UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's ice hockey team welcome the Canisius College Golden Griffins to Pegula Ice Arena for the first time in five years for a weekend series on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Friday, October 8 | Saturday, October 9
Place: Pegula Ice Arena | University Park, Pa.
Tickets: Friday | Saturday
Time: Fri: 7:00 p.m. | Sat: 1:00 p.m.
Streaming Video - B1G+ ($): Friday | Saturday
Listen: Friday | Saturday
Live Statistics: Live Stats
Game Notes: Penn State | Canisius
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- This weekend marks just the fourth and fifth games all-time between Penn State and Canisius with the Nittany Lions holding the 3-0-0 edge.
- The two programs met in back-to-back years during 2015-16 for a single game in buffalo before playing a two-game series at Pegula Ice Arena early in the 2016-17 season.
- Penn State is outscoring Canisius 14-4 all-time in the series which was last contested on October 28-29, 2016.
SCOUTING CANISIUS
- The Griffs open their 2021-22 campaign after finishing 11-6-0 in 2020-21 advancing to the Atlantic Hockey Championship game before bowing out to AIC, 5-2.
- Canisius returns 20 letterwinners from its 2020-21 roster including seven of its top-10 scorers from a season ago including leading scorer Keaton Mastrodonato who paced the team in each offensive category with nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in 17 games played. Second leading scorer Mitchell Martan is also back after a six goal and nine assist 2020-21 season.
- The Griffs also return both goaltenders who played a significant role between the pipes last season including junior Jacob Barczewski who paced the team with a 7-3-0 record in 10 starts with a .926 save percentage and a 2.30 goals-against average as a sophomore.
- Canisius' 2021-22 roster features seven transfers including 2020-21 Atlantic Hockey Western Pod Rookie of the Year, Randy Hernandez, who transferred in from Robert Morris. Hernandez ranked third nationally in freshman scoring a season ago with 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points in 24 games.
- The Griffs were tabbed second in the Atlantic Hockey preseason coaches' poll behind only defending champion AIC.
- Canisius ranked third in Atlantic Hockey last season and 11th in the nation in scoring, averaging 3.47 goals per game last season.
- The Griffs struggled on special teams in 2020-21 ranking in the bottom third nationally on both the powerplay converting just 18.6 percent (11-for-59) of their chances and the PK at 78.6 percent (44-for-56).
- Canisius did tally four shorthanded goals last season to tie for fifth in the nation, Penn State failed to record a shorthanded goal during the 2020-21 season.
GET AHEAD, STAY AHEAD
- Penn State scored the opening goal in both games last week against LIU and went on to win each contest after going 7-4-0 when scoring first last season. Over the past five seasons, the Nittany Lions are 69-17-9 when scoring first.
- Penn State also held the lead entering the third period in each game against LIU moving to 129-12-10 all-time when carrying a lead into the final period. On the flip side, the Nittany Lions are just 13-96-7 all-time when trailing entering the third period with just one win in each of the past six seasons when in that situation.
HOCKEY VALLEY FIVE-O
- Penn State hit its magic number of five goals during the series finale against LIU on Monday improving to 83-1-2 all-time when scoring five or more goals. Penn State was 4-0-0 in such games during 2020-21 after going 11-0-0 when scoring five or more goals in 2019-20.
- The Nittany Lions have won 25-straight games when scoring five or more goals with the last and only loss coming at Wisconsin on December 1, 2018, an 8-5 defeat.
UNDERCLASSMEN PACING PLAY
- Last week against LIU, Penn State scored eight goals and had 20 points led primarily by the sophomores and freshmen with six goals and 14 points combined.
- The sophomore class was paced by Christian Sarlo, Chase McLane and Xander Lamppa who each tallied one goal and one assist in the two games while the freshmen were paced by Danny Dzhaniyev who led all Nittany Lions with one goal and two assists for three points in the series sweep.
STRONG START FOR SPECIAL TEAMS
- Penn State was inconsistent on special teams in 2020-21, but started the 2021-22 season strong with a powerplay goal just six seconds into its first man-advantage of the season on Sunday. The Nittany Lions added another powerplay tally on Monday and went 2-for-7 (28.6 percent) overall.
- On the kill, Penn State was near perfect killing 6-of-7 (85.7 percent) powerplay chances for LIU including over 30 seconds of 5-on-3 time. The Nittany Lions ranked 41st out of the 51 teams who participated in the 2020-21 season on the penalty kill stopping just 76.2 percent (48-for-63) of opponent powerplays last season.
IT STARTS WITH POSSESSION
- Penn State was strong up the middle last week winning 71-of-119 draws (59.6 percent) led by three players over 60 percent in Chase McLane (66.7 percent), Ben Schoen (65 percent) and MacEachern (61.1 percent).
AUTIO ON THE OFFENSIVE
- Senior goaltender Oskar Autio was solid in net each game against LIU stopping 40-of-43 shots over the two games registering a .930 save percentage and a 1.50 goals-against average.
- Autio also turned to offense as he collected the lone assist on Connor McMenamin's late third period goal on Sunday afternoon.
- Autio is now the fifth different Nittany Lion net-minder to register a point. Peyton Jones '20 holds the career record with 8 points.
XANDER 'LIGHT THE' LAMPPA
- Sophomore Xander Lamppa double his career point total on Monday night as he registered one goal and one assist in the 5-2 victory.
- In 13 games last season, Lamppa tallied just one goal and one assist for two points.
NEXT UP
- Following a bye week, the Nittany Lions remain home to cap off their six-game homestand with a weekend series against Niagara on October 21-22.
For more information on the 2021-22 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: the Official Bookstore of Penn State Athletics, visit the men's hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.