UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The ninth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions look to turn around a three-game winless streak as they return home to battle No. 5 Notre Dame in a crucial Big Ten Conference series on Friday and Saturday evening inside Pegula Ice Arena.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Friday, December 7 | Saturday, December 8
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 | Notre Dame
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State returns home after back-to-back road weekends as the Nittany Lions host the fifth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a pair of Big Ten Conference matchups this weekend.
- Penn State went 0-4-1 last season against the newest member of the Big Ten Conference after entering 2017-18 with a 2-1-1 record against the Irish as non-conference foes. The teams will meet for the 10th and 11th time this weekend with Notre Dame holding the 5-2-2 advantage in the all-time series including a 2-1-1 mark at Pegula Ice Arena.
- In nine career games against the Irish, senior Alec Marsh leads the team with four goals and three assists for seven points while classmate Chase Berger is right behind with three goals and three assists for six points.
TEDDY BEAR TOSS
- Penn State's annual Teddy Bear Toss presented by the Penn State Bookstore will take place during the second intermission on Saturday evening.
- The official Teddy Bear is available for purchase at the Penn State Bookstore, at the Hockey Valley Team Shop or online HERE, with $7 from each purchase directly benefiting THON.
SCOUTING NOTRE DAME
- Notre Dame enters the weekend at No. 5 in the national polls with a 10-4-1 record and is currently second in the Big Ten with a 4-2-0 record and 12 points. The Irish made it all the way to the National Championship game last season before falling to Minnesota-Duluth and finishing the year with a 28-10-2 overall record. ND won both the regular season Big Ten Championship and the tournament title in its first season as an affiliate conference member.
- Notre Dame lost its top three point producers from the Frozen Four team including leading scorer Jake Evans (46 points) to graduation while leading goal scorer Andrew Oglevie (15 goals, 39 points) left school early to pursue his NHL dream and is currently playing with the Rochester Americans of the AHL. Leading defenseman Jordan Gross also graduated after a stellar 10 goal and 20 assist senior campaign.
- Cal Burke is leading the team so far this season with nine goals and 17 points while Bobby Nardella has chipped in five goals with a team-best 11 assists. The Irish are very veteran heavy as their top six scorers are either a junior or senior.
- Back between the pipes is 2018 Mike Richter Award Winner and Hobey Baker Finalist Cale Morris who ranks fourth nationally with a .939 save percentage while his 1.83 goals against average places him tenth in the nation. Both marks are good for second in the Big Ten. Morris has won each of his last four games allowing just four goals during that stretch with a .965 save percentage.
- Also receiving three starts this season with a perfect 3-0-0 record, a .965 save percentage and a 1.00 goals against average is sophomore Dylan St. Cyr.
- Notre dame has struggled with the man-advantage converting just 9-of-58 chances (15.5 percent) to rank last in the Big Ten and 45th nationally.
- The Irish defense is tied for the best in the nation with Bowling Green allowing just 1.67 goals per game. Notre Dame has allowed just 16 even-strength goals in 15 games, which is tied for the second lowest total in the nation with Yale who has only played nine games. Bowling Green leads the nation having only allowed 15 even-strength goals all season.
SIMPLY THE BEST, BETTER THAN ALL THE REST
- The trio of junior Liam Folkes and sophomores Evan Barratt and Alex Limoges continued their torrid pace to open the season scoring five of the team's eight goals last week against Wisconsin while adding eight assists for 13 total points.
- With 28 goals and 42 assists for 70 points on the season, the line has as many or more points than 11 NCAA Division I teams while having as many or more goals than 14 teams.
- Averaging 4.67 points per game the trio is the highest scoring line in all of college hockey and has scored at least one goal in 16-straight games dating back to last season.
TOPPING THE CHARTS
- Sophomore Evan Barratt maintains his national lead with 25 points on the season while his 12 goals rank tied for tops in the nation. Barratt has also registered 10 multi-point efforts already this season and has only been held off the scoresheet twice while scoring at least one goal in nine of his last ten games.
- Linemate Alex Limoges is keeping pace and is tied with Barratt for the national lead with 25 points after securing five assists in the two games last weekend against Wisconsin. Limoges 17 assists also pace the nation.
- Limoges tied the Penn State single-game record for assists last Saturday with helpers on the first four goals of the game including three-straight primary apples in the second period to set a new single-game program record for most assists in a single period.
- The last teammates to finish 1-2 in the national scoring race were Michigan's Kyle Connor and J.T. Compher in 2015-16.
- Folkes, the other member of the line, also hit the 20-point mark last weekend with a four-point effort in Madison as Penn State becomes the first team in the nation with three 20-plus point players already as no other team even has two players with 20-plus points.
- While both Barratt and Limoges have already set career-high point totals this season, Folkes is just three points shy from tying his career-best total of 23 from last season.
DON'T YOU, FORGET ABOUT ME
- After being held with just one assist over his four games prior to last weekend junior Nikita Pavlychev slipped from his spot atop the national leaderboards, but with a goal in each game against the Badgers the big Russian forward has now tied his career-high with nine goals on the season.
- With 19 points so far this season, Pavlychev has also already set a new career-high and ranks tied for ninth in the nation and tied for fifth in the Big Ten. Pavlychev's nine goals also tied for third in the Big Ten and tenth in the nation.
CHASE-ING WATERFALLS
- Senior Chase Berger registered his first point in six games last Saturday with the secondary assist on Sam Sternschein's power-play tally giving him 98 career points.
- Berger is now just two points shy of becoming only the third member of the 100-point club at Penn State and given his success at Pegula Ice Arena and against Notre Dame, fans could be in for a treat this weekend.
- The senior currently ranks tied for ninth among active players with 98 career points.
BEST IN THE WORLD
- Earlier this week both Barratt and freshman Aarne Talvitie were each named to their countries preliminary rosters for the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship set to begin later this month in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Both players appeared for their countries this summer at the World Junior Summer Showcase where Talvitie wore the 'C' for Finland.
- Expected by many to serve as Finnish Team Captain, Talvitie led all Big Ten freshman with nine points on three goals and six assists during the month of November while his 14 points this season rank second in the Big Ten for rookies behind the 15 of Wisconsin's K'Andre Miller and are tied for fifth nationally among first-year players.
- Talvitie becomes the first European born player in program history to earn an invite to a WJC camp as this marks the second-straight season Penn State has sent at least one player to camp as sophomore Cole Hults was named to Team USA's preliminary roster last season, but did not make the final roster.
WE'VE GOT THE POWER(PLAY)
- Penn State has scored at least one goal on the man-advantage in 11-of-15 games this season including eight of its last nine games seven-straight games going 10-for-28 (35.7 percent) over that stretch. The Nittany Lions lead the Big Ten and rank sixth in the nation at 28 percent (14-for-50) on the power-play this season and are 7-for-16 (43.8 percent) in Big Ten play.
- Barratt leads the team with three power-play tallies while Folkes, Pavlychev, Sam Sternschein and Denis Smirnov each have a pair. Penn State has seen eight different players register a power-play goal.
NEXT UP
- The Nittany Lions close out the opening semester of play with a quick trip to Philadelphia to battle Princeton at Wells Fargo Center next Saturday with puck drop slated for 7:30 p.m.