Penn State Hockey will host the St Lawrence Saints for their Home Opener at Pegula Ice Arena this weekend.
The Nittany Lions are 2-1 this season, while the Saints are 4-2. The Nittany Lions' lone loss was a 3-2 loss to Quinnipiac, the 2022-2023 NCAA Champions. The Saints' two losses are to Notre Dame and Ferris State, where they lost 4-1 and 1-0, respectively.
The teams faced off last October in New York when the Nittany Lions won 4-1. Penn State has the all-time series lead, winning three of the six games they have played, with one game in the 2015-2016 series being a 2-2 tie. The Nittany Lions are 8-2-1 in home openers played in Pegula Ice Arena, winning their last three home openers.
“I mean, they beat Quinnipiac, I think they shut them out in the tournament. So., they were playing their best hockey at the end of the year. Very different from the end of last year compared to the start of last year. So, I don't think there’s a lot we can look at that past when we played them at the start and say, oh, that’s what's going to happen.” Coach Guy Gadowksy stated when discussing how to approach tonight's game.
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The Saints have eight freshmen on their roster this year and retain four of their top-four point leaders from last season. Junior Felikss Gavars led the team in points as a sophomore with 26 points between 13 goals and 12 assists. Three current seniors were tied with 20 points with Drake Burgin (7g, 13a), Tomáš Mazura (6g, 14a), and Mason Waite (4g,16a). However, they are without their starting netminder from last season, Graduate Student Ben Kraws, who started in 36 of the teams' 39 games with a 14-17-6 record, a .919 save percentage, and 2.49 goals against average.
This season, the Saints are led by Greg Lapointe and Mazura, who both have eight points in six games, with Lapointe recording five goals and three assists and Mazura with one goal and seven assists. Waite is not far behind, with six points between two goals and four assists.
Through three games this season, the Nittany Lions are led by Aiden Fink, who has seven (3g, 4a), and then Simon Mack, Danny Dzhaniyev, and Reese Laubach each have four, with Laubach and Dzhaniyev each having a pair of goals and a pair of assists and Mack having one goal and three assists.
Senior Ben Schoen scored his first goal of the season against Quinnipiac in their last game, recording his first point since returning from a lower-body injury at the beginning of this season after not playing since January 20th, 2023, which was the Wear White game in Pegula.
“My whole family is coming. They haven’t seen me play since I’ve gotten injured, so it's going to be a heck of an experience. It’s going to be a lot of emotions for my mom and dad for sure. But to be back in front of Pegula and Penn State crowds is going to be pretty awesome, for sure.” Ben Schoen said.
This season, Mason Kucenski has taken over the net for the Saints; last season, he played in one game, allowing eight goals and a .826 save percentage. This season, he has started all six games for the Saints, averaging 2.06 goals against with a .930 save percentage.
The Nittany Lions have a new transfer from UCONN in net this season: Arsenii Sergeev. He has started all three games this season and is holding onto a .928 save percentage and 2.0 goals against average. He recorded his first shutout as a Nittany Lion in his second game against Alaska.
The Nittany Lions welcome fans to Pegula Ice Arena tonight for a 7 p.m. puck drop and tomorrow at 4 p.m.
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