In 2012 American International College skated into the Greenberg Ice Pavillon and walked away with a victory in Penn State’s first ever Division I game.
To say there is revenge on the Nittany Lions’ mind would be to fabricate a storyline, but a new building and a better team might just spell trouble for AIC this weekend. The Yellow Jackets coming into the series 0-3 on the year while Penn State looks to improve to 3-1 on Friday night if not better by Saturday evening.
If AIC is going to pull off the upset yet again it will mean slowing down the nation’s top ranked offense in a Penn State team averaging five goals a game and a 6-of-9 power play unit that also tops the nation.
While the Nittany Lions don’t expect their man advantage to continue at a 67% success rate the early season confidence isn’t hurting matters any.
“Those [types of power plays] don’t happen a lot [and] are a big reason for the percentage you see now,” coach Gadowsky said with a laugh earlier this week. “If we drop from 66 percent on the power play during the year, it’s not because we’ve gotten worse….We’re not a 66 percent power play.”
“Our penalty kill is something we can control more of,” Gadowsky said. “I don’t think it was that bad. [Notre Dame] scored with one second left [on the power play], and that was a good shot. The other goal agains, was going about three feet wide and went off someone and in. I think we’ve been killing a lot better than what our percentage shows.”
With plenty to work on Penn State will look to pick up two wins heading into a Thursday/Friday series against No. 17 St Lawrence next week. A sweep by the Nittany Lions giving Penn State 15 wins in the last 20 games at Pegula Ice Arena.
Penn State will continue to split the goaltending between Eamon McAdam and Matthew Skoff for the immediate future before trying to solidify that starting role. McAdam is 2-0 on the year with Skoff working between the pipes in Penn State’s 7-4 loss to Notre Dame. Curtis Loik leads the way with six points while freshman Alec Marsh has a team high three goals with six Nittany Lions having scored at least twice this season.
Regardless of who ends up in net this weekend, Penn State will look to continue a strong start to the 2015 campaign as the Nittany Lions attempt to take the next step as a program. That step continues in either direction Friday night at 7:00 PM.
