ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The 15th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions hit the road for a pair of contests against the Michigan Wolverines beginning Thursday night at Yost Ice Arena and concluding in New York City on Saturday night as part of B1G Super Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Thursday, January 24 | Saturday, January 26
Place: Yost Ice Arena | Madison Square Garden
Time: Thursday at 7:30 p.m. | Saturday at 7 p.m.
TV: Thursday: BTN-Plus | Saturday: Big Ten Network
Watch: Thursday | Saturday
Listen: Thursday | Saturday
Live Statistics: Live Stats (Both Games)
Game Notes: Penn State
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State hits the road with a trip to Ann Arbor on Thursday night before concluding the season series against the Wolverines at Madison Square Garden on Saturday as part of B1G Super Saturday.
- This marks the 26th and 27th meetings all-time with Michigan holding the slim 14-11-0 record including an eye-popping 8-2-0 record at Yost Ice Arena. The Nittany Lions have lost seven-straight games at Yost being outscored 35-7 during that stretch including a pair of shutouts. No current Penn State student-athlete has won a game inside Yost Ice Arena.
- Junior Nate Sucese leads all current Nittany Lions with nine points in 11 games against Michigan on four goals and five assists while classmate Liam Folkes has also scored four goals while adding three assists for seven points in nine games against the Wolverines and sophomore Evan Barratt scored four goals while adding one assist for five points as the teams split a series earlier this season in Hockey Valley.
- Saturday's contest also marks a rematch of the inaugural B1G Super Saturday in 2016 when Michigan defeated Penn State 6-3. This marks the third game all-time for Penn State at the World's Most Famous Arena with the Nittany Lions going 0-2-0 in their previous two meetings also dropping a 3-1 decision to Cornell during the 2014-15 season.
SCOUTING MICHIGAN
- The Wolverines are coming off a bye-week, but have won just twice since a 6-4 victory at Pegula Ice Arena on November 16 going 2-5-6 in the 13 games since that victory in Hockey Valley. Overall, Michigan is 8-9-6 and 4-5-4-2 in conference action sitting one point ahead of Penn State in fifth with 18 points in league play.
- Michigan scored 12 goals during its series split at Pegula Ice Arena two months ago, but since then have scored more than two goals in a game on only three occasions with just one of those resulting in a win.
- Michigan ranks just sixth in the Big Ten and 29th in the nation averaging 2.91 goals per game while its defense ranks middle of the pack in the conference and 39th in the nation allowing 3.09 goals per game.
- Like Penn State, Michigan announced last week that they will be without Josh Norris for the remainder of the season due to an injury suffered during the 2019 World Junior Championship while playing for Team USA. The Nittany Lions lost Finnish team captain and gold-medal winning Aarne Talvitie for the rest of the season following the WJC as well.
- Norris was leading the team with 10 goals and 19 points prior to departing for the WJC. The Wolverines are now paced on offense by Nick Pastujov's 10 goals while Quinn Hughes leads the team with 22 points. Jake Slaker and Will Lockwood are also valuable scoring options with nine and eight goals, respectively.
- Michigan has split time in net between Hayden Lavigne and Strauss Mann with 12 and 11 starts, respectively. Both goaltenders have four wins and similar numbers, however, Lavigne has performed better in conference play with a .908 save percentage and a 2.50 goals against average compared to Mann's .885 and 3.26 in Big Ten action. Lavigne has started four of the last five games between the pipes for the Wolverines including both games during a series split against Ohio State two weeks ago.
DON'T GET SHORT WITH ME
- Last Saturday Penn State scored two shorthanded goals in a single game for the first time in program history as both Barratt and senior Ludvig Larsson collected their first career shorty's.
- With five shorthanded goals this season the Nittany Lions have the most in the Big Ten and are tied for third in the nation only trailing Boston University (7) and RIT (6).
- Junior Nate Sucese leads the team with a pair of shorthanded tallies this season and is tied for second in program history with four in his career. Sucese's seven career shorthanded points also rank second all-time.
HOW SWEEP IT ISN'T
- Last weekend Penn State was swept in a series for the first time this season and is currently on a three-game skid.
- Prior to getting swept by the Buckeyes the last team to sweep the Nittany Lions was this Michigan squad last year at Yost Ice Arena exactly one year to the day on January 19-20, 2018.
- Prior to this past weekend Penn State hadn't been swept in a weekend series at Pegula Ice Arena since losing back-to-back nights to Minnesota on February 17-18, 2017.
- The weekend marked just the sixth time Penn State has been swept at Pegula since the building opened its doors prior to the 2013-14 season and just the second since that inaugural season.
MALMO MAGIC
- Graduate transfer Ludvig Larsson netted a goal in each game last weekend against Ohio State marking just the fifth time in his career he has scored a goal in back-to-back games and the first as a Nittany Lion.
- The Malmo, Sweden native lit the lamp during the power-play on Friday night before securing his first career shorthanded goal on Saturday. Both goals tied the game at the time for Penn State.
MONKEY OFF HIS BACK
- On paper it had only been three games since Evan Barratt scored a goal for Penn State, however, since scoring in the opening game of the World Junior Championship tournament for Team USA on December 26th it had actually been nine games without a goal for the sophomore forward.
- So, with his first period shorthanded tally last Saturday, Barratt snapped the scoring streak and looks to start a new one as he registered his 14th goal of the season and with a later assist picked up his 12th multi-point game this season.
- Barratt's 32 points are good for third in the nation and second in the Big Ten while his 14 goals lead the Big Ten and rank tied for third nationally. Barratt's 1.52 points per game are also good for second in the nation behind the 1.67 of Michigan State's Taro Hirose who is also the national points leader with 40 points.
- Barratt's 18 points in Big Ten games rank fourth in the conference while his nine goals are good for second.
FOLKES-TALE
- With Barratt back on his line junior Liam Folkes has registered one goal each of the last two weekends and now has 30 for his career to move into ninth all-time on the Penn State goals list passing David Glen '16. Barratt has the primary assist on each of Folkes' goals the last two weekends.
NEXT UP
- The Nittany Lions take a week off before returning to Pegula Ice Arena as the Minnesota Golden Gophers come to town for a pair of Big Ten Conference matchups at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 8 and Saturday, February 9. The puck drops each night at 6 p.m. and both games will air live on the Big Ten Network.