Oct. 15, 2014
| PENN STATE at BRICE GOAL RUSH | |
| Friday, Oct. 17 (9:07 p.m. ET) | |
| Saturday, Oct. 18 (11:07 p.m. ET) | |
| Carlson Center (4,595) | Fairbanks, Alaska | |
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Penn State | Alaska Anchorage | Alaska
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State men's hockey team takes its first trip to Alaska in program history to face the Seawolves of Alaska Anchorage and the Alaska Nanooks in the Brice Goal Rush tournament in Fairbanks. PSU plays UAA on Friday at 9:07 p.m. ET before taking on the host team, Alaska, on Saturday at 11:07 p.m. ET.
Both games this weekend will be carried via live stream for fans to watch from home on WCHA.TV powered by EverSport.TV. The games can be purchased through its subscription service.
PENN STATE-ALASKA CONNECTIONS
Penn State features three connections to the 49th State including a native: Casey Bailey, who hails from Anchorage. Head coach Guy Gadowsky coached the Nanooks from 1999-2004 for five seasons, while redshirt-senior forward Eric Scheid played for Alaska Anchorage in 2010-11.
SCOUTING THE SEAWOLVES
The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (2-0-0) took two games from Maine (3-1) and Wisconsin (4-2) in their own Kendall Hockey Classic this past weekend. Scott Allen, Hudson Friesen and Austin Azdurdia scored against Maine, while Tad Kozun (two goals), Hayden Trupp and Allen scored against the Badgers.
Kozun was named WCHA's Rookie of the Week, while Michael Matyas earned the win vs. Maine with 18 saves. Fellow net minder Olivier Mantha had 27 saves in the victory over Wisconsin.
The Seawolves returned veteran scoring leaders Blake Tatchell (7-25-32), Brett Cameron (10-13-23) and Allen (17-14-31) from last year's team. Cameron is suspended from Friday's game due to a major-penalty hit on a UW player this past weekend.
SCOUTING THE NANOOKS
The University of Alaska Nanooks also went 2-0-0 at the Kendall Hockey Classic, winning the title by virtue of a better goals-against number than the UAA Seawolves. Alaska shut out Wisconsin, 1-0, behind a Colton Parayko power-play goal and 14 saves by Davis Jones, the WHCA's Defensive Player of the Week.
Against Maine, the Nanooks trailed early, but rattled off four straight goals in the first and third periods en route to a 5-2 victory. Five different players scored in the game (Peter Krieger, Alex Hajdukovic, Brandon Morley, Josh Atkinson, Colton Sparrow), while Garrick Perry dished two assists. Jones made 19 saves on 21 shots for the win and Atkinson had a plus-four rating.
The Nanooks went 18-15-4 last season with an 11-8-2 mark at the Carlson Center. Morley is the team's leading returning scorer (17-17-34), while Marcus Basara (12-14-26) and Parayko (7-19-26) rounded out last year's top five Nanook scorers. Davis went 4-5-1 last year with 10 starts, splitting time with two other goaltenders.
NITTANY LIONS EARN TIE, WIN VS. UCONN
Penn State (1-0-1) needed an extra-attacker goal by David Goodwin on opening night to earn a 2-2 tie with UConn before erupting for a 7-1 victory on Saturday.
Goodwin was the lone Nittany Lion to score in both contests as Tommy Olczyk opened the team's scoring account with a second-period penalty shot Friday night. In Saturday's game, PSU killed off a first-period UConn power-play lasting 6:18, including 78 seconds of 5-on-3 play, which included 10 saves from Matthew Skoff. After a 1-0 lead in the opening frame, PSU unloaded a five-goal outburst in the second that led to the 7-1 victory, matching the most goals by the squad (1942 vs. Carnegie Tech, 7-0).
Taylor Holstrom scored twice and pitched in an assist on Saturday, while line mates Goodwin and Casey Bailey had a goal and two assists each. David Glen, Eric Scheid and Jonathan Milley each scored, while Luke Juha had two assists. Skoff finished with 28 saves, 14 of which were in the frenzied opening period.
SKOFF EARNS BIG TEN HONOR
Junior goaltender Matthew Skoff was named the third star of the week by the Big Ten Conference on Tuesday morning (Oct. 15).
Skoff put together crucial performances that allowed Penn State to achieve its best opening weekend in the Division I era. Skoff stopped 94.7 percent of the shots he saw and posted a GAA of 1.44 as the Nittany Lions went 1-0-1 against UConn.
Skoff stopped 26 shots on opening night (Oct. 10) to earn the tie. On Saturday, he was even better, saving 28 shots, 14 of which game in a furious first period that saw UConn on a 5-on-3 for 1:20, which led into the final three minutes of a five-minute major. Skoff saved 10 shots during that 6:20 of UConn power-play and the Nittany Lions rolled to victory.
The weekly honor is the second of Skoff's career, who picked up the second star of the week Feb. 11, 2014 following a 4-0 shutout of Michigan. Minnesota sophomore forward Hudson Fasching and senior forward Tanner Fritz were named first and second stars, respectively.
B1G/HOCKEY EAST CHALLENGE RETURNS
For the second straight season, the Big Ten Conference and Hockey East Association will compete on the ice in a 20-game series dubbed the Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge.
On the opening weekend, Penn State earned the Big Ten three points for a win and tie, while Ohio State notched two points for its split vs. Providence. Through those four games, Hockey East leads 6-5 by virtue of Providence's away win at OSU, which garners an extra point.
The Nittany Lions will compete four times with two road games at UMass Lowell counting toward the tally. Teams earn two points for a win, a bonus point for road wins and one point for a tie. Shootouts will not be calculated into the point system.
LIONS GATHER FIRST POLL VOTES
For the first time in its varsity history, Penn State received votes in a national poll as PSU had six votes in the USCHO.com poll. All six Big Ten teams earned recognition from the body's 50 voters. In the USA Hockey poll, each Big Ten team received votes except PSU.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State returns to Pegula Ice Arena for a four-game homestand vs. Holy Cross (Oct. 24, 26) and Bentley (Oct. 30-31). The series against the Crusaders is a Friday, Sunday series, while the games against Bentley will take place Thursday and Friday the following week.