Penn State vs. Lindenwood Series Preview

Story posted November 4, 2021 in CommRadio, Sports by Evan Popalis

Penn State welcomes Lindenwood University into Pegula Ice Arena for a two-game series this weekend.

After a rough opening couple of weeks for the Nittany Lions, the rubber has hit the road, and Jeff Kampersal’s squad has hit its stride. Penn State is 4-1-1 over its last six games after tumbling out to an 0-3-1 start.

The ladies from Lindenwood have been unable to gain any traction so far this season.

The 2021-22 campaign has the Lions sitting at 1-7-0 entering the weekend. Lindenwood’s lone win came against Syracuse in its previous game, proving that the task will not be easy for Penn State.

The schedule for the visitors has not been ideal, starting the season at No. 1 Wisconsin and battling St. Cloud State after.

A massive struggle for Lindenwood this year has been the quality of its faceoff-win percentage. The Lions have won 37.7% of their faceoffs, which is low. For the home team, Penn State has been successful at the dot for a 51% success rate.

Sierra Burt and Valerie Caldwell are tied atop the points department for Lindenwood at six. Neither of those women leads the team in goals, however. Rachel Goff and Megan Wagner both have tallied three goals to lead the Lions.

Captain and fifth-year senior Natalie Heising and sophomore Kiara Zanon patrol the lead in points for the Nittany Lions. Heising has set the tone with six lamplighters for Penn State.

Junior forward Julie Gough has been on a tear for the blue and white. After not tallying a goal in the first five games of the season, Gough has a goal in each of the previous five contests. All eight of her points have been in Penn State’s last five matchups.

The Nittany Lions have outshot their opponents in each of their ten games this season. Penn State averages 36 shots a game while holding its opponents to an impressively-low 20 shots.

Sophomore goaltender Josie Bothun for the Nittany Lions has been a tremendous leader this season vocally and competitively. Currently, the netminder beholds a .906 save percentage and a 1.85 goals-against average.

Another area that Penn State has an advantage in is the power play. The Nittany Lions are 20.6% on the player advantage, while Lindenwood has only converted once on the powerplay in 20 attempts.

Talented winger sophomore Olivia Wallin will likely be unavailable in this series for the blue and white.

This series will be the final home series of the 2021 calendar year for the Nittany Lions. Penn State’s next home contest will be versus Cornell on Jan. 11.

Friday night’s matchup is set to begin at 6 pm. Saturday will be a matinee affair with a 2 pm puck drop.

Evan Popalis is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email epopalis83@gmail.com.

About the Contributors

Evan Popalis's photo

Evan Popalis

Junior /

Evan Popalis is a third-year from Lititz, Pennsylvania, majoring in broadcast journalism. He is a writer, analyst, and play-by-play commentator for the CommRadio sports department. His writings include weekly NHL betting previews along with power rankings for the NHL and NFL. He appears weekly on the NHL Podcast as a host and analyst reviewing the previous week’s action. If you would like to contact him, email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).