No. 8 Men's Hockey Travels to No. 5 Wisconsin for Top-10 Battle

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

• This week marks the 58th and 59th meetings in the all-time series as Wisconsin is Penn State’s most common opponent.
• The Nittany Lions hold the 29-25-3 edge in the series including a series sweep last year in Madison that ended a seven-game Badger winning-streak which was preceded by a six-game Penn State winning streak. The teams are an even 12-12-2 all-time in Madison.
• Penn State enters the weekend having won five-straight games overall as well as five-straight Big Ten games, the longest regular-season conference winning streak for the Nittany Lions in program history.
• The Nittany Lions are coming off their third conference sweep of the season, just one shy of their single-season record of four achieved during the 2016-17 season.
• Junior Aiden Fink leads all Nittany Lions with eight points in eight career games against the Badgers on four goals and four assists while senior Ben Schoen has added four goals and three assists for seven points in eight games against the Badgers. Junior Reese Laubach has also seen success against the Badgers with seven points in eight games on three goals and four assists.
• Despite a sub .500 record for the first time in his coaching career last season, Wisconsin Bench Boss Mike Hastings remains the active leader in career win percentage ranking fourth all-time at 69.4 percent in his 13+ seasons as head coach.
• Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky is sitting just three wins shy of 250 at Penn State while ranking as the eighth winningest coach among active coaches with 420 total victories.

THE YOUTH OF COLLEGE HOCKEY

• Six of the seven programs in the Big Ten are ranked among the 20 youngest teams in the nation.
• Penn State is the fourth youngest team in the Big Ten and 13th youngest in the nation this season with an average age of 21 years and eight months while Wisconsin is the fifth youngest team in the Big Ten and 19th youngest nationally with an average age of 21 years and nine months.

SCOUTING WISCONSIN

• The Badgers enter the weekend 15-5-2 after being swept at home by No. 2 Michigan State. Wisconsin is currently fourth in the Big Ten standings with 22 points and an 8-4-0 record, three points back of the Nittany Lions for second.
• On Saturday, the Badgers will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2006 NCAA championship as part of alumni night.
• The Badgers stumbled a bit last year following a successful 2023-24 season, but have rebounded and are one of the top teams in the nation after returning seven of their top eight scorers from last season led by Quinn Finley who paces the team with 10 goals in 20 games this season. Christian Fitzgerald is tied with Finley for the team-lead with 10 goals as well.
• Gavin Morrissey leads the team in points with a trio of goals and a team-high 18 helpers for 21 points while Ben Dexheimer is the highest scoring defensemen in the Big Ten with 18 points, a mark tied for 11th nationally.
• With an assist in each of his last four games, senior forward Tyson Dyck is on a career-best four-game point streak.
• Between the pipes Daniel Hauser has impressed in his first season in Madison posting a 13-3-2 record with a .913 save percentage and a 2.10 goals-against average.
• The Badger powerplay has also excelled converting 28 percent (23-for-82) of the time to rank second in the Big Ten and fifth in the nation.
• Wisconsin ranks second in the Big Ten and third in the nation averaging 3.95 goals per game while allowing just 2.55 to rank third in the Big Ten and 13th in nationally.
• Like the Nittany Lions, the Badgers also excel in the third period outscoring opponents 34-20 over the final 20 minutes.
• Wisconsin has been strong on the dot this season ranking second in the Big Ten and ninth nationally winning 53.5 percent of its draws led by Morrissey at 57.9 percent.

START THE BATTLE, FINISH THE FIGHT

• Penn State has scored first in 11 of its first 22 games boasting an 10-1-0 record in such games.
• The Nittany Lions have also been strong holding leads late, posting an 10-1-0 record when leading after two periods of play with the lone loss coming in their home opener against Clarkson. Penn State is outscoring opponents 29-14 in the third period this season.

A HAT-TRICK OF HATTYS

• Junior Matt DiMarsico is riding a five-game point streak (6-3-9) to tie his career-best while having scored at least one goal in four-straight games, the longest such streak of his career.
• Last Friday in a 4-1 victory over Notre Dame, DiMarsico registered his third hat-trick of the season and his first career hatty against a Big Ten opponent.
• The junior is the first Nittany Lion to register multiple hat-tricks in a season as Penn State now has five on the year and 20 overall.
• DiMarsico was named the B1G First Star of the Week following his four-goal weekend against Notre Dame and he now leads the team in both goals (14) and points (26) with his goal total ranking tied for second in the Big Ten and eighth nationally.
• DiMarsico scored the game-winning goal in each contest over the weekend giving him a team-high three GWG’s this season and seven for his career to tie for sixth all-time. Three of his goals came on the powerplay giving him five on the season to rank second behind JJ Wiebusch’s six. The junior now has nine powerplay goals for his career ranking just outside the top-10 all-time at Penn State.

CRESPO GETTING IT IN

• Senior alternate captain Jarod Crespo is in the midst of a career-year with career-highs in goals (4) and points (11).
• Over his last five games, Crespo has three goals and four assists for seven points to go along with three multi-point efforts and a plus-8 rating.
• Crespo also became just the second Nittany Lion defenseman all-time to register a hat-trick as he did against RIT at the beginning of the month joining Cole Hults (10/11/19 vs. Sacred Heart).

PHENOMENAL FINK

• Junior Aiden Fink became the ninth Nittany Lion all-time to hit 100 points two weeks ago achieving the milestone in just 87 games, the quickest in program history, surpassing the 102 games it took Alex Limoges ‘21.
• Since returning to action after missing seven games with an upper-body injury to close out the first semester, Fink has nine points (1G, 8A) in six games. Overall, the junior has three goals and 15 assists for 18 points in 15 games this season to rank fifth on the team in scoring.
• Last Saturday against Notre Dame, Fink tied his career-high in points and assists with four helpers. He also surpassed both Liam Folkes ‘20 and assistant coach Andrew Sturtz ‘20 on the all-time points list and currently sits seventh with 105 points.