Penn State heads to Columbus as they face No. 17 Ohio State as both teams return to Big Ten play post-Thanksgiving.
Ohio State is coming off six straight away games, including a two-game losing streak against Princeton and two conference losses against Michigan State from almost a month ago when they let up four goals in both games. The Buckeyes are 2-2 in the Big Ten, with their two wins coming against Wisconsin back in October, and the final score of both of those games had final scores of 2-1.
Penn State is coming off a two-game winning streak against Colgate, with John Seifarth between the pipes. The Nittany Lions are 0-6 in the Big Ten; however, in each series against Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, at least one game was a one-goal game.
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Last season, the Nittany Lions went 4-0 against the Buckeyes; three of the four games were one-goal games, and the other was a 5-2 win on the road. Not only were last season's games close, but 13 of the last 15 games the teams have faced each other have been one-goal games. Last season was the first time Penn State swept Ohio State in Columbus.
The Buckeyes are without Stephen Halliday and Scooter Brickey, who paced the team with 36 and 26 points, respectively, and the lone players who scored double-digit goals.
Sophomore transfer from Alaska-Anchorage, Riley Thompson, leads the Buckeyes in points this season with 15 between five goals and 10 assists. Davis Burnside, Damien Carfagna, and Gunnarwolfe Fontaine are all tied for second on the team in points, each with 12. Burnside has six goals and six assists, and Carfagna and Fontaine each have four goals and eight assists. The team averages 3.12 goals per game.
Max Montes and Patrick Guzzo lead the Buckeyes in conference play with three points each. Montes has three goals, and Guzzo has one goal and two assists. As a team, they average 1.75 goals per game.
Special teams can make or break a season, and this year, the Ohio State powerplay is struggling. Its success rate is only 12.5 percent, ranking last in the conference and 54th in the nation. On the other hand, the team's penalty kill has an 82.9 percent success rate, good for third in the conference and 23rd in the nation.
The Buckeyes' goaltending duo remains the same as last season: Logan Terness and Kristoffer Eberly. The latter holds a 5-1-0 record, with just 1.60 goals against and a .933 goals-against average, which are second and third in the conference, respectively. His .933 goals-against average is good for seventh in the nation.
The duo's combined save percentage of .914 is third-best in the conference, behind Michigan and Minnesota, and is tied for 15th nationally. The tandoms' 2.2 goals per game average is also third in the conference and 16th in the nation.
The Nittany Lions are led by sophomore Aiden Fink, who has 21 points between eight goals and 13 assists. His six goals and six assists last month are tied for second in the conference and fifth in the nation. Three of FInks’ eight goals have been on the powerplay, which also puts him good for first on the team and tied for third in the Big Ten, his nine total powerplay points are good for the top spot in the conference.
Fink’s, Reese Laubach, is second on the team in points with 13 between six goals and seven assists. Their third linemate, Dane Dowiak, has been on a hot streak, scoring two goals that were 2 seconds apart in the first 65 seconds against Michigan; Dowiak has three goals in his last four games and is on a career-high four-game point streak.
Graduate student Jimmy Dowd Jr. plays well against Ohio State during his tenure on the team. He has recorded 14 points against the team between three goals and 11 assists. His 14 points against the Buckeyes are 20.5 percent of his career points.
The Nittany Lions special teams have swapped. The powerplay started the year struggling, going 3-for-20 in the first seven games, but has converted in five of the last six games including four-straight, going 9-for-26 in the six-game stretch. The 12-for-46 total puts the Nittany Lions second in the BIg Ten and ninth in the nation on the man-advantage.
“I think that no matter how good your powerplay is if you’re going to have to kill five minute majors and five-on-threes, that’s going to affect your percentage big time,” coach Guy Gadowsky said.
The penalty kill was off to a strong startt at th ebeginning of the season but struggled quite a bit against Michigan, however it went a perfect 27-for-27 overall in non-conference play including the recent series against Colgate.
The Nittany Lions have had quite a unique situation between the pipes in the last two series, junior transfer Arsenii Sergeev had been playing every minute for Penn State until he got injured while facing Wisconsin. The lone returning netwminder Noah Grannan played the remainder of the series and the majority of the Michigan series recording a .761 save percentage and 17 goals against in his three starts and four total games. The coaches made the decision to play John Seifarth at the end of the second Michigan game, who was brought up from the club team at the conclusion of last season, Seifarth played the entire colgate series holding on to a 2-0 record in games he has started, only allowing six goals and a .902 save percentage in his three games.
The Nittany Lions face the Buckeyes tonight at 7:30 in Columbus.
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