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Liam Souliere breaks Penn State shutout record

The No. 13 Penn State Nittany Lions made history last night. For the first time in program history, it beat a top-ranked program. While the team itself made history in their 3-0 win against the No. 1 Michigan Wolverines, junior goaltender Liam Souliere also put himself in the Penn State record books.

Following his second career shutout, Souliere has not allowed a goal in 176:19 of play, which breaks former Penn State goaltender Oskar Autio's streak of 167:09 he set back in 2019-20. Furthermore, this was the first time in Penn State history the Lions had two straight shutouts.

Souliere split time with Autio last season, so this year is the first time Penn State has a deemed number one goaltender since Peyton Jones. At the beginning of the season, he talked about how starting in the Big Ten Tournament helped his confidence.

"The Big Ten is a big big jump," coach Guy Gadowsky said postgame. "I think goaltenders really relish and can soak in every experience every opportunity to get a start. When he won the [starting] job, you saw him get better and better."

The Nittany Lions held the Wolverines to 17 shots on goal. Michigan had the majority of its chances in the second period with 10 shots. Souliere credited the team in front of him for his stellar performance.

"The whole team made my job a lot easier," Souliere said. "We contained them and we played deep all night. They didn't really get any chances off the rush, which is where they usually get all their goals from."

The Brampton, Ontario, native looks more comfortable between the pipes. His movements were fluid and his rebound control was excellent.

"There was a lot of activity and a lot of skill and a lot of speed coming at him, but he seemed to just be fairly comfortable." Gadowsky said.

Sharp goaltending gives a team momentum, especially when its goaltender comes up with timely saves. Michigan started to turn up the heat toward the end of the third period. Souliere stopped pucks that needed to be saved.

"[Souliere] made some big saves and we didn't lose momentum." Ashton Calder said.

Souliere is going to have to continue to be sharp when these two teams face off Saturday at Pegula Ice Arena.

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