Gophers Host Penn State (11-19-21 & 11-20-21)

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Men's Hockey Opens Four-Game Road Swing at No. 7 Minnesota

The Penn State men's ice hockey team travels to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for a Big Ten series against No. 7 Minnesota on Friday and Saturday evening to begin a stretch of four games over six days prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

gopsusports.com

THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP

• This weekend marks the 34th and 35th meetings all-time with Minnesota holding the slim 17-15-1 edge, however, dating back to Penn State's 4-3 victory in double overtime of the 2017 Big Ten Tournament semifinals, the Nittany Lions are 12-4-1 in the last 17 meetings with two of those losses coming last November to open the 2020-21 campaign at Mariucci.
• This weekend, Penn State and Minnesota are meeting on the exact same dates at the exact same location just one year later of those first two games of the 2020-21 season where the Gophers secured 4-1 and 3-2 victories. Penn State is just 5-11-0 all-time at Mariucci Arena.
• Junior Kevin Wall leads all current Nittany Lions with four goals and two assists for six points in six career games against the Gophers including an active three-game goal-streak against Minnesota. Wall has scored at least one point in all but one game against the Gophers in his career including goals in four of six career games.
• In six career games against his former team, senior Clayton Phillips has three points, all of which came in his first two games back in Mariucci as an opposing player during the 2019-20 season. Phillips even potted the game-winning tally to complete Penn State's first-ever sweep of the Gophers at 3M Arena on November 15-16, 2019.
• Junior Connor McMenamin has added one goal and one assist in five games against the Gophers while sophomore Christian Sarlo tallied his first collegiate goal last season against Minnesota

COPE IS DOPE

• Senior Ben Copeland is hitting his stride registering all eight of his points over the last seven games, with at least one point in six of those seven games.
• Copeland's eight points are good for third on the team. The Edina, Minnesota native recorded goals in back-to-back games last weekend against Michigan for just the second time in his career and the first time since his freshman campaign at Colorado College. Copeland has scored all three of his goals this season in the past five games.
• Copeland leads Penn State with four powerplay points on two goals and two assists

 

[GopherPete]

Hard to expect anything other than a split until this teams shows it can tighten things up defensively.

 

[bonin21]

Every year they play like shit in a quarter of the games and people think they'll get better when really it's who they are.

Prima donna pussies.

 

[bonin21]

Pathetic.

More than a third of the way through the season, most disappointing and underachieving team I can remember in the last 10+ years.

 

[MRJ]

Gopher hockey. Lol. What an embarrassment. And they charge $50 per game to watch this utter garbage? Yeah, sure, if you say so. Break out the gimmicks from the U to trick people into coming to watch this crap!

 

[TNGophfan]

Will be interesting to watch next 3 games. See if they show up tomorrow vs PSU then weekend in Grand Forks. BTW, UMD beat NDAK on the road 4 - 1 tonight. Will see what Gophs are made of.

 

[upnorthkid]

really excited to watch us battle for a 4 seed this year with all the talent we have on this roster. this team should be able to impose their will on other teams and instead choose to play lackadaisical bullshit hockey. tBob needs to get this team to get its shit together