Spartans travel to Happy Valley for weekend series with the Nittany Lions
The Spartans face off against Penn State this weekend at the Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, PA. The puck drops at 7 PM Friday and 6 PM Saturday. Both games are on the Big Ten Network.
Penn State is 8-9-1 overall and only 1-8-1 in the Big Ten, which puts them alone in last place in the conference. The Lions have played one series since returning from the holiday break, facing Notre Dame last weekend. They scored their only conference victory so far with a 3-0 win against the Irish in South Bend on Sunday. This was after Penn State and Notre Dame skated to a 3-3 tie, with Notre Dame winning the shoot-out, in the Frozen Confines series at Wrigley Field in Chicago on January 3. Notre Dame sits just one point ahead of Penn State in the conference standings after their series.
Despite the poor conference record, Penn State has been competitive in several Big Ten games so far. They fell to Michigan 6-5 on November 22 and 5-4 to Wisconsin in overtime on November 15. Penn State suffered another one goal loss, falling 1-0 to Minnesota on November 2.
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The Lions have fared much better out of conference. They dropped another one goal game at Quinnipiac in October but have series sweeps against Alaska, St. Lawrence, and Colgate.
Our Spartans come to Penn State with a 17-2-1 record and remain ranked #1 in the nation after a very entertaining and competitive weekend series against Wisconsin. MSU defeated the Badgers 4-3 in East Lansing last Thursday and again 4-3 in overtime in the nightcap of the Frozen Confines event on Saturday. After giving up a late third period goal that tied it at Wrigley, after the Badgers pulled their goalie, MSU’s Daniel Russell scored with just 1.4 seconds left in overtime to win it for the Spartans.
Michigan State is tied with Minnesota atop the Big Ten standings with 24 points. The teams have identical 8-1-1 records. Ohio State and Wisconsin, each with 20 points, follow MSU and Minnesota but Wisconsin has played 14 conference games compared to 10 for the other leaders.
Aiden Fink, a sophomore forward from Calgary, leads the Lions, and is fourth in the Big Ten, in scoring with 26 points (9 goals, 17 assists) and Penn State is +12 when he’s on the ice. After Fink, freshman forward Charlie Cerrato (8 goals, 7 assists, +5) and sophomore forward Reese Laubach (8, 7, +7) each have 15 points.
MSU’s Isaac Howard is just ahead of Fink with 13 goals, 14 assists and also has +/- of 12. After two goals against Wisconsin on Saturday, including the game winner, Daniel Russell has 16 points (10 goals, 6 assists) and a +/- of 14.
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Arenii Sergeev and John Seifarth have split time in the net for Penn State this season. Sergeev is a UConn transfer from Russia and a seventh round pick by the Calgary Flames in the 2021 NHL entry draft. He has produced a 5-4-1 record, a 92.2 save percentage, and 2.16 goals against average so far this year. Seifarth has gone 3-2 with a 2.49 GAA and 91.8 save percentage.
For comparison, MSU’s Trey Augustine has a 1.98 GAA and saves 93% of the shots he faces. Augustine’s GAA and save percentage are both third best in the Big Ten behind only Ohio State’s Kristoffer Eberly (1.50, 93.7) and Minnesota’s Liam Souliere (1.70, 93.3).
Luca Di Pasquo has minded the MSU net for the last four games while Augustine was away winning a second straight World Junior Hockey championship with Team USA. Di Pasquo led MSU to a Great Lakes Invitational title with a 2-0 win against Northern Michigan and 3-1 victory over #4 Western Michigan before the New Year. Di Pasquo was named the GLI MVP and was also in net for both of MSU’s victories against Wisconsin this past weekend.
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Penn State has scored 3.22 goals per game but that dips to 2.7 in conference games. MSU puts it in net at a rate of 3.4 per game and that improves to a league-leading 3.9 in Big Ten games. The Lions give up a conference worst 4.14 goals in each conference game while MSU only gives up 2.64.
Michigan State is in a tight conference race with Minnesota while Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Michigan are all having strong seasons and are pushing the Spartans and Gophers in the Big Ten. After the series with Penn State, MSU faces two game sets with Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Michigan again before closing the regular season with Penn State again and Notre Dame. The Spartans need a sweep here against Penn State before a really tough month of hockey.