Men's Hockey Travels to No. 13/12 Michigan for B1G Weekend ClashMen's Hockey Travels to No. 13/12 Michigan for B1G Weekend Clash

Steven Walter

Men's Hockey Travels to No. 13/12 Michigan for B1G Weekend Clash

Riding the strength of a five-game unbeaten streak, Penn State heads away from Hockey Valley with a trip to Ann Arbor to battle the No. 13/12 Michigan Wolverines in a pair of conference tilts on Friday and Saturday evening.

Penn State at No. 13/12 Michigan
Yost Ice Arena | Ann Arbor, Mich.

Penn State at No. 13/12 Michigan

Penn State
Penn State

11-10-3 | 2-9-3 B1G

at
No. 13/12 Michigan
No. 13/12 Michigan

14-10-2 | 8-7-1 B1G

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Riding the strength of a five-game unbeaten streak, Penn State heads away from Hockey Valley with a trip to Ann Arbor to battle the No. 13/12 Michigan Wolverines in a pair of conference tilts on Friday and Saturday evening.

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Dates: Friday, January 31 | Saturday, February 1
Place: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Time: 7 p.m. | 6 p.m.

Series Breakdown

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

  • This weekend marks the 49th and 50th meetings all-time between Penn State and Michigan with the Wolverines holding the 30-17-1 edge including the commanding 15-4-0 mark at Yost Ice Arena.
  • Michigan swept the Nittany Lions in Hockey Valley back in November after the teams evenly split the season series a year ago with each squad winning one road game and one home game. Michigan won the opener of each series with the Nittany Lions coming back to claim the finale. The series last season was so even, that each squad registered 16 goals apiece between the four games with each victory coming by two goals.
  • Penn State enters the weekend unbeaten in eight of its last nine games dating back to a 4-1 win over Army to close out the first semester of play.
  • The Nittany Lions are 4-1-3 in the month of January, averaging 3.5 goals per contest while allowing just 2.6 and registering a pair of shutouts.
  • The Penn State sophomore class has had insane success in their young careers against Michigan as Aiden Fink is averaging 2.17 points per game in six career games against the Wolverines with seven goals and six assists while Reese Laubach is just under that averaging 1.83 points per game with six goals and five assists for 11 points. Dane Dowiak has collected 33 percent of his career goals against Michigan with four while adding two assists for six points in five games and fellow sophomore Matt DiMarsico has eight points in six games on three goals and five assists.
  • As a group the class has 20 goals and 18 assists for 38 points in six career games against Michigan averaging 3.33 goals and 6.33 points per game against the Wolverines.
  • Penn State and Michigan have the same average age of 21 years and 9 months tying as the 3rd-youngest team in the Big Ten and 12th nationally.

 

BOYS ARE ON A HEATER

  • Penn State in unbeaten in eight of its last nine games dating back to a 4-1 victory over Army to close out the first semester.
  • The Nittany Lions are 4-1-3 in the month of January and bring a five-game unbeaten streak into Yost Ice Arena this weekend. The second half surge is the best for Penn State since going 6-4-0 back in January 2021. The four wins tie for the second most in the month of January all-time.
  • The five-game unbeaten streak is the longest for Penn State since beginning the 2022-23 season with nine-straight wins and is the longest all-time in the month of January.

SCOUTING MICHIGAN

  • Michigan enters the weekend 1-3-1 in its last five games including a 5-4 loss and 4-4 tie at Wisconsin last weekend. Overall, the Wolverines are 14-10-2 and 8-7-1 with 22 points and sitting fifth in the Big Ten, however, third through fifth are separated by just three points.
  • Michigan has only played four games at Yost Ice Arena since the calendar flipped to December with three-straight wins in overtime following a 4-0 loss to Wisconsin on December 13. The Wolverines are 8-3-0 at home on the year and including this weekend play five of their next six games in Ann Arbor.
  • Michigan’s last three home games have all been 3-2 overtime victories as the Wolverines remain undefeated in overtime this season with a perfect 5-0-2 record including a perfect 4-0-0 in OT games at Yost Ice Arena. All four having been in Big Ten play.
  • The Wolverines look a bit different than last season’s Frozen Four squad as they are without the services of five of the top-six scorers on that roster with only T.J. Hughes back in the Maize and Blue. Hughes tallied 48 points last season to rank fourth on the team with 19 goals and 29 assists. The top-three from that team, Gavin Brindley, Rutger McGroarty and Dylan Duke have each moved on. Both Brindley and McGroarty where 50+-point getters while Duke paced the team with 26 goals.
  • This year’s Wolverine squad is led by junior TJ Hughes and freshman Michael Hage with 11 goals each with Hughes is pacing the squad with 16 assists and 27 points. Hage has added 14 assists for 25 points.
  • Between the pipes, Ferris State transfer Logan Stein has split time with freshman Cameron Korpi with 14 and 12 starts, respectively. Stein had started five-straight games heading into last weekend in Madison where the two once again split. Stein leads the way with nine of the 14 victories, however, each player has very similar numbers with Korpi having the slight edge, .899 to .897, in save percentage while Stein has a slightly lower goals-against average, 3.05 vs. 3.06.
  • Thanks in large part to an 8-for-12 showing against Penn State last semester, the Wolverine powerplay tops the Big Ten and is tied for fourth nationally converting at 28 percent (23-for-82). Hughes has seven of those powerplay tallies to tie for the third most in the Big Ten and fourth nationally while Garrett Schifsky has added three shorthanded tallies, tying the national lead.
  • Michigan has struggled with discipline this season as they average nearly five penalties a game and 11.9 penalty minutes, the most in the Big Ten and the seventh-most nationally.
  • The Wolverines have struggled keeping the puck out of their net as they allow 3.19 goals per game to tie for the most in the Big Ten and 15th in the nation.

CHASING 400

  • With 393 career wins, Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky moved past longtime North Dakota Bench Boss John “Gino” Gasparini into 32nd and is just one shy of former Wisconsin and CC head man Bob Johnson (394) while current Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore sits at 397 and counting.
  • Among active coaches, Gadowsky ranks 12th and sits behind only Jeff Jackson and Bob Motzko in the Big Ten.

 

KILLING TIME

  • Penn State has allowed just one man-advantage tally during this current five-game unbeaten streak going 16-for-17 (94.1 percent) on the kill during that stretch.
  • The Nittany Lion PK is now tops in the Big Ten at 81.1 percent. Penn State went a perfect 34-for-34 on the PK during non-conference play marking the first time in program history the unit didn’t yield a goal in non-conference action.
  • Riley Thompson’s powerplay tally last Saturday snapped a streak of 15-straight kills by Penn State. With the Nittany Lions coming away with an overtime victory it marked the first time this season they have won a game while allowing a powerplay tally. Penn State is 10-3-2 on the year when not allowing a powerplay goal.

 

SHINING STAR

  • Sophomore Reese Laubach returned to the lineup last weekend against Ohio State after missing the previous four with an injury and he didn’t miss a beat registering a pair of multi-point efforts to lead Penn State to a four-point weekend and earn B1G Third Star of the Week honors.
  • Laubach notched a pair of helpers in a 6-6 tie and shootout win on Friday before registering the primary assist on the game opening goal on Saturday and capping off the weekend with the overtime game-winning goal in a 3-2 victory on Saturday.
  • Laubach is now tied for second on the team with 19 points in 20 games on nine goals and 10 assists, just one goal and two assists shy of his freshman year totals.

 

BIG BEN

  • Senior forward Ben Schoen is currently riding a three-game point streak and has points in five of his last six games.
  • Schoen is one of nine Nittany Lions with double-digit points on the season as he has four goals and 10 assists, his assist total is tied for the fourth-most on the team.
  • The senior is making his return to Yost nearly two years (735 days) to the day he suffered a catastrophic lower body injury on January 27, 2023.
MHKY-HobeyBaker-Fink

HOBEY HOPEFUL

  • Sophomore Aiden Fink is currently second in the Big Ten and second in the nation averaging 1.42 points per game behind only Michigan State’s Isaac Howard who sits at 1.50. Fink has only been held off the scoresheet in five of 24 games this season and has point streaks of six, six and seven with a team-best nine multi-point games.
  • Fink recorded the second hat-trick of his career two weeks ago marking the 14th in Penn State history as Fink became the first Nittany Lion in program history to register multiple hat-tricks in a career. His first hat-trick came last November in a 5-3 victory over Michigan at Yost Ice Arena.
  • Fink’s 34 points tie his career high from a season ago and rank tied for third in the nation and in the Big Ten while his 16 goals are a new career-best and good for fourth in the Big Ten and fifth nationally. The 16 goals are also tied for the 10th-most in a single-season in Penn State history.
  • Of his 16 goals, five have come on the powerplay giving him 13 man-advantage tallies for the season to tie the Nittany Lion program record. His five PPG’s this season are tied for the eighth-most in a single-season as he already holds the single-season program record of eight from last season.
  • Fink is the only Nittany Lion to begin his career with back-to-back 30+-point seasons and becomes just the seventh all-time to have multiple such seasons following his 34-point freshman campaign.
  • Fink has 68 points in 58 career games for a 1.17 points per game average, currently the best mark all-time at Penn State.

BLOCK PARTY

  • Penn State is averaging 14.0 blocked shots per game a mark that tops the Big Ten and ranks tied for seventh nationally.
  • Freshman Cade Christenson paces the Nittany Lions with 39 blocks on the season, a mark good for third in the Big Ten, following an eye-popping nine blocks last Saturday against Ohio State as Penn State had 21 as a team.

 

GRAVE DIGGER

  • Freshman Nic DeGraves potted the first goal of his NIttany Lion career last Saturday against Ohio State.
  • DeGraves was held off the statsheet for the first 14 games of his career, but has since registered a point in each of the last four.

 

STREAKS OF NOTE

  • Along with DeGraves a pair of Nittany Lions in freshman JJ Wiebusch and sophomore Matt DiMarsico enter the weekend one-game shy of their career-best point streaks.
  • DiMarsico is currently riding a four-game point streak and has points in eight of his last 10 games, while Wiebusch snapped a six-game pointless drought two weeks ago and has now registered points in three-straight games.

 

WHAT’S UP DOC?

  • Senior captain Simon Mack has points in five of his last seven games and with 18 points on the year has set a new career-best.
  • Mack’s 18 points are the fourth-most in the Big Ten among defensemen and rank tied for 16th nationally while his 17 helpers rank second among Big Ten blueliners and are good for fifth in the nation.
  • With 53 career points, the senior ranks eighth on the Penn State all-time list for points by a defenseman while his 44 assists are good for the sixth-most. Mack’s 17 assists on the year have also cracked the top-10 most by a Nittany Lion blueliner in a single campaign as they rank tied for the seventh-most.

 

SLED HOCKEY SUCCESS

  • Last Sunday, 2024 Hockey Humanitarian winner Dylan Lugris and the Penn State hockey team hosted the third-annual Penn State Sled Hockey Classic and raised nearly $20,000 to be donated to the State College Coyotes bringing the grand total to nearly $70,000 in three years.
  • This year’s event featured two games with the opening game being a play-in game with the winner facing Penn State in the finale. This change is due to the fact that the Coyotes roster has grown from eight players to over 30 players. The Coyotes were once again victorious, this time in a shootout following a 2-2 tie.

 

NEXT UP

Penn State remains on the road as the Nittany Lions travel to Madison, Wisconsin for a weekend battle with the Badgers before returning home for a Valentines Weekend clash with Notre Dame.

For more information on the 2024-25 season, visit the men's hockey ticket page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Follow the Nittany Lions

Follow the Nittany Lions

Visit GoPSUSports.com for more information on Penn State men's ice hockey. Fans can keep up to date with all things Hockey Valley on X and Instagram @PennStateMHKY, in addition to the team’s Facebook page at facebook.com/pennstatemenshockey.