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Mark Selders

Men's Hockey Set For B1G Semifinal Showdown at No. 2 Minnesota

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – This weekend marks nearly two years to the day that Penn State and Minnesota were supposed to meet inside Pegula Ice Arena in the 2020 Big Ten Tournament semifinal, however, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the remainder of that tournament before the puck would drop.

Now, 728 days later, coming off an upset quarterfinal victory over No. 12 Ohio State last weekend, the Nittany Lions will battle the second-ranked Gophers at 3M Arena in Minneapolis at 9:00 p.m. this Saturday with the winner advancing to the Big Ten Championship.

FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Saturday, March 12
Place: 3M Arena at Mariucci | Minneapolis, Minn.
Time: 9:00 p.m. (ET) / 8:00 p.m. (CT)
TV: B1G Network
Streaming Video: Saturday
Listen: Saturday
Live Statistics: Live Stats
Game Notes: Penn State

THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP

  • This weekend marks the 38th meeting all-time between the two programs with Minnesota holding the 20-16-1 edge, however, dating back to Penn State's 4-3 victory in double overtime of the 2017 Big Ten Tournament semifinals, the Nittany Lions are 13-7-1 in the last 21 meetings.
  • Penn State is just 6-12-0 all-time at Mariucci Arena, however, the teams have split each of the last 10 contests competed at 3M Arena dating back to the start of the 2017-18 season. During that stretch, the teams have combined for one sweep each and three series splits including earlier this season in Minneapolis when the Nittany Lions won 5-3 on Friday night before falling 4-2 on Saturday.
  • Penn State is 3-0 all-time against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament including a 4-3 double-overtime victory during the 2017 semifinals at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. The Nittany Lions would go on to defeat Wisconsin 2-1 in double-overtime the next night to secure its first tournament championship.
  • This weekend's game is nearly two years to the day that these two teams were supposed to meet at Pegula Ice Arena in the 2020 Big Ten Tournament semifinals before the remainder of the postseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Penn State's roster looks a little different than it did 728 days ago featuring just nine players from the 2019-20 season while the Gophers have 14 familiar faces from their 2019-20 roster. Of the nine Nittany Lions remaining from the game that never was, none have suited up against the Gophers in the postseason, and only six would have been on the ice that night.
  • In 10 career games against his former team, senior Clayton Phillips has three points, all of which came in his first two games back in Mariucci as an opposing player during the 2019-20 season. Phillips even potted the game-winning tally to complete Penn State's first-ever sweep of the Gophers at 3M Arena on November 15-16, 2019.
  • Freshman Ryan Kirwan has registered one point in each of his first four games against the Gophers this season with goals in three of those four including back-to-back games at Pegula last month.

SCOUTING MINNESOTA

  • The Gophers enter the weekend having won eight-straight games to close out the regular-season earning their fifth Big Ten Conference regular-season championship and the top-seed and first round bye for the Big Ten Tournament that comes with it.
  • Minnesota has only lost three times in 16 games since the calendar turned to 2022 and have outscored its opponents 37-11 during this current eight-game winning streak which included 5-0 and 8-0 shutouts against Wisconsin two weeks ago to clinch the championship.
  • Minnesota lost reigning Mike Richter Award winning goaltender Jack LaFontaine unexpectedly back in January when he signed an entry-level contract with the Carolina Hurricanes following a series at Michigan State. This has opened the door for junior Justen Close to take over between the pipes and he has gone 11-3-0 in that time compiling a .933 save percentage and a 1.73 goals-against average in over 850 minutes of action. Close's goals-against average now leads the Big Ten and ranks fifth in the nation while his save percentage is second in the Big Ten and 5th in the nation. Prior to this season, Close had only appeared in five games totaling 49:32 minutes played over his first two years at Minnesota.
  • Minnesota was well represented at the 2022 Winter Olympics as a trio of Gophers donned the Red, White and Blue including Big Ten Player of the Year Finalist, Ben Meyers, who leads the Gophers with 15 goals and 34 points. In just three games since returning from Beijing, Meyers has four goals, including a natural hat-trick in the third period of game one against Wisconsin, to go along with four assists for eight points while going 78 percent (39-for-50) in the faceoff circle.
  • The Minnesota powerplay has struggled this semester as the Gophers are just 7-for-58 (12.1 percent) since the calendar flipped to 2022, however, the Gophers have registered one man-advantage tally in each of its last three games after getting their Olympians back. The Gopher man-advantage ranks just fifth in the Big Ten and 32nd nationally converting just 18.2 percent (20-for-109).
  • The Gopher penalty kill has been much better than the powerplay ranking second in the Big Ten and 8th nationally at 86.8 percent (79-for-91) including a 29-for-30 (96.7 percent) stretch over their last 13 games. Minnesota hasn't surrendered a man-advantage tally in nine straight games.

AU REVOIR, GOPHER

  • Junior Kevin Wall tallied his first career goal against the Gophers on November 15, 2019 leading Penn State to its first-ever series sweep at Mariucci Arena following 8-2 and 6-3 victories.
  • Wall also scored one of the most important goals in Penn State vs. Minnesota series history with his game-winning tally late that year on February 22, 2020. Those two goals were the only goals of his freshman season.
  • Wall leads all current Nittany Lions with five goals and five assists for 10 points in 10 career games against Minnesota including an active seven-game point-streak against the Gophers that all began with that memorable goal two years ago that secured the 3-2 win and eventually the 2020 Big Ten Championship. Wall has registered at least one point in all but one game against the Gophers in his career including goals in five of 10 career games.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, B1G STAGE

  • Entering last weekend's quarterfinals, the Nittany Lions had just 12 current players with Big Ten playoff experience including just three with more than two games of experience for a total of 34 games. Now, Penn State enters the semifinals with 91 games of experience.
  • Penn State has now advanced to a conference-best, seven-straight tournament semifinal games and eight overall in the first nine years of the conference tying Minnesota for the most semifinal appearances in league history. The only year the Gophers failed to reach the semifinals was when Penn State swept Minnesota during a best-of-three quarterfinal series at Pegula Ice Arena on March 2-3, 2018.
  • The Nittany Lions have played a Big Ten record 21 tournament games since the league's inception prior to the 2013-14 season and with a 13-8-0 record, Penn State holds the Big Ten Tournament record for most wins while Ohio State has 11 and Minnesota and Michigan each have 10. PSU is 11-5 in its last 16 Big Ten Tournament games dating back to the 2016-17 season.
  • PSU is just 2-4 all-time in Big Ten semifinal games while Minnesota is 3-3 in such contests. Minnesota has won the tournament twice with Penn State winning once. The 2020 semifinal between these two teams never took place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Penn State is 4-1 all-time in overtime games during the Big Ten Tournament with the lone loss coming in last season's semifinal round against Wisconsin. The Nittany Lions have also played in the three longest games in tournament history.

REPLACING ROYALTY

  • Former Nittany Lion captain Alex Limoges '21 graduated last year as the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten Tournament history with 17 points on seven goals and 10 assists in 10 games. Limoges registered at least one point in eight of his 10 Big Ten Tournament games with seven multi-point efforts.
  • Limoges' six goals in five games during the 2018-19 Big Ten Tournament are a single-tournament record while his nine points were second that year to the 10 registered by Liam Folkes '20 as both players landed on the All-Tournament Team. Folkes ranks second in Big Ten Tournament history with 16 points on eight goals and eight assists in 11 career postseason games.
  • Currently, PSU is paced by senior Paul DeNaples with four points in 10 games while junior classmates Connor McMenamin and Connor MacEachern along with sophomore Christian Sarlo have each added four points in five games. McMenamin leads the way with three goals in his five Big Ten Tournament games to date.

STRONG ON THE DRAW

  • Last weekend against Ohio State, the Nittany Lions controlled the dot winning 54 percent of faceoffs (122-for-226) led by MacEachern, who took 39 percent of the teams total faceoffs over the three games, going 57-for-89 (64 percent).

CLOSE AND FINALLY GOT THE CIGAR

  • Entering its do-or-die game last Saturday, Penn State was just 1-6-1 this season in games decided by one goal or less after losing 4-3 on Friday night. The Nittany Lions then went on to win one-goal games on Saturday and Sunday to win the series.
  • Furthermore, of Penn State's 19 losses this season, six have been by one goal while four others have been one goal games with an empty netter.
  • Penn State is 12-1-1 this season when allowing two goals or less, however, the Nittany Lions are just 1-14-1 when scoring two goals or less themselves.

A FIRST FOR KENNY JOHNSON

  • While it may not have factored in the outcome of the game, junior Kenny Johnson tallied his first career goal last Friday during a 4-3 loss to Ohio State. Johnson added an assist earlier in the game to secure his first career multi-point effort. After playing in just seven total games over his first two seasons in Hockey Valley, Johnson has skated in 30-of-37 contests this season registering a career-best five points (1G, 4A) with 36 blocked shots.

I CAN FEEL IT COMING IN THE SUUL-EE-AIR TONIGHT, HOLD ON

  • Sophomore Liam Souliere has given up two or less goals in eight of his 14 starts this season including six of the last 10 and is 6-1-1 when allowing two or less goals on the year.
  • In his nine starts this semester, Souliere has a 2.67 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage and if you subtract his start at Notre Dame at the beginning of February where he allowed seven goals those numbers improve to 2.13 and .932.
  • Since assuming the starting role prior to the Michigan State series, Souliere has a .918 save percentage and a 2.43 goals-against average over the last five games.

TIER II TALENT

  • Along with Souliere, who played most of his junior hockey in the CCHL, Dylan Lugris joined Penn State at the midyear point from the Jersey Hitmen of the NCDC.
  • Lugris wasted little time making an impression on Hockey Valley scoring a goal in his first career game against Army West Point. However, Lugris was held off the stat sheet over his next nine games, all against Big Ten competition, before registering an assist against the Gophers back on February 19.
  • This past weekend, Lugris tallied goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his Nittany Lion career as he bookended the Penn State comeback from an 0-1 series hole scoring the first goal during a 3-2 win on Saturday before potting the game-winner in Sunday's 2-1 series clinching victory.

FRESHMEN PHENOMS

  • While other Big Ten freshmen may be garnering more national attention, Penn State has a few of its own that are turning in very productive seasons as three of Penn State's top-seven scorers are all rookies led by Ryan Kirwan.
  • Kirwan is third on the team with 26 points and 13 goals marking the most points by a Nittany Lion freshman since Denis Smirnov '20 and Nate Sucese '20 had 47 and 36, respectively, during the 2016-17 season. His 13 goals are also the most by a Penn State freshman since Evan Barratt scored 11 during the 2017-18 campaign. Kirwan currently ranks tied with Chase Berger '19 for fifth and sixth, respectively, for points and goals by a freshman in a single-season in Penn State history.
  • Kirwan's 13 goals are tied for the third most nationally and in the Big Ten for freshmen while his 26 points rank tied for 11th nationally and fourth in the Big Ten among first-year players.
  • Ben Schoen added three assists last weekend against Ohio State and is now tied for fifth on the team with 21 points while his 15 assists are good for third. Schoen's 21 points this season rank tied for ninth all-time in a single-season for a freshman while his 15 helpers are good for the fifth-most by a rookie at Penn State.
  • While he has been held off the statsheet in his last four games, Danny Dzhaniyev ranks seventh on the team with 18 points on six goals and 12 assists.
  • Penn State is 14-3-1 this season when a freshman scores a goal and are 9-2-0 when Kirwan himself scores a goal with the only two losses coming last month against the Gophers.

 
For more information on the 2021-22 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: 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.