UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The fifth-ranked Penn State men's ice hockey team opens Big Ten play this weekend at Pegula Ice Arena as they welcome No. 16 Michigan to town for a pair of 7 p.m. contests on Friday and Saturday night.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Friday, November 16 | Saturday, November 17
Place: Pegula Ice Arena
Time: Friday at 7 p.m. | Saturday at 7 p.m.
Tickets: Friday | Saturday
Watch: Friday BTN-Plus ($)| Saturday BTN-Plus ($)
Listen: Friday | Saturday
Live Statistics: Live Stats (Both games)
Game Notes: Penn State | Michigan
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State and Michigan will open the 2018-19 Big Ten slate this weekend marking the second time in the last three seasons the two teams have played their Big Ten opener at Pegula Ice Arena. This is also the third-straight season The Nittany Lions have hosted the Wolverines in their Big Ten home opener.
- This weekend marks the 24th and 25th meetings in the all-time series with Michigan holding the 13-10-0 advantage including a three-game win streak and wins in five of the last seven meetings.
- Penn State has won four-straight Big Ten openers with a 4-1-0 overall record in such contests. The Nittany Lions are 3-1-0 at home against Michigan over the last two seasons
- Junior Denis Smirnov leads all players with seven points in nine career games against Michigan on two goals and five assists while Nate Sucese and Chase Berger have each added two goals and four assists for six points in their careers against the Wolverines. Junior Liam Folkes leads current Nittany Lions with three career goals in seven games against the Wolverines.
SCOUTING MICHIGAN
- Michigan finished 2017-18 on a tear winning nine of its last 11 games making it all the way to the Frozen Four before dropping a tough 4-3 decision to Notre Dame in the National Semifinals.
- Michigan returns eight of its top-10 scorers from last season, however, they are just 5-4-0 so far this season. The Wolverines are averaging 3.22 goals per game ranking fifth in the Big Ten and 22nd in the nation.
- Michigan has just five players who have registered three or more goals this season compared to 10 for the Nittany Lions. The Wolverines are led by Josh Norris with six goals and 13 points while Joseph Cecconi paces the team with nine assists. Jake Slaker has added five goals, including three on the power-play, while Nick Pastujov has chipped in four.
- Michigan returns goaltender Hayden Lavigne, however, the junior has split time early this season with freshman Strauss Mann who is 3-1-0 with a .889 save percentage and a 2.83 goals against average compared to Lavigne's 2-3-0 record, .839 save percentage and 3.87 goals against average.
- Michigan ranks last in the Big Ten and tied for 44th in the nation allowing 3.44 goals per game this season as they are being outscored 31-29 including by a 9-5 margin in the third period.
- The Wolverines do boast the second best power-play in the Big Ten converting 13-of-51 chances (25.5 percent) through nine games this season.
- Michigan has nine NHL draft picks on its roster including first rounder's Quinn Hughes and Josh Norris.
LEADERS OF THE PACK
- Junior Nikita Pavlychev and Alex Limoges each have identical stat lines through the first nine games this season with seven goals and nine assists for 16 points while they are tied for the Big Ten lead with each other in each category.
- The duo's 16 points also rank second in the entire NCAA just one point shy of ASU's Johnny Walker who leads the nation with 17 points. Their seven goals and nine assists also rank top-10 in the nation and are tied for fifth and tenth, respectively.
- Both players had career-best weekend's against Robert Morris as Pavlychev opened the series with a career-high four points on two goals and two assists before adding two more goals and one assist on Saturday night. The two-goal games were the first two in his career while his seven points over the weekend were the most in the entire NCAA.
- Limoges tied his career-high each night with three points on identical one goal and two assist stat lines. His six points were tied for second most in the nation over the weekend. Limoges now leads the team with six multi-point efforts this season.
- Both players were honored by the Big Ten for the first time in their careers following the weekend as Pavlychev was named the First Star of the Week and Limoges Second Star. Pavlychev was also honored by the NCAA becoming the first player in program history to be named the NCAA's First Star of the Week.
CRAZY EIGHTS
- Pavlychev and Limoges are also two of three players who are currently riding career-long eight game point streaks joined by sophomore Evan Barratt. The Penn State record for longest point-streak sits at 10 games by both Denis Smirnov and David Goodwin '17 during the 2016-17 season.
- Barratt has also registered a goal in four-straight contests for a new career-long mark tying a Penn State record for longest goal-steak shared by five others, including Pavlychev from last season.
LINE DANCE
- Penn State's most productive forward line so far this season has been the one of sophomore's Alex Limoges and Evan Barratt paired with junior Liam Folkes. In nine games this season the line has combined to score 16 goals while adding 26 assists for 42 points for an average of 4.67 points per game.
- Dating back to the end of the 2017-18 campaign the line has registered 27 goals while adding 35 assists for 62 points in their last 16 games.
- During that time the trio has distributed the scoring evenly with Limoges scoring 11 goals while adding 13 assists for 24 points, Barratt has lit the lamp nine times with 10 assists for 19 points and Folkes has scored seven goals while adding 12 assists for 19 points. Penn State has gone 13-3-0 over its last 16 games dating back to the end of last season.
- The line is also making a name as one of the best in the Big Ten and the NCAA with numbers rivaling Michigan State's line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Mitchell Lewandowski who scored 44 goals while adding 64 assists for 108 points in 36 games last season. Over their last 16 games dating back to last season the KHL line has 23 goals and 34 assists for 57 points and in eight games this season they have 13 goals and 17 assists for 30 points.
- Other notable lines in the early season are Princeton's line of Ryan Kuffner, Alex Riche and Max Veronneau who have scored 11 goals while adding 18 assists for 29 points in just five games for an average of 5.8 points per game. Dartmouth's "Timber Line" is also off to a fast start to the season with nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in five games and in 30 total games played together they have scored 36 goals while adding 44 assists for 80 points.
- Overall in 37 career games together the Limoges - Barratt - Folkes combination has registered 43 goals and 50 assists for 93 points while the Nittany Lions have a 21-11-5 record when the trio is paired together.
YOU GET A GOAL AND YOU GET A GOAL, EVERYONE GETS A GOAL
- Penn State is scoring at a record pace through the first nine games of the season as they lead the entire NCAA in goals with 52 as well as assists with 95 and points with 147.
- Thanks in large part to an 18 goal weekend capped off by a single-game team record of 11 goals on Saturday night, the Nittany Lions are also leading the nation averaging 5.78 goals per game. That total is more than 1.50 goals higher than the next closest competitors in Harvard, Princeton and St. Cloud who average 4.20 goals per contest and rank tied for second. PSU's 20 assists and 31 total points on Saturday were also single-game program records.
- Penn State's 10.56 assists per game, 16.33 points per game and 42.67 shots per game are also marks that pace the nation while also leading the NCAA in faceoff percentage at .619, blocked shots with 182 and blocks per game averaging 20.22.
OFFENSIVE INSTINCTS
- Penn State's blue-line also jumped into the offensive fun last weekend scoring three goals while adding 13 assists for 16 points more than doubling their entire offensive output from the first seven games of the season.
- Penn State's defensemen now rank first in the Big Ten and sixth nationally in scoring with 30 points on six goals and 24 assists.
- The Nittany Lions blue line also has the top three players in the nation in regards to plus/minus as freshman Paul DeNaples leads the NCAA at plus-14 followed by junior Kris Myllari and sophomore Cole Hults at plus-13 and plus-11, respectively. As a whole Penn State blue-liners are a combined plus-51 through nine games this season.
MY OH, MY-LLARI
- Junior Kris Myllari collected four points over the weekend against RMU including a pair of goals on Saturday night giving him 16 for his career to tie Vince Pedrie for the program record for goals by a defenseman.
- Myllari's two assists over the weekend also moved him past both Connor Varley '16 and Nate Jenson '15 for sixth on the Penn State all-time list for assists by a defenseman. Hults is also tied with Myllari for sixth after a four assist weekend.
- Myllari's 40 total points in 85 games are good for sixth all-time in program history by a defenseman and just four back of teammate Kevin Kerr for fifth.
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
- With another six goals over the final 20 minutes last weekend, Penn State is outscoring its opponents, 12-6, in the third period this season with only two of those tallies being of the empty net variety.
NEXT UP
- Penn State hits the road to continue its Big Ten slate as they travel to Columbus to battle No. 6 Ohio State next Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m.