ALLENTOWN, Pa. – No. 11/10 Penn State will face a familiar foe with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line when the Nittany Lions battle No. 2/2 Michigan in the Allentown Regional final on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m.
The winner will advance to the 2023 Frozen Four set for April 6-8 in Tampa, Florida. For Penn State it would be the first Frozen Four trip in program history while the Wolverines would be making back-to-back appearances and their third in the past six years.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates Sunday, March 26
Place: PPL Center | Allentown, Pa.
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: Sunday
TV: ESPN2
Streaming Video: Sunday
Listen: Sunday
Live Statistics: Live Stats
SUNDAY'S MATCHUP
- Penn State is making its third NCAA Tournament appearance in its 11-year history each of which have come in the past seven seasons, it would have been four had the 2020 tournament not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- This marks the 42nd meeting all-time between Penn State and Michigan with the Wolverines holding the 25-15-1 advantage including a 3-1-0 record this season, however, the one victory did come when Michigan was ranked No. 1 in the nation and two of the three losses were by a single goal including one in overtime.
- The Nittany Lions are 2-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament games outscoring their opponents 22-14 after Friday night's lopsided victory. Both of Penn State's NCAA Tournament wins have now been by seven or more goals.
- Graduate student Ashton Calder is making his third NCAA Tournament appearance in three years with his third different team after leading his hometown Lake Superior State Lakers to the dance in 2020-21 and then going back last season as a member of North Dakota. Friday night's victory was Calder's first in the big dance and he contributed with his second career NCAA Tournament goal as he also had the lone goal for Lake Superior State in a 5-1 defeat against eventual 2021 National Champion UMass.
- Prior to Friday night, Calder was the only current Nittany Lion with NCAA Tournament experience as Penn State is making its first appearance since the 2017-18 season. In 2018-19 Penn State was the last team out of the field after finishing No. 16 in the PairWise and then the 2020 tournament was canceled with Penn State sitting No. 7 in the PairWise.
- With 178 career games played, Calder has played the third most games among active players only behind Bowling Green's Taylor Schneider (182) and Quinnipiac's Ethan de Jong (181).
HOW THEY GOT HERE
- Both teams one-upped each other on Friday night as Penn State secured the biggest shutout in NCAA Tournament history beating Michigan Tech, 8-0, which also marked the largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game surpassing its own record of seven which they shared with two other teams.
- Just a few hours later, Michigan downed Colgate 11-1 surpassing that eight-goal margin of victory and also breaking the regional record for goals in a game of 10 held by Penn State and it was also the most goals in an NCAA Tournament game since 1961.
- The Nittany Lions had 15 players register at least one point on Friday with eight players securing multi-point games in the victory which ran their NCAA Tournament record to 2-2 all-time in this their third appearance.
- Penn State had eight individual goal scorers in a game for the first time since its other NCAA Tournament victory against Union on March 25, 2017.
- The eight goals scored also mark the most for the Nittany Lions since a 9-5 victory over Michigan on December 3, 2020.
- Penn State has now scored seven or more goals 27 times. The Nittany Lions are also now 100-1-2 all-time when scoring five or more goals in a game.
- The eight-goal win also ties the largest margin of victory for Penn State dating back to an 8-0 win against Arizona State on November 19, 2016.
- Penn State scored the opening goal for the 26th time in 38 games this season moving to 18-7-1 in such games with the victory. The eight goals are also a season-high.
- Junior Liam Souliere (Brampton, Ontario) secured his third shutout of the season with a 24-save effort improving to 19-14-1 on the year with the victory.
- For Souliere, his three shutouts this season are a new Penn State single-season shutout record, and he is now tied with Matt Skoff for third on the Nittany Lion all-time shutout list with three for his career, just one shy of both Peyton Jones '20 and Oskar Autio '22.
- For Michigan, Rutger McGroarty tallied a hat-trick and Luke Hughes had a five-point night with one goal and four assists as the Wolverines routed Colgate. For Hughes it was his first five-point game for the Wolverines and first since Kent Johnson had five versus Michigan State on Jan. 8, 2021.
- Sixteen of the 19 Michigan skaters recorded at least one point in the record-setting win, with seven Wolverines recording multi-point games.
- Michigan is now 56-31 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
START THE FIGHT
- Penn State has scored the first goal in 26-of-38 games played this season with an 18-7-1 record when scoring first including Friday night's victory.
- For Penn State, 10 of those opening goals have come in the first five minutes of the game with four coming within the first minute including the fastest goal to open a game in program history from Ture Linden against Mercyhurst back in October just seven seconds into the game.
- The Nittany Lions also secured the fastest back-to-back tallies in program history this season against Michigan at Yost on January 28, scoring twice in a six second span just 44 ticks into the game.
- Tyler Paquette's goal just 2:12 into Friday's contest became the fastest goal to open an NCAA Tournament game in program history.
I CAN FEEL IT COMING IN THE SUUL-EE-AIR TONIGHT, HOLD ON
- Junior goaltender Liam Souliere registered a program record 55 saves during a 2-1 overtime victory against No. 9 Ohio State on March 4. Souliere became just the third Nittany Lion goalie to hit the 50-save mark in a game breaking the previous record of 52 held by Matt Skoff since March 20, 2014, a 2-1 double-overtime victory also in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals against Michigan.
- Souliere's 19 wins are good for the second-most in a single-season in program history while his 2.45 goals-against average and .915 save percentage currently rank first and third all-time for a single-season in program history.
- His 2.74 goals-against average and .907 save percentage for his career currently first and second all-time as a Nittany Lion.
- Following the B1G quarterfinals Souliere has now logged over 3000 minutes played becoming just the third Nittany Lion goaltender in program history to hit that mark. His 27 victories are also good for the third-most all-time.
YOU'RE MY WONDERWALL
- Senior Kevin Wall earned his second consecutive Big Ten postseason honor last week when he was named an All-B1G honorable mention alongside classmate Connor MacEachern.
- Following Friday's game was has new career-highs in each offensive category with 17 goals and 14 assists for 31 points to lead Penn State in goals and points
- Wall's 17 goals are tied with Nate Sucese '20 for the eighth-most in a single-season in Penn State history.
- In his career, Wall has now lit the lamp 43 times good for ninth all-time at Penn State while his 86 career points rank tenth.
- Wall also has three game-winning goals this season to tie MacEachern for the team lead and sit just one shy of the single-season program record of four held by six different Nittany Lions and most recently achieved by Evan Barratt during the 2019-20 season.
For more information on the 2022-23 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.