No. 5 Penn State looks to kick the New Year off hot against Struggling Spartans

Story posted January 13, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Mac Young

2023 is here and the Penn State Nittany Lions are ready to drop the puck on the second half of Big Ten play with a date in East Lansing with the Spartans of Michigan State.

The Nittany Lions enjoyed a successful conclusion to 2022 wrapping up the unofficial first half of the season with a 17-5 record.

This weekend’s opponents, however, struggled mightily, dropping four in a row to conclude the calendar year.

The Spartans looked like their former selves in their latest series against Ohio State, scoring just one goal across two games while being swept by the Buckeyes.

Michigan State had massive improvements in their goals per game as opposed to last season, but that jump is slumping after their recent performances.

During the recent skid, the Spartans are tallying just over a goal per game after being shut out in their last battle with Ohio State.

Although the green and white ended their 2022 with doom and gloom, the Nittany Lions may be a welcome sight.

The last time the Spartans faced off against the Nittany Lions they had one of their best offensive outputs of the season, scoring seven goals. The ice touchdown stands as Michigan State’s second-highest goal total in a game this season and best output in a road game.

At the time, Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky called it, “the worst loss of the season” for his Nittany Lions.

Now after slumping offensively in December, Michigan State can try and kick off the January slate against an opponent they had some success against.

Gadowsky told the media, “this isn’t going to be easy, because they kicked our ass once.”

Even in their game one loss at Pegula Ice Arena, the Spartans poured in three goals and were only beaten by a Penn State power-play score in the final minute of the tilt.

But that was back in mid-November and this is a Penn State team that is playing well coming off a sweep over a ranked RIT.

The recent pair of wins resulted in the Nittany Lions’ first-ranked sweep of the season as well as a perfect 10-0 record in non-conference play for the season.

Gadowsky credited his team’s victories with a word often frequenting his vocabulary saying, “I can rate their attention to culture an A+.”

A strong culture is something Gadowsky has said has been building in his locker room since last season and that the team’s triumphs are fruits of that labor.

The success has quelled some concerns over the team’s ability to complete series by winning game two.

The Blue and White are an impressive 11-0 in game ones and a bit of a lackluster 6-5 in game twos.

Penn State forward Kevin Wall was honored with Big Ten first star of the week after RIT while goaltender Liam Souliere was rewarded with the second star.

Many did not expect the Nittany Lions to be this high in the rankings at this time of year. They were unranked in both major polls before the season and picked by the coaches of the Big Ten to finish second to last in the conference.

Kevin Wall says the team is not surprised with how strong of a season they’re having adding, “no one really gives us any credit, which is fine with us. We like it that way.”

Wall feels that this team has had it from the start.

“We knew we had a special group and we knew we had the chance with the talent and the guys in the room to do something good and it was just a matter of executing it and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he said, “I don’t think this is a shock to any one of us. I think we knew how good we are and we know what we can do.”

Despite the recent individual accolades, the Nittany Lions are dealing with some knocks to some of their key players.

Jimmy Dowd Jr. and Ryan Kirwan were both scratched in the closer against RIT while Ashton Calder was knocked out midway through the game. Gadowsky called all the injured players, “day-to-day.”

Regardless, this is an important series for the Nittany Lions to capture their first Big Ten sweep since October and avenge a poor performance back in November. This is a chance to make Hockey Valley’s mark in the college hockey landscape that much bigger.

Maclain Young is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email macyoung21@gmail.com.