No. 20 Penn State Hockey hosts No. 8 Michigan State tonight
No. 20 Penn State Hockey is set to face No. 8 Michigan State tonight at 7 in Pegula Ice Arena.
The teams faced off in East Lansing in November when the Nittany Lions won the first game in a shootout, and the Spartans won game two 5-3.
Michigan State is 13-4-3 overall and 7-1-2 in the conference, with their only official conference loss coming against Minnesota. The Spartans are led by sophomore transfer Joey Larson, who has 21 points between 11 goals and 10 assists. Karsen Dorwart, Red Savage, Isaac Howard, and Artyom Levshunov are all close behind with 20 points.
Michigan State leads the conference in goals per game, averaging 4.2, placing them third in the nation just behind Denver and Quinnipiac, who average 5.3 and 4.4, respectively.
Special teams might be the deal breaker this weekend as the Spartans are second in the conference on the power play and on the penalty kill, with a 28.1 percent conversion rate on the man advantage and an 81.9 percent success rate on the penalty kill.
Michigan State leads the Big Ten with 259 penalty minutes, the team's average of 12.95 penalty minutes per game, placing them 12th in the nation. While the team struggles to stay out of the box, the Spartans lead the Big Ten in short-handed goals with five, while Penn State has one scored by freshman Reese Laubach.
The Spartans lead the Big Ten in goals, lighting the lamp 83 times through 20 games; the Nittany Lions are not far behind at 79 goals through 20 games.
Freshman netminder Trey Augustine is returning for the Spartans after leading Team USA to the Gold Medal in the World Juniors in Sweden where he recorded a 1.75 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage only allowing seven goals against in his four games. Augustine has Started 17 games for the Spartans this season recording a 2.97 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. His save percentage places him third in the conference and 19th in the nation.
“It’s just the Big Ten the resort of the way so we’ve got to take advantage of everything because we are going to need a lot of points in the second half,” captain Christian Berger said.
The Nittany Lions are coming off of a huge 6-2 comeback against Army winning 7-6 to conclude their non-conference slate with a 8-2-0 record. The game marked the third time this season and 31st time in program history that the Nittany Lions have tallied seven or more goals in a game.
Penn State has averaged 3.95 goals per game this season placing them third in the Big Ten, just behind Michigan Stae and Michigan who have 4.15 and 4.0 respectively.
Junior Ryan Kirwan recorded his first career hat trick against the Knights, scoring all three goals back to back in a 4:33 time span between the second and third periods fore a natural hat trick. His thord goal which redirected off of his foot from CHristian Bergers shot tied the game 6-6. Kirwan was named the Big Ten second star of the week after his career-best four-point effort that night.
Kirwans hat trick was the third hat trick on the team this season after Jaques Bouquot and Aiden Fink recorded hat tricks earlier this season, marking the first time in program history the team has recorded three hat tricks in a single- season.
Frenshman Aiden Fink leads the team and Big Ten in points with 26 between 11 goals and 15 assists. His 11 goals are tied for third in the Big Ten with Larson of Michigan State, but leads all rookies in the conference. He ranks seventh in the nation and second among the rookies only behind Macklin Celebrini who is projected to go first overall in the 2024 draft. Fink’s 1.30 point per game average is currently the second-best single-season in program history just behind Evan Barrrat’s 1.34 points per game in the 2018-2019 season.
The ‘kid line” of Fink, Laubach and Matt DiMarsico has 18 goals and 29 assists combining for 47 points on the season and have a 3.62 points per game in 13 games since being placed together in November due to injury. Laubachs four game point streak his his career best including a two point, one goal and one assist against Army last weekend. Laubach is sixth on the team in points with 13 between six goals and seven assists. DiMarsico’s 19 points place him third on the team and tied for second among rookies in the Big Ten only behind Fink. DiMarsico’s 19 points place him at eleventh in the nation.
Junior defenseman Simon Mack has recorded at least one point in six of his last nine games with one goal and seven assists in that time span. Mack recorded one goal and one assist against Army last weekend for his second multi point game of the season and third of his career. Macks three goals lead all Nittany Lion defenseman.
Senior goaltender Liam Souliere has a 7-4-1 record this season averaging 3.17 goals against and a .863 save percentage, he has a 2-4-1 record in eight starts against the Spartans in his career with a .873 save percentage and 3.63 goals-against average. Sophomore net-minder Noah Grannan started his first game against the Spartans in November which ended in a shootout victory after he allowed three goals on 35 shots.
Tonight marks the 45th meeting between the two teams in which Penn State holds the 21-17-6 all time record an d 12-5-3 record at home in Pegula.
Barstools Spittin' Chiclets member Mike Grinnell will also be in attendance to see what Penn State Hockey is all about.
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