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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The fifth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions conclude their opening semester of action with a Big Ten Conference series at Minnesota on Friday and Saturday evening.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Friday, November 21 | Saturday, November 22
Place: 3M Arena | Minneapolis, Minn.
Time: 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT
TV: FRI: FS1 | SAT: N/A
Streaming Video: Friday| Saturday
Listen: LionVision
Live Statistics: Live Stats
Game Notes: Penn State | Minnesota
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
This week marks the 53rd and 54th meetings all-time between the two programs with Minnesota holding the 32-19-1 edge in the series including the 20-7-0 mark at 3M Arena after sweeping the series last season at Mariucci.
The Gophers have won six-straight in the all-time series at 3M Arena outscoring the Nittany Lions 18-4 over that stretch with three shutouts. Minnesota is also an impressive 10-2-0 against the Nittany Lions in Minneapolis dating back to the 2020-21 campaign.
Overall, since the start of the 2020-21 season, Minnesota is 17-4-0 against Penn State following a similar stretch of 12-2-1 by the Nittany Lions during a three-year period from 2017-2020.
Penn State has just five current players who have lit the lamp against the Gophers led by junior Matt DiMarsico who has three goals and a pair of assists for five points in 10 career games. Classmate Reese Laubach is the only other Nittany Lion with multiple goals against Minnesota with a pair to go along with two assists for four points in 10 games.
THE YOUTH OF COLLEGE HOCKEY
Six of the seven programs in the Big Ten are ranked among the 20 youngest teams in the nation.
Penn State is the fourth youngest team in the Big Ten and 13th youngest in the nation this season with an average age of 21 years and eight months while Michigan is the second youngest team in the Big Ten and seventh youngest nationally with an average age of 21 years and three months.
SCOUTING MINNESOTA
Minnesota is coming off a weekend split against LIU and currently sit 5-8-1 overall and 2-2-0 in the Big Ten with a sweep of Notre Dame after being swept by Wisconsin.
The Gophers are without the services of each of their top-five scorers from a season ago including Jimmy Snuggerud who paced the team with 24 goals and 27 assists for 51 points in 2024-25 and is currently playing with the St. Louis Blues in the NHL.
Minnesota is paced by a pair of players with the same name, different spellings, as Brody Lamb leads the team with seven goals and 12 points and Brodie Ziemer has added six goals and five assists for 11 points including a team-high three powerplay tallies.
Between the pipes Nathan Airey returns after splitting time with Liam Souliere last season and he is joined by Michigan State transfer Luca Di Pasquo and the pair has split time evenly each starting seven games splitting each series aside from Airey playing both against Boston College and DiPasquo playing both against Notre Dame. Di Pasquo has the slightly better numbers with a 3-4-0 record with a 2.74 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
The Gophers haven't been very efficient on special teams to begin the season ranking last in the Big Ten on the powerplay, converting just 15.9 percent of the time (7-for-44), good for 43rd nationally while the penalty kill hasn't been much better stopping just 67.4 percent (29-for-43) of opponent chances to rank second to last in the nation, only above the 50 percent PK of Mercyhurst.
Minnesota's overall scoring is also down this season averaging just 2.64 goals per game to rank sixth in the Big Ten and 45th nationally after pacing the Big Ten and ranking third in the nation averaging 3.85 goals per game last season.
The Gophers pace the nation in blocked shots with 209 averaging 14.9 per game led by Luke Mittelstadt and John Whipple who have 30 and 29 to rank tied for first and fifth in the nation, respectively.
START THE FIGHT
Penn State has scored first in only six of its first 14 games, however, they have held on and won each of those six games going a perfect 6-0-0 including a 4-0-0 mark when holding that lead heading into the first intermission.
FLEM THE GEM
Freshman goaltender Josh Fleming has had a stellar start to his collegiate career posting a 5-1-0 record with a .934 save percentage and a 2.17 goals-against average. His save percentage ranks second in the Big Ten and tied for 11th nationally while his GAA is the fourth-best in the conference and 26th in the nation.
WHITEHORSE WIZARD
Freshman Gavin McKenna continues to pace the Big Ten for rookie scoring and is tied for the national freshman lead with 15 points on four goals and 11 assists. McKenna also has at least one point in four of his first six Big Ten contests.
McKenna's 11 assists are the most among freshmen nationally and rank tied for 10th in the nation overall.
Overall, the freshman's 15 points are good for seventh in the Big Ten and tied for 17th nationally.
As a team Penn State has four of the top seven scorers in the Big Ten, Cerrato (1st), Wiebusch (T-4th), DiMarsico (6th), and McKenna (7th).
WHAT'S UP CHUCK?
Sophomore Charlie Cerrato leads the Big Ten with 20 points on four goals and 16 assists so far this season to rank third in the nation in scoring while his 16 assists are the most nationally.
Cerrato has points in 10-of-14 games this season including a team-high six multi-point efforts.
BLUE-LINE BEAUTY
Freshman Jackson Smith has impressed through the first month of his collegiate career with eight points in 12 games to rank seventh in the Big Ten for defensemen scoring. Smith has two goals to go along with six assists on the year.
LIGHT THE LAMP
Even though they have scored just six goals over the last four games, Penn State still ranks in the Top-15 nationally averaging 3.36 goals per game, a mark good for fourth in the Big Ten
Sophomore JJ Wiebusch is tied for second in the nation with 11 goals just two shy of Michigan's Will Horcoff while his six powerplay tallies are also tied for tops in the country and his three game-winning scores are tied for second.
Junior Matt DiMarsico has added eight goals on the year to rank tied for third in the Big Ten and ninth nationally.
Both Wiebusch and DiMarsico are also among the national leaders in points with 18 and 16, respectively, ranking tied for seventh and 12th in the nation, marks good for fourth and fifth in the Big Ten.
NEXT UP
After this weekend, Penn State is off until a home-and-home with RIT on January 3-4.
The Nittany Lions have 41 days between games, however, members of the team will be competing at both the World Junior Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota and at the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland over the holidays.