THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

• This weekend marks the 56th and 57th meetings all-time between Penn State and Wisconsin as the Badgers are the most common opponent for the Nittany Lions in the first 12 years of the program.
• Penn State holds the 27-25-3 advantage, however, the Badgers hold the slim 12-10-2 mark in Madison. Wisconsin is currently on a seven-game winning streak against the Nittany Lions dating back to a 2-1 victory on February 25, 2023. The Badgers are outscoring the Nittany Lions 32-14 in those seven games.
• The seven-straight wins for the Badgers come after Penn State rattled off a streak of six-straight wins outscoring Wisconsin 28-9 with an average margin of victory of 3.17 goals per game over that stretch. The seven-straight wins ties the longest stretch of consecutive victories by one team in the series dating back to a stretch of seven-straight Nittany Lion wins from December 5, 2014, through March 4, 2016.
• The Nittany Lions went 5-1-3 in the month of January, their best start to the second half of the season all-time and the most wins in the month since going 6-4-0 in January 2021.
• Senior Danny Dzhaniyev leads Penn State with 10 points on four goals and six assists in 14 career games against the Badgers while Ben Schoen has added four goals of his own to go along with three assists for seven points in eight games against Wisconsin.
• This weekend pits two of the winningest coaches of all-time against each other as Guy Gadowsky sits 12th among active coaches and tied for 31st all-time with 394 wins while Wisconsin’s Mike Hastings ranks 14th among active coaches and 44th all-time with 336 victories. Hastings is the active leader in win percentage as he leads his team to victory 70.1 percent of the time, a mark good for the fourth best winning percentage all-time.
• Penn State (21 years, 9 months) is the 3rd-youngest team in the Big Ten and 12th nationally while Wisconsin (22 years, 1 month) is the oldest team in the conference ranking 24th in the nation.

CHASING 400

• With 394 career wins, Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky is tied with former Wisconsin and CC head man Bob Johnson for 31st all-time 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.

SCOUTING WISCONSIN

• The Badgers had their winningest season in recent memory in 2023-24 going 26-12-2 and reaching the NCAA Tournament before bowing out to Quinnipiac in the first round. After a 2-8-0 start to this season, Wisconsin has improved to 11-14-3 on the year but enter the weekend just 2-4-2 since the calendar flipped to January.
• The Badgers are without three of its top-5 leading scorers from last season including each of the top two in Cruz Lucius and David Silye while leading goal scorer Carson Bantle also graduated. Bantle had 14 goals a season ago while Lucius had 13 and a team-best 34 points. Silye led the team with 23 assists and was second with 32 points.
• Simon Tassy is the leading returning point getter for the Badgers as he ranked third on the team with 12 goals and 28 points a season ago, however, Tassy has failed to regain that scoring touch as he has just nine points in 22 games this season.
• Quinn Finley leads the team with 34 points on 19 goals and 15 assists including seven powerplay tallies to rank second in the Big Ten and tied for sixth in the nation. Finley’s 34 points are good for fourth in the conference.
• Ryland Mosley has added 12 goals and 29 points while Gavin Morrissey has a team high 20 assists to go along with nine goals for 29 points as well.
• The Badgers are also without the services of the 2024 Mike Richter Award winner, Kyle McClellan, between the pipes as RIT transfer Tommy Scarfone has taken the reigns starting 22 of 28 games this season posting a 9-10-3 record with a 2.47 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
• Like most things, specialty teams for the Badgers have also improved as the season has gone on with Wisconsin ranking second in the Big Ten on the PK at 80.3 percent (49-for-61) while the powerplay unit has converted 22.7 percent (22-for-97) of its chances which sits just fifth in the conference but 19th nationally.