Michigan vs Penn State Hockey Preview

Michigan Hockey's Jake Slaker getting ready for a faceoff Photo by The Michigan Daily

This weekend the Michigan Wolverines Men’s Hockey team travels to State College, Pennsylvania to play the 5th ranked Penn State Nittany Lions.  Coach Guy Gadowsky is in his 7th season with Penn State being a varsity sport in the Big Ten and currently has the Lions 8-1 with a last weekend sweep of Robert Morris.  Penn State opens the 2018 Big Ten season against the Wolverines looking to keep their momentum going into the 2018 year. Nikita Pavlychev and Alex Limoges have lead the Lions with 16 points each this season.

Michigan is coming off a split with Notre Dame over the past weekend and will look again for production of the SNL line of Jake Slaker (five goals, 4 assists), Josh Norris, and Will Lockwood. Norris is 7th in the nation in scoring with 13 points while Will Lockwood has a four game, four point  production scoring streak going. Michigan’s defense is getting tighter each game in only allowing the opponents 24 shots on goal where the offense is 3rd in the country with 35 shots a game.

Look for more goaltending from freshman Strauss Mann and with Michigan having a Big Ten opponent under their belt this past weekend, they may have better luck in Happy Valley where they are only 3-6 over the past years. Both Friday and Saturday games are on Big Ten Plus at 7:30 PM.