UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The tenth-ranked Penn State men's ice hockey team welcomes No. 13 Princeton to Pegula Ice Arena for a single Friday night contest this weekend with puck drop slated for 7 p.m.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Date: Friday, October 26
Place: Pegula Ice Arena
Time: 7 p.m.
Tickets: Friday
Watch: FREE on LionVision
Listen: Friday
Live Statistics: Live Stats
Game Notes: Penn State
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State battles Princeton as a pair of top-15 teams take to the ice for a single contest on Friday evening at Pegula Ice Arena. This marks the first time the two teams have met as ranked opponents.
- This marks just the third meeting between the two programs and only the second at Pegula Ice Arena with each team having earned a victory over the other. Penn State took the first-ever meeting at Pegula in 2015, 6-3, thanks to a Tommy Olczyk '16 hat-trick while the Tigers earned a 5-4 victory at Wells Fargo Center two seasons ago.
- Senior Chase Berger leads all Nittany Lions with one goal and a pair of assists for three points in two career games against Princeton while classmate Kevin Kerr has a pair of assists. Junior Kris Myllari has one career goal against the Tigers and Brandon Biro has added one assist.
SCOUTING PRINCETON
- Princeton won the ECAC Tournament last season advancing to the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinals where they fell to Ohio State, 4-2. Overall the Tigers went 19-13-4 including a 10-10-2 mark in conference play.
- With IVY League rules accounting for a later start of competition, Friday will mark the first regular season game of the season for Princeton who enters the week No. 13 in the latest USCHO.com poll without even playing a game.
- A reason for that is the Tigers return two of the top-4 scorers in the entire NCAA from a year ago in Max Veronneau and Ryan Kuffner who registered 55 and 52 points, respectively, to rank second and fourth in the nation. Kuffner's 29 goals and Veronneau's 38 assists were each good for second in the country.
- Kuffner and Veronneau also rank fifth and sixth among active players with 108 and 107 career points, respectively. Kuffner's 53 career goals rank third among active players while playing in 13 fewer games than the current leader, Erik Brown of RIT.
- Princeton's power-play also led the nation last year converting at 27.7 percent (36-for-130), however, its penalty kill was suspect at 80 percent (96-for-120).
- Princeton returns goaltender Ryan Ferland who started 35 of the teams 36 games one season ago as a freshman recording a record of 18-11-4 with a 2.91 goals against average and a .912 save percentage.
- Outside of Kuffner and Veronneau, the Tigers only return one other player who scored multiple goals last season in sophomore Jackson Cressey who had 13 while adding 25 assists for 38 points. The next closest returner is Alex Riche who scored six goals while adding 18 assists for 24 points.
TEDDY BALLGAME
- Penn State jumped a pair of spots in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll this week to No. 9 marking the first time the Nittany Lions have been ranked inside the top-10 of the USA Today poll since April 10, 2017.
- This also marks just the 13th week Penn State has been ranked in the top-10 of both major polls as they remain No. 10 in the USCHO.com poll.
- All-in-all the Big Ten has six teams ranked this week including three in the top-5. Notre Dame jumps to No. 1 while Ohio State slips to No. 4 and Minnesota sits at No. 5. Michigan (No. 12) and Wisconsin (No. 14) also join the Nittany Lions in the rankings.
NUMBAH FOUR
- With a three-point effort last Saturday in a win over Niagara, junior Kris Myllari tied his career high while also moving past Connor Varley '16 for sixth on the Penn State all-time points list for defenseman with 35. Next up is current teammate Kevin Kerr who sits in fifth with 42 career points.
- Myllari is also just one goal behind Luke Juha '16 for second on the all-time goals list for defensemen and two behind Vince Pedrie's team record of 16. The junior is also currently eighth on the all-time defensemen assist list with 21.
BERGER, NO CHEESE
- Senior captain Chase Berger continues to make his way up the all-time games played list at Penn State where he now sits tied for ninth with 119 games under his belt.
- Berger is currently tied for the team lead with six points this season on three goals and three assists as he is riding a four-game point streak and a three-game goal streak to open the season.
- Berger became just the fourth player in program history to hit the 40 career goals mark last Saturday and he is also now just five points shy of becoming the third Nittany Lion to reach 100 points.
- The senior's 95 career points rank third in the Big Ten and ninth in the nation among active players.
HOME COOKING
- With back-to-back weekend sweeps to open the 2018-19 season, Penn State has now won eight consecutive games inside Pegula Ice Arena dating back to last season's four-straight victories over Minnesota to close out the season.
- The eight-straight home wins are the second best stretch in program history behind the 12-straight victories achieved from October 28, 2016 through January 14, 2017.
- During this current stretch, The Nittany Lions have scored at least five goals in seven of the eight games while outscoring opponents 42-18 averaging 5.25 goals per contest while allowing just 2.25 goals per game.
- Penn State's early 2018-19 goal differential of +14 ranks tied for second in the nation behind Bowling Green's +18 mark. Through the first four games of their season, the Nittany Lions 5.25 goals per game are tied for the best mark in the nation with fellow Big Ten foe Notre Dame.
DOMINATING THE DRAW
- After ranking just 44th in the country at the dot last season, Penn State is currently first in the nation after three weeks of play winning 62.6 percent of its faceoffs.
- The Nittany Lions went 90-37 last weekend against Niagara including an eye-popping 27-6 record from Ludvig Larsson and a 24-12 mark from Nikita Pavlychev.
- Larsson currently leads the entire nation of everyday centers winning 76.8 percent of his draws as Penn State has all four of its true centers winning over 50 percent of their faceoffs through the opening four games. Pavlychev is next at 58.5 percent followed by Berger (58 percent) and Barratt (51 percent). Barratt was the lone true faceoff guy for Penn State last season to finish above 50 percent at 51.6 percent.
STREAKING
- Along with Berger, the trio of Pavlychev, Barratt and freshman Aarne Talvitie are also riding point-streaks through the first two weekends of play as each have three-game streaks in the works. For Talvitie it's obviously a career-best while the three-game streak ties Barratt's career-high and is just one game shy of Pavlychev's career-best. Both Kris Myllari and Alex Limoges are each riding mini two-game point streaks entering the weekend.
POINT PER GAMERS
- Through the first two weeks of competition, Penn State has 10 players averaging at least a point per game led by Berger, Biro and Nate Sucese with a 1.50 points per game average.
- Overall, the Nittany Lions lead the nation averaging 14.75 points per game as a team as their 21 goals, 38 assists and 59 points all lead the nation for a team who has played only four games or less.
- Penn State has seen 13 players find the back of the net this season a mark that also ties Colorado College and Minnesota-Duluth for the most in the nation, however, each of those two teams have played two more games so far.
FINISHING STRONG
- Penn State has dominated the final 20 minutes of play so far this season scoring 10 third period goals to lead the nation while only allowing two on the other end, its +8 third period goal margin leads the nation.
- The Nittany Lions have scored three goals in the third period in three of their four games to open the season and haven't allowed a third period goal themselves over the last three contests. Only two of those 10 third period goals have gone into an empty net.
THE GREAT EIGHT
- Penn State scored eight goals last Friday against Niagara marking its most goals scored since dropping 10 on Union during the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinals on March 25, 2017.
- All-time Penn State has scored at least eight goals five times. The Nittany Lions have now also scored five or more goals twice this season and 56 times in program history posting a 54-0-2 record in such games.
BONES
- Junior goaltender Peyton Jones made the 73rd start of his career last Saturday night tying Matt Skoff '16 for the program record for starts by a goalie.
- Jones is also now just 176 saves behind Skoff's Penn State record of 2,114 recorded from 2012-16.
- Jones currently ranks third in the nation in save percentage at .973 while his 1.00 goals against average is tied for fourth. The junior is second in the Big Ten in both categories behind Ohio State's Tommy Nappier.
NEXT UP
- Penn State remains home for a pair of games against Arizona State next Friday and Saturday evening at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively.