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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Coming off a weekend sweep, the Penn State Nittany Lions open Big Ten Conference play with a Halloweekend trip to Minnesota to battle the 18th-ranked Gophers on Friday and Saturday night.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Dates: Friday, October 30 | Saturday, October 31
Place: 3M Arena - Minneapolis, Minn.
Time: 8 p.m. (ET) | 7 p.m. (ET)
Streaming Video: Friday | Saturday
Listen: LionVision
Live Statistics: Live Stats
Game Notes: Penn State | Minnesota
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
This weekend marks the 58th and 59th meetings in the all-time series with Minnesota holding the 33-23-1 edge including the 21-8-0 mark all-time at Mariucci. The Gophers are Penn State's third most common opponent behind Ohio State (60 meetings) and Wisconsin (61 meetings).
The Nittany Lions won the season series last year taking 3-of-4 regular season contests and earning nine points. Penn State then defeated Minnesota 6-2 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament running its current win-streak in the series to four games.
Entering last season, Minnesota had controlled the series since 2020 winning 17 of the previous 21 matchups while eliminating the Nittany Lions from the postseason in 2022 and 2024.
Penn State is 7-5-1 all-time in Big Ten openers including a 4-4-0 mark on the road as the Nittany Lions begin conference play on the road for the sixth time in the past seven seasons and the third-straight. This marks the fourth time and second in the past three seasons that Penn State begins Big Ten play in Minneapolis with the Gophers holding the 2-1-0 advantage.
Penn State swept its Big Ten season opening series in Columbus last year and is 14-10-2 all-time in the opening series of conference play.
Reese Laubach leads Penn State with five goals and four assists for nine points in 15 career games against the Gophers while classmate Dane Dowiak has added four points on two goals and a pair of assists in 14 games.
Both Penn State and Minnesota sit at the bottom of the Big Ten and bottom fourth nationally allowing 3.83 and 3.50 goals per game, respectively.
Minnesota has the third youngest team in the Big Ten and the eighth in the country with an average age of 20 years and 11 months while the Nittany Lions have the fourth youngest team in the conference and the 11th youngest nationally with an average age of 21 years and four months.
SCOUTING MINNESOTA
The Gophers enter the weekend ranked No. 18 in both polls following a weekend sweep of then-No. 3 North Dakota moving to 2-3-1 on the year under first year head coach Brett Larson.
Larson was hired following the firing of Bob Motzko at the end of last season as the Gophers finished just 11-22-3 and failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.
The Gophers are at the beginning of a nine-game homestand that began last Thursday against North Dakota and runs through November 27, their longest homestand in 3M Arena at Mariucci history.
Minnesota returns leading scorer Brodie Ziemer for his junior season following a 23-goal, 36-point campaign as a sophomore while LJ Mooney is also back after registering 30 points on seven goals and a team-best 23 assists as a freshman.
Luca di Pasquo also returns between the pipes for the Gophers. The Michigan State transfer went 8-15-2 in 26 games with 24 starts during his first season in Minnesota registering a 3.18 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
The Gophers split the goaltending duties last weekend against North Dakota with di Pasquo playing the first game and fellow Michigan State transfer Melvin Strahl getting his first start of the season in the finale.
Ziemer once again leads the Gophers with five points on three goals and two assists through the first six games of the season while freshman Wyatt Cullen collected four points including a hat-trick last Friday against No Dak and also has five points on the season. Cullen was named Big Ten First Star of the Week this week following his breakout performance.
Minnesota is 4-for-14 (28.6 percent) on the powerplay so far this season to rank third in the Big Ten and ninth in the nation for conversion percentage, however, the Gopher penalty kill has allowed eight goals on 24 changes killing just 66.7 percent of opponent powerplays to rank only above Lindenwood so far this season.
BLUELINE BEAUTY
Sophomore defenseman Jackson Smith was named the Big Ten's Third Star of the week following his performance during a weekend sweep over Canisius.
Smith earns his first career weekly honor after helping pace the Nittany Lions with two goals and two assists for four points including tying his career-high with three points on one goal and two assists in a 5-1 victory on Friday. He then wired home the game-winning goal just 15 seconds into overtime on Saturday to complete the sweep with a 3-2 win.
Smith extended his career-long point streak to five games over the weekend while also improving his career-best assist streak to four games on Friday night.
The Calgary native moved into fifth all-time in goals by a defenseman in Penn State history with 13 for his career after netting his first two of the season over the weekend.
Smith's seven points (2G, 5A) through six games this season are good for second in the Big Ten among defensemen and tied for fifth nationally for blue liners.
FRENCH CONNECTION
French Canadians Justin Poirier and Justin Larose are among the scoring leaders for the Nittany Lions as Poirier leads the team with eight points and is tied for the team lead in goals and assists with three and five, respectively.
Poirier has points in five of the sic games this season with three multi-point games already and is currently riding a three-game point streak.
Larose is tied for third on the team with six points on two goals and four assists and had his four-game point streak snapped last Saturday.
SCORING DEPTH
Having to replace 63 percent of its overall scoring from a season ago, Penn State has seen 19 different players register at least one point this season including both goaltenders while eight players have scored goals.
Penn State went 2-for-5 on the man-advantage with goals in each game over the weekend raising its powerplay percentage to 21.1 (4-for-19), a mark good for fifth in the conference and 24th nationally. Four different players have registered the four powerplay tallies this season.
NEXT UP
Penn State returns home for a weekend series against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as Big Ten play rolls along next Friday and Saturday.