Penn State Looking to End Season on a High Note Against Wisconsin
It is not about the way you start, but rather the way you finish.
For Penn State, a program-record start diminished into a rollercoaster second half, and with one series left in the regular season, the Nittany Lions have an opportunity to finish strong.
That strong finish may have been propelled by the way the blue and white bounced back from its worst loss of the season to bring the then-No. 2 team in the country, and No. 1 team in the PairWise rankings, to overtime.
“We were 40 seconds away from beating the No. 1 team in the nation and you have to generate some confidence from that,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said. “Certainly there’s a couple areas of the game where we just have to get back to playing and executing better in those areas.”
Confidence is not the only thing Penn State gained from that overtime loss as the No. 5-ranked team in the Big Ten picked up one point in the standings. That point kept a wide array of Big Ten Tournament seeding possibilities alive for the Nittany Lions.
Gadowsky says that among all of the scenarios, the team has discussed just one: If they complete a regulation sweep of the Wisconsin Badgers, they’ll host a first round postseason series. Penn State established the sweep as the weekend goal, but realizes that it is still just one game at a time.
“We have to go in and play the best game that we can first Friday night. You can't win two games in regulation if you don't win one,” Gadowsky said. “We presented the facts to the team, they know it, and now we focus on Friday night.”
Those in blue and white jerseys echo a sentiment similar to that of their coach in realizing the importance of starting out the weekend strong. Led by forward Ture Linden, the Nittany Lions started out their 3-2 loss to Minnesota in a manner they’ll seek to do again.
“These are the last two games of the season, we need to be all in, we need to play playoff hockey and we need to get some wins,” Linden said. “I think it starts the first game and the first shift just being ready to go, taking it to them right away and playing Penn State hockey.”
Linden did just that when he scored his eighth goal of the season just 29 seconds into the series finale, setting the tone for the Penn State way of hockey. The transfer from RPI recorded an assist later on, giving him a three-point weekend and a tie for the team-lead with 24 points.
Fellow fifth-year senior Kevin Wall matches those 24 points with 14 goals and 10 assists. Wall, who sees his five-year Penn State regular season career culminate this weekend, is one of eight seniors, along with Linden, set to be recognized following Saturday’s game.
Wall, Linden and the rest of the Nittany Lions will likely be looking to sneak shots by Wisconsin’s own senior in goaltender Jared Moe. Moe is 10-15-0 on the season with a .904 save percentage and 3.05 goals against average.
Outside of the record, Moe’s stats have regressed from a year ago when he posted a 2.97 goals against average and .917 save percentage. That regression has been seen over a recent stretch that has seen Moe been replaced mid-game multiple times and benched from the start.
Kyle McClellan has appeared in four of the last six Badgers’ games, including a historic upset victory over Minnesota two weeks ago. McClellan’s 32-save performance led to a 3-1 upset victory over the then-ranked Golden Gophers and a starting nod in the next game against Michigan State.
No matter which Wisconsin netminder starts, there's a good chance that it will be Liam Souliere on the other side. Souliere is 16-11-1 through 29 games with a 2.59 goals against average and .909 save percentage.
Since the calendar year flipped, the Ontario native has given up 29 goals in nine games while being pulled twice to watch his goals against average balloon from 2.10.
Despite his recent struggles, defenseman Christian Berger explains that the entire locker room still has full belief in the junior goaltender.
“He has had a little bit of ups and downs but I don't think there's been any lowering of confidence in him,” Berger said. “...I think he's really good at when bounces don’t go his way, he’s really strong in the head and he's ready to go for the next play.”
On 64 Wisconsin shots in the earlier season matchup, Souliere held the Badgers to just one goal. He’ll look to do the same this weekend against an offense averaging 2.6 goals per game.
Leading the way are two ten-goal scorers in Brock Caufield and Cruz Lucius. Lucius pairs his ten goals with a team-leading 21 assists for first on the team with 31-points. Wisconsin put up six goals in its second upset in as many weekends against Michigan State, with neither Caufield nor Lucius lighting the lamp.
With the Badgers owning momentum, the Nittany Lions know that they’ll have to leave everything out on the ice when the teams take the Pegula Ice Arena surface Friday at 7pm. and then again Saturday at 5p.m.
“Anybody can beat anybody,” forward Ashton Calder said. “You gotta bring our A-game, not your A- game. You can't be 92%, you gotta be 98, 99, 100%.”
Justin Ciavolella is a second-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jtc5751@psu.edu.
