the last two years combined.
- Luke Kunin leads the team with 20 goals and 35 points. His 20 goals rank second in the Big Ten.
- Freshman Trent Frederic is right behind Smirnov in freshman scoring as his 15 goals and 32 points rank second in the Big Ten for rookies only behind the 17 goals and 40 points of the Russian Phenom.
- The Badgers have used a two goalie system for the most part this season with freshman Jack Berry and sophomore Matt Jurusik splitting time. Each have collected nine wins while Berry leads with a .900 save percentage and 2.59 goals against average.
- Wisconsin had won three games in-a-row since being swept by Penn State before their 3-2 loss to Minnesota on Saturday. The Badgers are 10-4-0 since winter break.
NEXT TIME OUT
- Penn State travels to Yost Ice Arena to conclude the regular season with a pair of contests against the Michigan Wolverines next Friday and Saturday at 7:35 p.m.