Liam Souliere will see his former team on Saturday
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s hockey team will kick off Big Ten conference play this weekend when the Penn State Nittany Lions come into 3M Arena at Mariucci for a series. It will be a reunion for one of the current Gophers as 5th year senior goalie Liam Souliere will likely face the team he played his first four seasons for on Saturday night. He will look to help the Gophers keep their hot start rolling.
The Gophers moved up tp #4 in the nation after a home and home dominate sweep of St. Thomas last weekend. The Gophers gave up the first goal in both games, and then outscored the Tommies 13-1 in the remainder of the two games. On Friday night at Mariucci the Gophers scored seven straight goals including three in the first after falling behind. Sam Rinzel scored a pair of goals and added an assist. Jimmy Snuggerud added three assists, and Connor Kurth potted a goal to go with a pair of assists. Nathan Airey made 20 saves to move to 3-0 on the season.
Saturday was more of the same in the game at the Xcel Energy Center. The Tommies jumped ahead early 1-0 before the Gophers responded with five straight goals—including the rare all power-play goal natural hat trick by Brody Lamb. The teams traded a goal each in the third period and Souliere made 16 saves in the win. The Gophers picked up a pair of Big Ten honors after the weekend as Rinzel was named the Big Ten’s #1 Star of the Week after a five point weekend, and Lamb was the #2 star with four goals on the weekend.
Penn State enters conference play with a 4-1 record on the season thus far. They moved up to #18 in the national rankings this week after a home sweep of St. Lawrence last weekend. Sophomore Aiden Fink has led the offensive production so far this season for the Nittany Lions. He enters this weekend with points in each of Penn State’s five games this season and a total of nine for the season. While Fink has two goals, a pair of Nittany Lions each have three including Danny Dzhaniyev and Reese Laubach.
In goal it has been another Russian who has had early season success. Junior goaltender Arsenii Sergeev has played every minute for the Nittany Lions this season and enters the weekend with a 1.79 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage. The Nittany Lions have yet to face a team with Minnesota’s offensive firepower this season though.
The Gophers lead the nation an 5.5 goals per game while Penn State is averaging 3.4 goals per game. Penn State has been allowing 1.8 goals per game while the Gophers are giving up an average of 2 goals per game. In what has been slightly shocking for college hockey fans who know about Penn State, they are averaging only 30 shots on goal per game, which is significantly lower than their average the last few seasons.
Special teams will always be interesting and this weekend will be no different. Penn State is a perfect 23-23 on the penalty kill so far this season while Minnesota is 5-21 on the power play including a trio of Lamb goals last Saturday. Penn State has scored on just 3 of 16 power play chances this season while the Gophers have killed 12 of 14 penalties. As is typical the Gophers are one of the least penalized teams in the nation taking just 5 penalty minutes per game, while Penn State is averaging over 12.5 penalty minutes per game. If Minnesota can score on the power play, it could be a huge advantage.
The most interesting matchup of the weekend may be Souliere against his former team. He will likely get the start on Saturday night and face the team he played on for four seasons. Before joining the Gophers, Souliere finished his Penn State career ranked second all-time in wins (39), third in saves (2,067) and shutouts (3), fifth in goals-against average (2.95), and seventh in save percentage (.897). He has been good for Minnesota this season going 2-1 with a 1.66 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.
Minnesota went 5-1 against Penn State a season ago including a sweep in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Gophers were 4-0 at 3M Arena at Mariucci with Justen Close earning a pair of 3-0 shutouts in the regular season, and Minnesota picking up 5-1 and 3-2 wins in the postseason.
Both games this weekend will be 7 PM faceoffs and will air on Fox9+. Both will stream on B1G+ as well.
HOW TO WATCH:
#18 Penn State Nittany Lions @ #4 Minnesota Golden Gophers
Where: 3M Arena at Mariucci, Minneapolis, Minnesota
When: 7 PM Friday and Saturday
TV: Fox 9+
Stream: B1G+
Radio: 1130 AM/ 103.5 FM/ I Heart Radio/ Varsity Network App