Photo credit to ohiostatebuckeyes.com. Ohio State defeated Penn State 5-2 in their previous meeting at the Jerome Schottenstein Center at Value City Arena on February 1.
By Miles McQuinn
If you're the Ohio State Buckeyes, it
might be easy to overlook a Penn State Nittany Lion team that sits at
the bottom of the standings in your conference, especially since you
took both games from them the last time you faced off in a weekend
series.
For a team heading into the inaugural
Big Ten tournament, the Buckeyes will need focus and attention to
detail if they are to gain momentum from this, the last weekend in
the regular season.
Ohio State (15-12-5 overall, 5-8-5-4
Big Ten) will play Penn State (6-24-2 overall, 2-15-1 Big Ten) at
Pegula Ice Arena for the first time ever on Friday night. When the
teams met back in the last weekend of January in Columbus, the
Buckeyes took both games by final scores of 5-1 and 5-2,
respectively. The Scarlet and Gray will enter a brand new
environment, one that was specifically designed for a lot of noise.
Despite the record for this Nittany
Lion team in their second year as a NCAA Division I program,
attendance is still at capacity every weekend at the brand new
facility in Happy Valley. There are 6,014 seats inside the state of
the art facility. However, their average attendance this season is
listed at 6,033. The crowd this weekend is expected to exceed maximum
capacity once again for the final time this season.
The Nittany Lions seem to be limping to
the finish line for their last series of the year. Penn State have
dropped their last five contests and are just 2-7-1 in their last ten
games. Their last win was a 5-4 overtime victory against Michigan on
Feb. 21 in Ann Arbor. The Nittany Lions are no stranger to one goal
games, as they come off of a 3-2 overtime defeat to Wisconsin last
Saturday. Penn State is 4-10 in one goal games and they have gone toe
to toe with some of the nation's best this season, losing to four out
of the top five teams in the country by just one goal (No. 1
Minnesota, No. 2 Boston College, No. 3 Union, and No. 5 Wisconsin) on
more than one occasion. Their finest performances have come against
No. 13 Michigan (4-0 and 5-4 victories). The Nittany Lions split the
season series with the Wolverines and will most likely face them in
the first round of the inaugural Big Ten Tournament.
The biggest problem this season for
Penn State has been offensive production. The Nittany Lions are
currently ranked 53rd in the nation in scoring, averaging
2.22 goals per game. Scoring less than three goals a game has been a
backbreaker for a team that is also giving up 3.75 goals on average.
If Penn State is to beat Ohio State, it will need to come through
special teams play. The Buckeyes are in the bottom third in the
country in terms of killing penalties. In the past three games Ohio
State killed off just six of twelve penalties.
Penn State is led on offense by
redshirt-sophomore Eric Scheid (11 goals, 8 assists), freshman David
Goodwin (7 goals, 9 assists), and redshirt-junior Taylor Holstrom (6
goals, 9 assists). All three goalies listed on Penn State's roster
have seen action this season. Junior PJ Musico (4.11 GAA, .875 sv %)
and sophomore Matthew Skoff (3.23 GAA, .896 sv %) played between the
pipes against Wisconsin last weekend in games one and two,
respectively. However, with the Big Ten Tournament approaching
quickly, head coach Guy Gadowsky will most certainly be looking to
choose his starter based on this weekend's play.
As for Ohio State, coming off what head
coach Steve Rohlik described as “the best period of the year”
(referring to the third period against No. 1 ranked Minnesota), they
will look to build momentum heading into the tournament. An inspired
Buckeyes team bested the Gophers on Senior Night at Value City Arena
in a shootout last Saturday, taking the extra point after a 2-2 tie.
After a tremendous offensive output for
most of the season, the Buckeye offense has cooled off. They have
managed to score three goals in just three out of the last ten games.
In that span Ohio State has gone 3-3-4. The Bucks prevailed in a
shootout in all four of those ties.
Just when you thought the defense is
starting to fade, Ohio State turned in one of its finest defensive
performances last Saturday night against one of the best offensive
teams in the nation. In a bold decision by Rohlik, after pulling him
the night before, freshman Christian Frey once again got the nod from
his coach and didn't disappoint. The standout goaltender from
Arlington, TX, stopped 30 out of 32 shots on the night, including
four shots in overtime and all three Gopher shootout chances. It's
possible both Frey and freshman Matt Tomkins will see action this
weekend as a final tune-up for the tournament.
Big Ten leading point scorer junior
Ryan Dzingel (18 goals, 22 assists), along with fellow juniors Max
McCormick (11 goals, 17 assists), Tanner Fritz (6 goals, 20 assists),
and Nick Oddo (7 goals, 18 assists) head into the final weekend of
the season on top of the Buckeye stat sheet. Freshman Nick Schilkey
has provided some excitement on the offensive end as well, notching
three goals in his last five games. The Marysville, MI native also
has been impressive in shootouts as of late. He has scored in three
out of his last four opportunities including shootout goals in both
games of the most recent Michigan State series and against Minnesota
last Saturday.
Ohio State enters Friday's contest
fourth in the Big Ten Conference standings with 24 points while Penn
State sits in sixth with 7 points.
The series begins at 7 p.m. on Friday
while Saturday the two will square off in a mid-afternoon contest to
wrap up the regular season at 3 p.m.
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