Previewing the Penn State Nittany Lions

For the first time ever, a hockey team from Boston College will make the grueling trip out to State College, Pennsylvania to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. The Eagles and Lions met under a month ago in the Three Rivers Classic Championship, a solid 8-2 victory for the good guys. Boston College is unbeaten in it's past ten games while Penn State has not won since their first round victory in the Three Rivers Classic over Robert Morris. Penn State has yet to win a Big Ten game, they're 0-6 in the newly formed league.

 I got a chance to catch a glimpse of this Penn State club two weeks ago when their home game on a Monday night vs Minnesota was nationally televised and I was extremely impressed with the way they skated with the nation's number one team. They played Minnesota tough and if it wasn't for some great saves by Hobey Baker candidate Adam Wilcox, Penn State certainly could have won the game. Sure, they haven't won a game in their league yet but they did jump out to an early 1-0 led vs us in Pittsburgh and they played very hard for a long period of time before BC took over in the final minute of the first period. Rumor has it tickets are going for $200 tonight, that's unheard of. The home crowd will certainly get them playing at a high level.

As for BC, it's all about avoiding a major letdown. The Eagles are playing better than any other team in college hockey right now and they've proven they can win in tough venues, tonight will be no different. The key aspects of a road game never change, even on a game to game basis, you can't take dumb penalties, you have to find a way to get off to a good start, and you need your goaltender to settle in early. This isn't going to be an 8-2 game, I guarantee you that. Penn State will play hard and if BC isn't ready, anything can happen, but we've already experienced that.

Scouting Penn State-

Pairwise rank- 52nd (4-14-1)

Best win- Robert Morris

Worst loss- @ Michigan State

Leading scorers- Eric Scheid (9-5-14), Luke Juha (4-8-12), David Goodwin (4-6-10)

Team offense- 2.26 goals per game (50th)

Team defense- 3.84 goals allowed per game (56th)

Power play- 19 % (26th)

Penalty kill- 80 % (37th)

Penalty minutes- 14.58 penalty minutes per game. 14th most in NCAA.

Keys for BC- 

1. Keep it rolling. If we stay out of the box, get it going early, and get some timely goaltending, tonight should be a nice win.

2. Avoid stupid penalties. Tuesday was no doubt BC's best game of the year in terms of not taking dumb penalties.

Notes- 

1. BC now has the top penalty killing unit in the country at 90.4 %.

2. Johnny G currently has the nations longest point streak at 19 games. He has at least a point in every game except the second Minnesota game.

3. No word on goalie yet.