Minnesota (8-9-0 overall, 3-1-0-0 Big Ten) at No. 14/15 Penn State (12-3-3 overall, 2-0-0-0 Big Ten)
Game 18: Gophers at Penn State
Location: Pegula Ice Arena | State College, Pa.
Date: Friday, Jan. 8
Puck Drop: 5:33 p.m. CT
TV: BTN
Stream: BTN2Go
Radio: 1500 ESPN, Gopher Radio Network
Game 19: Gophers at Penn State
Location: Pegula Ice Arena | State College, Pa.
Date: Saturday, Jan. 9
Puck Drop: 2 p.m. CT
Stream: BTN PLUS
Radio: MyTalk 107.1, Gopher Radio Network
Inside the Matchup
When facing the relatively new Nittany Lions squad, the Gophers are a stellar 7-1-0.
Penn State’s only victory against the Maroon and Gold came last year at Pegula Ice Arena in a 4-3 overtime contest.
Minnesota then swept the Nittany Lions at home later in the year with 5-0 and 6-2 wins.
The Gophers hold a 5-0 National Championship advantage.
Storyline Central
Gordon Brunskill of the Centre Daily Times has a nice profile of Nittany Lion blueliner Luke Juha. Brunskill also includes some important information for the series including a Penn State injury update.
Ben Jones of StateCollege.com has a nice preview of the series from the Penn State perspective.
Paula C. Weston of USCHO presents a case for what each team in the Big Ten must do to have a successful year in conference play.
Notes and Quotes
Don Lucia
On Penn State getting better every year:
“I told the guys today, what’s the difference between Penn State now versus a year ago? Well, they have 15 juniors and seniors. They’ve got a veteran team. We’ll probably play Friday night without a senior in our lineup. Now, all of a sudden, they’re veteran. They’re not as easy team to play against because of how hard they compete. They’re relentless on pucks. They shoot from everywhere.
“That’s one thing I told our goaltender, you got to be ready because they cross the blue line they’re going to be firing. You don’t know where pucks are going to go, you have to be able to retrieve pucks. They’ve done a nice job building their program. They sellout their games. They’re not an easy team to play against. I think you’ve seen them build their program the right way.”
On Jake Bischoff and Michael Brodzinski and how they have progressed in their careers:
“You’re starting to see the offensive side of their game, especially with Bisch, come through a little more this year because he’s getting an opportunity on the power play. He leads our team with power play goals with three. When I look at our units, that’s a little bit different because both units I think have the same number of goals at this point of the year.
“Normally we’ve been more dependent on one unit than having two. That’s more about our team, though. Nobody has stepped forward to say I’m going to be a guy who’s going to score a lot of goals. They’ve done a nice job. They’re getting better defensively, especially Brodzinski.”
On injuries:
“A.J. [Michaelson] is out. He got hurt blocking a shot against Harvard late in the game. He finished the game. He’ll probably be out for a couple weeks.”
On Taylor Cammarata:
“He’s a guy that we need to score, plain and simple. When the year began, we talked about Cammy, we talked about Vinni, and Connor Reilly as three juniors that need to create some offense. Right now they’re sitting there with a combine five goals. I think there is more there. We need those three to become more pivotal and consistent in their production the second half if our team is going to make a jump.”
On the freshman class thus far:
“For Jack [Sadek] it’s been difficult coming right out of high school with six experience guys ahead of him. He’s done a pretty good job when’s he gotten the opportunity to play. We’ve even toyed with looking at 11 and seven. From the offensive standpoint, Tommy Novak has done a nice job. Tyler Sheehy has done a nice job.
“Now, we need a little bit more as a group. Because there’s so many in our lineup, they don’t have to score every night, but when you have a number of them that are sitting with zero or one goal, we need more offensive production from our freshmen.”