What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

2024-25 Penn State Nittany Lions

In last night's other first round Smashville Tournament game in Nashville, St. Thomas took #6 Clarkson to OT, so neither of yesterday's games played out the way they should have on paper. Merrimack is at the bottom of Hockey East and beat #12 Penn State, and St. Thomas is next-to-last in the WCHA and took #6 Clarkson to OT. Both games should have been warm-ups for Penn State and Clarkson, but nope. So today's games have Clarkson facing Merrimack and Penn State taking on St. Thomas.

This is not an excuse for yesterday's loss, but Penn State is really missing Karley Garcia and Karolina Hengelmuller on defense, I think even more than the offense is missing Mya Vaslet. The defense is down to two defensive pairs and one extra defender. Thankfully, after this tournament there's only one more series until the holiday break...unfortunately, that series is against Mercyhurst, so Penn State will need everyone healthy for that one.

Yesterday, the livestream link changed at game time for some reason, so if that happens again today I'll post it, but right now these are the video links for today (live stats yesterday were a bust, so I won't bother posting links for them for today's game).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VIDEO (1:00 Eastern): Penn State vs St. Thomas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RYRSfrA_Zo

VIDEO (4:00 Eastern): Clarkson vs Merrimack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_tESfsTs4
 
Nice summary Zed. In addition to injuries I think the thanksgiving weekend, first series post Christmas and Halloween weekend always lend themselves to upsets. At the end of the day these are not pros yet, but rather student athletes with lots on their proverbial plates. The Merrimack loss hurts but a Tommies Penn State match up should be entertaining too.

interesting that the Hurst Penn State matchup is so close to the winter break. Reminiscent of a big stakes matchup between UMD and Ohio State in September. I guess the take away for the athletes is as much as possible you just have to be ready to go, no matter the time or place.
 
Lindsay said:
Nice summary Zed. In addition to injuries I think the thanksgiving weekend, first series post Christmas and Halloween weekend always lend themselves to upsets. At the end of the day these are not pros yet, but rather student athletes with lots on their proverbial plates. The Merrimack loss hurts but a Tommies Penn State match up should be entertaining too.

interesting that the Hurst Penn State matchup is so close to the winter break. Reminiscent of a big stakes matchup between UMD and Ohio State in September. I guess the take away for the athletes is as much as possible you just have to be ready to go, no matter the time or place.
Click to expand...

Did you notice the new points setup in AHA standings? It used to be 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie...boom, done. Now it's 3 points for a win (in regulation time), 2 points for an OT or shootout win, and 1 point for an OT or shootout loss. So if you go to OT, you're getting a point if you lose, but if you win in OT you're losing a point you could've won in regulation time. I took a quick look at the standings to see where everyone was at, and started doing the math for wins/losses and got lost in a hurry until I saw where they explained the points system. :p
 
ZedLeppelin said:
Did you notice the new points setup in AHA standings? It used to be 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie...boom, done. Now it's 3 points for a win (in regulation time), 2 points for an OT or shootout win, and 1 point for an OT or shootout loss. So if you go to OT, you're getting a point if you lose, but if you win in OT you're losing a point you could've won in regulation time. I took a quick look at the standings to see where everyone was at, and started doing the math for wins/losses and got lost in a hurry until I saw where they explained the points system. :p
Click to expand...

Interesting. I didn’t know this, but suppose it’s on trend with pwhl and wcha (and presumably other leagues) complexity in points allocation. as the game has evolved I’ve never crossed over to really digesting these more complicated point allocations. It’s just too granular for me. A basic W-L-T is fine as a fan, imo, even if there are necessary tie breaker rules that get applied.
 
After one in Nashville it's 0-0 with St. Thomas. Shots on goal are 12-10 for St.Thomas, and each team took 2 penalties (both of Penn State's were on Tessa Janecke). Mankato transfer Lauren Barbro is in net today to face her former WCHA foes.
 
Still scoreless after two, in a very chippy very physical game. Shots on goal are 19-18 for Penn State, and penalties are now 4 for St. Thomas and 3 for Penn State. It sounds like St. Thomas bused their entire cheering section to this game.
 
That is a rough weekend for sure and here comes the nemesis known as Mercyhurst. Christian keeps on scoring and good for Roberts getting the shootout goal for the win. Barbo was up at a .96 save percentage and PSU needed every save.
 
Reddington said:
That is a rough weekend for sure and here comes the nemesis known as Mercyhurst. Christian keeps on scoring and good for Roberts getting the shootout goal for the win. Barbo was up at a .96 save percentage and PSU needed every save.
Click to expand...

Katelyn Roberts showed some nice touch on her shootout winning goal - she usually unleashes rockets, but she walked that one in. It's was good to see she has that kind of patient scoring touch in her bag, too.

The rough weekend can't all be blamed on only having five defenders healthy for the tournament, but that didn't help. I think players need to shoot more vs making that one more pass, and they need to get bodies in front of the net. The better teams have been good at boxing them out and making them work from the outside. They're doing great with what works in conference play, but this weekend showed them what doesn't work against non-conference teams.

Looking ahead to Mercyhurst, there's less than two games seperating them from Penn State in the standings, so this weekend's matchup is going to be important (well, it always is when it's against Merycurst). Mercyhurst has lost one each against Lindenwood and RIT this season, which is a little surprising. Lindenwood did take Penn State to OT, and they beat St. Thomas 6-1, though, so I guess it isn't all that surprising. It's the last series before the holiday break, before the Jan. 3-4 East West Showcase in Minneapolis against the Gophers and Bemidji State - Josie Bothun better get the start in net for that one!

I am really curious about Mya Vaslet's status for the rest of this season. She's missed all but four games with her injury, and I'm assuming a medical redshirt is an option for her. On defense, Karolina Hengelmuller has been out since Nov.1, and the defense really needs her (and Karley Garcia) back in the lineup. ..ugh.

On a side note, I wish the forum moderators were more proactive in wiping all this spam off the forum, especially when it's become almost a daily thing.
 
Penn State heads to Erie for a weekend series against Mercyhurst today and tomorrow. Unfortunately, it's being streamed on FloHockey, so you're on your own for video links - I'm not paying $30 to watch two games.

Mercyhurst is less than two games away from Penn State in the AHA standings, so these points are important for both teams. Mercyhurst has a good goalie this season, and she has a goals-against of 1.77 and a .929 save percentage. One interesting note is that in the overall "goals for/goals against" column, Penn State is exactly double Mercyhurst's "goals for" so far, so that's a plus. This series is always a battle, and this weekend in Erie should be no different. It's the last series before the holiday break.

Today's game is at 3:00 (Eastern) and tomorrow's game is at 1:00 (Eastern).
 
Sisti is still there. Robillard the former player turned coach is apparently no longer at Mercyhurst. It looks like another former player is on the staff, Alexandra Weiss. Mercyhurst still has a Finnish and Stoney Creek connection thriving. Upson, from Stoney Creek, leads the team in scoring followed by two Finns, frosh Julia Scalin and Sofia Nuutinen. Nothing comes easy against a Sisti coached team at least against PSU. Boucher is at UNH and is tied for the goal scoring lead there and is fourth in points.
 
PSU leads 2-1 after two. Christian is just red hot - two more goals. I noticed the lines received a shake-up after last weekend. Janecke, Christian and Machado and Roberts, Brooks and Outwater and Hill, Stonehouse and Retrum. Vaslet, Garcia and Hengelmuller remain out. Desa is in net.
 
Penn State got the 4-2 win on goals from Grace Outwater, two from Maddy Christian, and an empty-netter from Tessa Janecke. Mercyhurst had 37 shots on goal to Penn State's 22. Mercyhurst didn't take a single penalty, and Penn State took three - but Janecke finally went without taking one.

Reddington said:
I noticed the lines received a shake-up after last weekend. Janecke, Christian, and Machado, and Roberts, Brooks, and Outwater, and Hill, Stonehouse, and Retrum. Vaslet, Garcia and Hengelmuller remain out. Desa is in net.
Click to expand...

That's a crazy jumbling of the lines! Maddy Christian has certainly earned a spot on the top line, and Alyssa Machado has always given 100% no matter what line she's on, so it's cool to see her getting a shot with the top line, too. It's kind of surprising to see Katelyn Roberts moved down, but a Roberts/Brooks/Outwater line sounds like a good one. Interesting to see that much shuffling of lines this late in the season.
 
4-2 win for PSU. 14 blocks, Hill led the way with 3, .945 save percentage, the game winning goal was Outwater and Janecke had an en. Mercyhurst tied it up on the pp early in the third. I think Mercyhurst had 35 shots which is a lot against PSU so Mercyhurst was right in this. Three penalties for PSU and none for Mercyhurst. Game two tomorrow.
 
Penn State beats Merychurst by a score of 3-2 to take the sweep, on two goals from Tessa Janecke and a goal from Alyssa Machado. Mercyhurst outshot Penn State again, 40-29, and Penn State took 3 penalties to 2 for Mercyhurst. These were important points for Penn State to take, and gives them a conference lead over Mercyhurst of just over three games now. It's a great way to head into the holiday break!
 
Mercyhurst outshooting PSU in both games is a bit of a shocker. The offensive scoring is there, but PSU will have to work on the stifling defense they have been known for. All in all a fantastic first half of the season. Kampersal is doing a nice job with 3 players out with injuries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top