Men's Hockey Stays Hot with Back-to-Back Big Ten Sweeps
Max's takeaways from a weekend sweep vs. Notre Dame
No. 8 Penn State and a struggling Notre Dame team that remains winless in Big Ten play squared off to complete a 5-game homestand for the Nittany Lions on Friday and Saturday at Pegula Ice Arena. Despite a major down year for the Fighting Irish, which have been a historic powerhouse, playing spoiler in this series would greatly impact the Nittany Lions’ chances of making the NCAA tournament based on the math of the NPI rankings. Penn State, as needed, prevailed for a sweep and here are three key takeaways from the weekend.
Penn State’s dominance on special teams
Penn State may have the best special teams play in the entire country. Junior forward Matt DiMarsico scored two of his three goals during game one on the power play. Freshman forward Luke Misa was also able to net a power play goal of his own.
Even when the Nittany Lions didn’t score on the power play, their stellar puck movement kept the Fighting Irish skating and allowed Penn State to put more shots on goal and maintain momentum throughout.