10/20/2022 other sports Edit

SERIES PREVIEW: No. 18 Penn State Hockey versus St. Thomas

Jacob Cheris • Happy Valley Insider

Hockey Writer

Jacob is currently a senior at Penn State majoring in broadcast journalism. He is from Gaithersburg, Maryland and has played hockey for almost 13 years. His favorite team is the Washington Capitals.

The No. 18 Penn State Nittany Lions play one more non-conference series before starting Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions will face-off against the St. Thomas Tommies. Penn State (4-0-0) swept the Tommies last year on the road in very dominating fashion.

Penn State swept the Mercyhurst Lakers in a home-and-home series last week. In that series, more Nittany Lions got on the scoresheet for the first time. Ben Schoen and freshman Dylan Gratton each got their first tallies in Game 1, where Penn State ended up winning 6-3.

Tyler Paquette and Paul DeNaples also scored their first goals of the season in Game 2 in the 4-1 win.

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Right now, Penn State leads the nation with 5.5 goals per game. Along with the scoring depth that the Nittany Lions boast, the veteran leadership is what separates them from the Tommies.

"We're old. We have experience. We have guys that know how to win," Schoen said. "For the sophomores and freshmen, it's just sticking with what they've done in the past and the success they've had. We're just going to keep moving forward with the leaders we have."

Head coach Guy Gadowsky will have to juggle the defensive pairings this week. Freshman defenseman Carter Schade was injured in the second period at Mercyhurst after taking a hit that kept him out for the rest of the game.

Schade, who only has one assist through four games, has been playing alongside Jimmy Dowd Jr. Gadowsky said that the injury is an upper-body injury and he is day-to-day. With Schade's questionable status for Thursday, senior defenseman Kenny Johnson will likely make his season debut on the left side with Dowd Jr.

The Lions are still without Chase McLane, who is still dealing with a lower-body injury he sustained last year.

St. Thomas (1-3-0) moved up from a Division III to a Division I program last year and went 3-32-1, which was the worst record in the CCHA. The Tommies are a very young and inexperienced team, which features 12 rookies. Despite their top point scorer last year, Christiano Versich, no longer on the Tommies' roster, Gadowsky noticed improvements in the four games they have played in.

"I think they're playing with a lot more structure and they've added some dangerous players," Gadowsky said.

Freshmen forwards Ryan O'Neill and Lucas Wahlin each leads the Tommies with three points (one goal, two assists). St. Thomas is coming off a 5-2 loss against the United States U18 National Team in an exhibition contest. Its only win of the season came in a 3-2 overtime win against the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks.

Sophomore netminder Aaron Trotter will likely man the crease for St. Thomas on Thursday. Trotter has started three times and has a 3.04 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage.

Special teams have been a problem for the Nittany Lions so far. While the power play is sitting at 30%, which leads the Big Ten, the penalty kill has been a problem.

"I think we need to be more aggressive and I thought we did good job last weekend," Christian Berger said. "You always have to try to get better because special teams are so important especially in our league."

Penn State has allowed five power-play goals, which is second in the conference and tied for 10th in the nation. The penalty kill unit was 4-for-5 and even though it gave up one power-play goal, there were a lot of failed clearing attempts that could have resulted in goals.

"I'd much rather just not take penalties, " Gadowsky said. "Our guys play hard and they're aggressive and that's part of our identity. But you can also do that without taking penalties."