ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Penn State men's ice hockey team remains in the Land of 10,000 Lakes to close out a four-game road swing against the University of St. Thomas Tommies on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Tuesday, November 23 | Wednesday, November 25
Place: St. Thomas Ice Arena | St. Paul, Minn.
Time: Tue: 8:00 p.m. (ET) | Wed: 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Streaming Video: Tuesday | Wednesday
Listen: Tuesday | Wednesday
Live Statistics: Live Stats
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- This weekend marks the first-ever meeting between Penn State and St. Thomas as the Tommies represent the third of four opponents new to the Nittany Lions this season. Penn State is 3-0-0 on the year against teams they hadn't played entering the 2021-22 campaign. A series against Maine in just over a month will conclude the games against unfamiliar opponents for the Nittany Lions this season.
- St. Thomas becomes the 36th different opponent all time for the Nittany Lions in their 10-year history.
- Following the series against the Gophers, Penn State has now scored first goal of the game in 10 of 13 games this season and are 7-3-0 when doing so.
- Sophomore Christian Sarlo has now registered points in back-to-back games and is one game shy of his career-long three-game point streak from last season after collecting a pair of points against the Gophers.
- Freshman Ryan Kirwan is riding a career-best three-game point streak (1-2-3) entering the series against the Tommies while senior Ben Copeland has a four-game streak (3-1-4) and is just one game shy of his career-long.
SCOUTING ST. THOMAS
- The Tommies' top three scorers this season all arrived in St. Thomas via the transfer portal. Matthew Jennings, Christiano Versich, and Trevor Zins are all experienced newcomers to a squad playing in its first Division I season this year.
- Another impact graduate transfer is goaltender Peter Thome. In his first season with a new squad, Thome ranks seventh in the country in saves with 321. St. Thomas' opponents have put up 472 shots this season which is the fourth-most in the country, so Thome has faced quite the tough challenge to this point in the year.
- Jennings leads the Tommies with eight points on two goals and six assists while Versich and Zins have each chipped in seven points. Kyler Grundy leads St. Thomas with four goals on the season. Without a lot of positives to look at so far, Grundy's ability to find the net on a struggling attack could bode well for the Tommies' future following the move to Division I.
- The Tommies rank dead last in goals scored and shot percentage in the CCHA averaging just 1.57 goals per game while allowing 4.93 to the opposition to rank fourth from last and last in the nation in each category.
- St. Thomas is currently in the middle of a six-game skid, giving up three or more goals in each game during that stretch including back-to-back shutouts this past weekend against Mankato.
- The Tommies boast just a 14.1 percent powerplay while their PK hasn't fared much better stopping the opposition on just 64.7 percent of chances this season ranking 47th and 58th in the nation, respectively.
COPE IS DOPE
- Senior Ben Copeland is hitting his stride registering all ten of his points over the last nine games, with at least one point in eight of those nine games.
- Copeland's 10 points are good for third on the team and has scored all four of his goals this season in the past seven games.
- Copeland leads Penn State with five powerplay points on two goals and three assists.
DRIVE FOR FIVE
- Penn State hit its magic number of five goals in Friday's win over Minnesota improving to 87-1-2 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 now won 29-straight games when scoring five or more goals, including five so far this season, with the last and only loss coming at Wisconsin on December 1, 2018, an 8-5 defeat.
NEXT UP
- Penn State returns to Pegula Ice Arena and returns to Big Ten play when they battle the Michigan State Spartans on December 3-4.
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.