No. 5 Men's Hockey Visits Notre Dame For Weekend Set

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

• This week marks the 42nd and 43rd meetings between the two teams with Notre Dame holding the 21-14-6 advantage in the all-time series, however, Penn State has won five-straight following a sweep at Pegula Ice Arena back in January along with securing 10-of-12 points in last year’s series.
• Since the start of the 2022-23 season Penn State holds the 7-4-3 record, however, the Nittany Lions have won just twice in seven meetings at Compton Family Ice Arena during that span and are just 6-13-1 overall in South Bend.
• Junior Aiden Fink leads all Nittany Lions with 12 points in 10 career games against the Irish with three goals and nine assists while classmate Matt DiMarsico has added 10 points on seven goals, including a hat-trick earlier this season, and three assists in 10 games. Reese Laubach has added two goals and four assists for six points.
• Following Jeff Jackson’s retirement, Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky is now the longest tenured coach in the Big Ten and the 13th longest tenured in the nation, with this his 14th season in Hockey Valley.
• Gadowsky secured win No. 250 at Penn State last Friday and currently ranks tied with longtime Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet for 27th all-time with 424 wins, a mark good for eighth among active coaches.
• Penn State reached 20 wins for the seventh time in the last 11 years last weekend and sit just two shy of last season’s win total of 22 and five shy of the single-season program record of 25 wins dating back to the 2016-17 season.
• With 12 conference victories, Penn State has tied its 2019-20 single-season record for Big Ten wins while its 38 points are just three shy of that season’s total of 41.
• 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 Notre Dame is the sixth youngest team in the Big Ten and 20th youngest nationally with an average age of 21 years and nine months.

SCOUTING NOTRE DAME

• The Irish enter the weekend after being swept by No. 1 Michigan State in East Lansing last weekend. Notre Dame is just 6-22-4 on the year and 2-17-1 in Big Ten play.
• This marks the first season under the guidance of Brock Sheahan after longtime Bench Boss Jeff Jackson retired in the offseason. Sheahan served as associate head coach the past two seasons in South Bend prior to his promotion.
• The Irish return six of their top-nine scorers from a season ago including leading scorer Cole Knuble who paced the team with 39 points in 34 games. Knuble is currently third on the team with 25 points on seven goals and a team-high 18 assists.
• ND is paced by Michigan transfer Evan Werner with 28 points on a team-best 15 goals and 13 assists while both Sutter Muzzatti and Danny Nelson have added 11 goals.
• Between the pipes is sophomore Nicholas Kempf who manned the crease for Team USA at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championships over the holidays. Kempf has started 27-of-30 games this season and has a 3.56 goals-against average and an .894 save percentage, but was injured last Thursday against the Spartans. Luke Pearson came in relief and started Friday. In four games this season Pearson is 0-3-0 with a 5.23 goals-against average and an .869 save percentage.
• As a team the Irish are allowing 4.13 goals against with an .880 save percentage to rank 62nd and 60th nationally out of 63 teams.
• Notre Dame is averaging just 2.69 goals per game this season ranking last in the Big Ten and 45th nationally, however, the Irish have converted 28-of-98 (28.6 percent) on the man-advantage, a mark good for third in the Big Ten and fourth in the nation. The Irish PK hasn’t fared as good killing just 76.5 percent of opponent chances to rank fourth in the Big Ten but just 49th in the nation.
• In comparison, Penn State’s powerplay is fifth in the Big Ten and eighth nationally at 27.5 percent while the Nittany Lion PK tops the conference and ranks 12th in the nation at 83.6 percent.

PHENOMENAL FINK

• Not to be outdone, junior Aiden Fink had one goal and six assists for seven points in the OSU sweep including a career-best five-point (1G, 4A) effort on Friday. The five points tied the previous single-game record that McKenna shattered.
• Fink is now up to fourth on the team in scoring with 29 points (6G, 23A) on the year including 20 points on four goals and 16 assists in 14 games this semester after returning from a thumb injury suffered at the end of October.
• Fink continued his rise in the Penn State record book as he is now tied with Brandon Biro ‘ 20 for fifth on the all-time points list with 116 while his 44 goals are tied with David Goodwin ‘17 for eighth and his 72 assists rank fifth. He also extended his own record for powerplay goals to 18.

WE’VE GOT THE POWER

• Penn State went a perfect 5-for-5 on the man-advantage in Friday night’s 11-4 victory and finished the weekend 7-for-11 on the powerplay. The five PPG’s on Friday tie the single-game program record from over 10 years ago.
• The Nittany Lions are now converting at 27.5 percent (36-for-131) on the year, a mark good for just fifth in the Big Ten, but eighth in the nation. The 36 powerplay goals are a new single-season program record and rank tops in the Big Ten and just one shy of Minnesota-Duluth’s national leading 37.
• DiMarsico, Smith and Wiebusch each have seven powerplay goals this season to tie for the second-most in a single-season all-time, trailing only Fink who potted eight powerplay goals in each of his first two seasons in Hockey Valley.
• The seven man-advantage tallies are tied for the fourth-most in the Big Ten and eighth in the nation, while Smith leads all defensemen nationally with his seven PPG’s, a mark that is tops all-time among Penn State blueliners both single-season and career.

THIRD PERIOD THEATRICS

• Penn State outscored Ohio State 5-1 in the third period last weekend including netting a pair of goals on Saturday to erase a deficit and force overtime.
• The Nittany Lions are now outscoring their opponents 47-22 over the final frame this season and have won six games when trailing after two periods after not having a single such victory last season.
• Penn State has been great this season when trailing in games as they have score 92 of its 116 goals (81 percent) from the second period on.

SMALL BENCH, BIG HEARTS

• Five times this season Penn State has failed to have enough healthy bodies to dress a full lineup of 19 skaters, the Nittany Lions are 4-1-0 in those contests.
• Furthermore, twice this season Penn State has had a lineup of only 17 healthy skaters and have managed to win both of those contests.

DYNAMIC DIMARSICO

• Junior Matt DiMarsico tied his career-best with four points last Friday on two goals and two assists before adding another assist Saturday.
• DiMarsico’s 17 goals lead the team and tie his career-high from last season while ranking fifth in the Big Ten and tied for 18th nationally. They are also tied for the ninth-most in a single-season at Penn State. His 39 points are also a career-best and the 10th-most in a single-season while ranking sixth in the Big Ten and tied for 13th nationally.
• With 97 career points, DiMarsico surpassed Evan Barratt and stands alone in 10th on the Penn State all-time scoring list while his 41 goals are tied with Biro for 10th.