UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 19th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions close out their regular season home slate with a pair of games this weekend against the Wisconsin Badgers. Friday's contest is set for 6:30 p.m. and will air live on the Big Ten Network while Saturday's series finale will celebrate our six seniors and the puck will drop at 7 p.m.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Friday, February 22 | Saturday, February 23
Place: Pegula Ice Arena
Time: Friday at 6:30 p.m. | Saturday at 7 p.m.
Tickets: Friday | Saturday
TV: Friday: Big Ten Network | Saturday: N/A
Streaming Video: Fox Sports App/BTN2Go
Watch: Friday | Saturday
Listen: Friday | Saturday
Live Statistics: Live Stats (Both Games)
Game Notes: Penn State | Wisconsin | Big Ten
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- Penn State returns home for its final regular season series of the season against the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday and Saturday evening. Friday's contest will air live on the Big Ten Network with the Nittany Lions holding at 5-0-0 record this season in national broadcasts. Saturday night marks senior night.
- This weekend marks the 28th and 29th meetings all-time with Penn State holding the 14-10-3 advantage including a 13-4-3 record since the start of the 2014-15 season. Wisconsin took 4-of-6 points earlier this season in Madison as Penn State squandered leads each night.
- Junior Liam Folkes' success against Wisconsin is well documented as he has been one of the most dominate Nittany Lions against the Badgers with seven goals in nine career games. Classmate Nate Sucese leads all current Nittany Lions with 13 points in 11 career games against Wisconsin on six goals and seven assists while Denis Smirnov has added six goals and five assists for 11 points in 11 games against the Badgers.
SCOUTING WISCONSIN
- Wisconsin enters the weekend with just two victories in its last 13 games following a mini three-game win streak to start December. The Badgers are just 10-15-5 on the year and 6-9-5-2 in the Big Ten sitting in last with 25 points.
- The Badgers have just three players with 20 or more points led by freshman defenseman K'Andre Miller with five goals and 17 assists for 22 points, however, Miller missed last weekend's series against Notre Dame with a lower body injury and is questionable for this weekend's series.
- Sean Dhooghe leads the team with 10 goals while Will Johnson has eight and Seamus Malone and Wyatt Kalynuk each have seven.
- Between the pipes freshman Daniel Lebedeff has taken over the reigns with 19 starts including six of the last seven games, however, his numbers haven't been great as he has a 7-9-2 record with a .891 save percentage and a 3.08 goals against average. Over his last 12 games his numbers are even higher with a .865 save percentage and a 3.65 goals against average.
- Wisconsin has struggled on the penalty kill this season allowing the most power-play goals in the country with 35 on 94 chances ranking 59th out of 60 teams at 72.9 percent. The Badgers allowed three power-play goals to Notre Dame last Saturday.
- The Badgers haven't been much better with the man-advantage themselves converting just 19-of-115 (16.5 percent) chances to rank sixth in the Big Ten and 38th in the nation. Wisconsin is just 1-for-31 on the power-play in its last nine games with the lone goal coming last Friday against Notre Dame.
HOME SWEET HOME
- Penn State is leading the nation in scoring, averaging 4.63 goals per game and that number gets even better inside Pegula Ice Arena.
- In home games this season, the Nittany Lions are outscoring their opponents 91-60 averaging 5.06 goals per game while only allowing 3.33. In Big Ten home games the number remains high with Penn State averaging an even 5.00 goals per game in 10 games.
- Both Alex Limoges and Nate Sucese have lit the lamp 11 times inside Pegula Ice Arena this season while Evan Barratt and Chase Berger have added 10 goals on home ice. Barratt leads the team with 26 points at home on 10 goals and 16 assists.
- Penn State is averaging more than a goal per game less in road games this season scoring just 3.90 per game while allowing 4.40.
- Penn State has played in front of a capacity crowd in 92-straight regular season home games and currently rank second in attendance capacity this season at 106.8 percent with an average attendance of 6,089. Two weekends ago against Minnesota on Saturday night 6,229 fans packed Pegula for the second largest crowd in building history.
NATE THE GREAT
- With his empty net goal on Saturday night, junior Nate Sucese tied Casey Bailey for third on the Penn State all-time goals list with 45 and is now just four points shy of becoming the fourth player in program history to hit the 100-point mark.
- Sucese is currently riding a five-game point streak, his longest this season, with four goals and five assists for nine points over that stretch.
- Sucese's 45 career goals rank second among junior's in the entire NCAA only behind the 47 of Minnesota State's Marc Michaelis while his 96 points are good for sixth among third year players.
STREAKING POWER-PLAY
- Following their bye-week the Nittany Lions have the best power-play in the nation scoring at least once in each of their last four games going 6-for-13 (46.2 percent) overall.
- This season, Penn State leads the Big Ten and ranks fifth in the nation at 27 percent (27-for-100). At home the Nittany Lions are 18-for-66 (27.3 percent) this season with the man-advantage scoring at least one power-play goal in 13-of-18 home games including six of the last seven.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
- Sophomore Alex Limoges is currently second in the Big Ten in scoring with 38 points, which ranks fifth in the nation. He has at least one point in four of his last five games, including five goals over that span.
- Limoges' 16 goals lead the team and rank tied for third in the Big Ten and ninth in the nation. The sophomore has four multi-goal games to his credit this season along with 12 multi-point efforts. This season, Penn State is 11-1-0 in games where Limoges scores a goal.
THREE AND BELOW
- Penn State ranks just 55th in the nation allowing 3.67 goals per game, but is 14-0-1 this season when holding its opponents to three goals or less. However, Penn State is just 3-11-1 on the year when allowing four or more goals.
- Penn State has also had its best results this season when playing with the lead. The Nittany Lions are 11-2-0 when scoring first and 10-1-1 when leading after the first period.
- Penn State is also 14-2-1 when leading after the second period compared to just 1-7-0 when trailing entering the third period.
RECORD SETTING OFFENSE
- With at least six games remaining in the season for the Nittany Lions their torrent offense is on pace to set numerous single-season team records including most goal, most assists, most points and goals per game, all of which were set during the 2016-17 season.
- Penn State needs just 21 goals, 27 assists and 48 points to equal each total from the 2016-17 season in which they also played a program-high 39 games.
- With two wins this weekend, the Nittany Lions will tie their single-season record for wins at home with 14 also set during the 2016-17 season. Penn State averaged 4.10 goals per game that season, which is currently the program standard.
- The Nittany Lions lead the nation in most offensive categories including goals scored (139), assists (238), points (377), goals per game (4.63) and shots per game (40.17).
CONTROLLING THE DOT
- Penn State ranks second in the nation in faceoff percentage at 55.7 percent led by Ludvig Larsson who ranks second in the Big Ten and 15th in the nation at 59.7 percent while Chase Berger is third in the Big Ten and 20th in the nation at 58.7 percent.
- Since the start of January, out of true centers, Berger leads the entire nation winning 67.1 percent (141-69) of his draws.
NEXT UP
- The Nittany Lions close out the regular season with a trip to South Bend to battle the Notre Dame Fighting Irish next Friday and Saturday before the Big Ten Tournament begins the following weekend.