Penn State Hockey is all set take on the Boston University Terriers in the Frozen Four for the first time in program history tonight in St. Louis!
The Terriers and Nittany Lions have yet to play each other, so what better time than in the Frozen Four? Boston University has made it to the Frozen Four 25 times; this is the team's third straight appearance. The Terriers have five National Championships, the last one being in 2009 before the Nittany Lions were a Division I program.
TV: ESPN2
WHEN: 8:30pm ET
WHERE: Enterprise Center (St. Louis, Missouri)
Both teams are offensive powerhouses, with the Terriers having 145 goals this season, averaging 3.82 per game, and the Nittany Lions having a close 138, averaging 3.54 per game.
The Terriers are led by the Hutson brothers, with Quinn having 50 points (23g, 27a) and younger brother Cole notching 46 points (14g,32a), with his 32 assists securing him the team-high in assists.
Cole Eiserman also has 23 goals, 10 of which have been on the powerplay, which puts him second in the nation in powerplay goals only behind Denver’s Sam Harris, who has 11.
Sophomore Aiden Fink leads the Nittany Lions with 53 points (23g, 30a). Throughout the tournament, however, the freshman class has been on fire, with Dane Dowiak scoring three goals, JJ Wiebusch getting two goals and one assist, and Charlie Cerrato collecting five assists in Allentown.
Cerrato’s 15 goals and 27 assists take the lead for Big Ten freshman. Wiebusch’s 33 between 14 goals and 19 assists are good for the third-most points by a Big Ten freshman.
One place neither team wants to be tonight is the penalty kill, the Terriers and Nittany Lions are two of only eight teams in the league with more than 30 goals on the man-advantage this season. Boston University is 28.4 percent on the powerplay (38-for-134), which places them fourth in the nation. Penn State has 33 goals on the powerplay on 138 chances, the 23.4 percent success rate puts them at 15th in the nation but fifth in powerplay goals.
Neither team has had great penalty-killing this season. The Terriers came into the tournament with the worst penalty-kill percentage of all teams that made the tournament, with a 78.5 success rate. The Nittany Lions aren’t much better, as they came into the tournament second to last in the category with a 79.3 percent success rate; however, in non-conference games, they have a perfect 37-for-37 record.
“What I love most bout our penalty kill is the confidence that Juliano Pagliaro had in the team and in himself because the past year we didn’t have the great numbers, but he looked at it analytic wise and would just dissect film, and just said jeez I really like what we're doing, and a number of goals were scored at the very end of the power plays. And what I give him a ton of credit for is he believed himself, and he didn’t change. He got a little bit better.” head coach Guy Gadowksy said.
We’ve got a Russian battle happening down in the creases, with Mikhail Yegorov in net for Boston University and Arsenii Sergeevin net for Penn State. Yegorov is from St. Petersberg, and Sergeev is from Yaroslavl, which are about 9 hours from each other. Yegorov didn’t make an appearance for the Terriers until January, but in his 16 starts, he has a .931 save percentage and a 2.04 goals-against average. Sergeev has been the Nittany Lions starter all season, only missing part of November and all of December from injury; through his 32 starts, he has a .918 save percentage and a 2.6 goals-against average.
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