UNIVERSITY PARK – The sixth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions welcome Ohio State to Hockey Valley this weekend for a pair of conference matchups on Friday and Saturday evening at Pegula Ice Arena.

FOLLOW THE ACTION

Dates: Friday, February 20 | Saturday, February 21

Place: Pegula Ice Arena | University Park, Pa.

TV: Network

Time: 8:30 p.m. | 8 p.m.

Tickets: Friday | Saturday

Streaming Video: Friday | Saturday

Listen: LionVision

Live Statistics: Live Stats

Game Notes: Penn State | Ohio State

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

This week marks the 59th and 60th meetings all-time between the two programs with Ohio State holding the slim 28-25-5 edge including the slim 10-9-3 mark at Pegula Ice Arena. The Buckeyes are Penn State’s second most common opponent behind Wisconsin.

Following a sweep in Columbus at the end of October, Penn State is 12-7-1 over the last 20 meetings against the Buckeyes.

PSU and OSU have met in three of the past four Big Ten Tournaments with the Buckeyes holding a 4-3 record in those games.

Excluding empty net goals, 19 of the last 21 meetings, including both back in the fall, between the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes have been one goal contests with Penn State holding the slim 12-8-1 edge in those 22 games.

This has been and extremely tight series overall with the longest winning streak for either side being just four games for the Nittany Lions when they swept the season series during the 2023-24 campaign.

The Nittany Lions rank fourth in the Big Ten and 10th in the nation averaging 3.57 goals per game while the Buckeyes are fifth in the Big Ten and 31st nationally averaging 2.96 goals per game.

Penn State is the 13th youngest team in the nation this season with an average age of 21 years and eight months while Ohio State sits in the middle of the pack nationally with an average age of 22 years and three months.

Defensively Ohio State sits only ahead of Notre Dame allowing 3.39 goals per game to rank 50th nationally while the Nittany Lions are third in the conference and 30th in the nation allowing 2.86 goals per game.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE

Ohio State finished last season 24-14-2 losing 4-3 in double overtime to Michigan State in the B1G Championship game before being bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Boston University, 8-3.

The Buckeyes have struggled this season posting just an 11-16-1 record, however, they are winners of three of their last four games entering the weekend.

Ohio State lost five of their top-eight scorers from a season ago including leading scorer Gunnarwolfe Fontaine but did return Riley Thompson who was tied with Fontaine for the team lead in goals with 17 and second on the team with 33 points alongside Davis Burnside who also returns after putting up 14 goals last season. Max Montes who finished the 2024-25 season with 14 goals also returns.

Burnside and Montes lead the team with 11 goals each and have contributed 23 and 21 points, respectively, while Thompson has scored just nine goals this season including a team-high six on the powerplay.

Ohio State is paced on offense by freshman Jake Karabela with 25 points on nine goals and a team-best 16 assists.

Kristoffer Eberly returns between the pipes for the Buckeyes and is joined by freshman Sam Hillebrandt. The rookie has started eight of the team’s 12 games since the holiday break and had started five in-a-row prior to last Saturday against Wisconsin. Both goaltenders have posted similar numbers with Eberly having the slightly better goals-against average at 3.26 compared to 3.33 for Hillebrandt while to rookie’s .887 save percentage is .001 better than Eberly’s .886.

Ohio State’s team save percentage of .883 is tied with Notre Dame for the worst in the Big Ten and is only better than three teams nationally.

A SHINING STAR

Junior Reese Laubach was named the B1G Third Star of the Week after pacing the Big Ten with three goals and four points following a pair of multi-point games last weekend in Ann Arbor.

Laubach earns his first weekly accolade of the season and the fourth of his career as Penn State has now seen eight different players earn weekly accolades on 13 separate occasions so far this season.

The junior has now scored in four of his last five games with five goals over that span and has points in seven of his last eight games as well as nine of the 12 games since holiday break.

The San Jose, California native ranks sixth on the team in scoring with 21 points on nine goals and 12 assists in 28 games and is approaching 100 career games, currently sitting at 98.

BLUELINE BEAUTY

Freshman defenseman Jackson Smith has goals in half of his 12 games this semester giving him 10 on the year to lead all Big Ten defensemen and rank fifth nationally among blueliners and first among rookies.

Smith’s 10 goals are a new Penn State single-season record for goals by a defenseman and rank tied for ninth all-time.

Six of his goals have come on the powerplay as he leads the nation for PPG’s among defensemen. His six man-advantage tallies are also tied for the team lead while ranking tied for the second-most in a single-season in Penn State history and are the most-ever by a defenseman.

Smith’s 19 points are good for second in the Big Ten for defensemen and 20th in the nation.

DON’T GET SHORT WITH US

Despite allowing six powerplay goals over the past four games, Penn State maintains the top penalty kill in the Big Ten at 84.3 percent (97-for-115), a mark good for 10th in the nation.

The Nittany Lions are also second in the Big Ten and tied for seventh in the nation with five shorthanded goals on the season with Michigan leading the Big Ten and one off the national lead with nine.

Junior captain Dane Dowiak leads the nation with four shortys on the year, a new single-season Penn State record, and he now has six in his career, the second-most all-time and just three shy of assistant coach Andrew Sturtz’s program record of nine.

TOSS THE HATS

Penn State has registered a single-season program best seven hat-tricks this season by five different players following a pair of hattys in the same game from junior Dane Dowiak and freshman Gavin McKenna at Wisconsin last month.

Penn State now has 22 hat-tricks all-time with Dowiak and McKenna’s becoming just the fifth and sixth recorded away from Hockey Valley.

Junior Matt DiMarsico has a program record three hat-tricks for his career, all of which have come this season as he becomes the first Nittany Lion all-time with multiple hat-tricks in a single season.

NEXT UP

Penn State travels to South Bend to conclude the road portion of its regular season schedule with a pair of games against Notre Dame next Friday and Saturday on Peacock.