I don't know where to put this so I'm just going to post it here:
Do you like shots, and lots of them? Then boy do I have the team for you. Penn State leads college hockey in shots on goal, totalling 1,659 of them (200+ more than second place Quinnipiac). The Nittany Lions’ “shoot it and pray” offense has served them well this season, reaching their first ever NCAA tournament on the strength of their offense, scoring nearly four goals per game.
Penn State’s offensive sparkplug has been Denis Smirnov, a freshman from Moscow, Russia. What he lacks in stature, he makes up for in speed and agility. Smirnov leads the Nittany Lions with a whopping 45 points, though he was quiet in the Big Ten tournament, making what Penn State achieved there all the more impressive.
You can expect the line of freshman Nate Sucese, veteran leader David Goodwin, and Smirnov to be Penn State’s best on any given night. Goodwin is a classic “glue guy” who makes everyone around him better, and Sucese and Smirnov have both seem dramatic increases in production since being placed on Goody’s line.
The Nittany Lions’ leading goal scorer is sophomore Andrew Sturtz. Sturtz is an excellent puck handler and can score from anywhere on the ice.
The defensemen have been among the most offensively productive in the country. The pairing of Vince Pedrie, and all-B1G selection, and Eric Autio have combined for 46 points so far this season.
Once you get past those two, though, things get a little dicey. Head coach Guy Gadowsky has mixed and matched the rest of the blueliners since an injury to key defenseman Kevin Kerr in a game against Ohio State ended his season. The other D-men frequently have issues springing breakouts, or just handling the puck in general. You will often find them making ill-advised passes in the defensive or neutral zone that lead to excellent opportunities for the opposition, and making things difficult for freshman netminder, Peyton Jones.
Jones has had an up and down year, as you might expect from a young guy. I’ve been highly critical of his play at points this year because sometimes he has trouble making the easy save. But when it comes to the hard ones, boy does he shine. As many saw during the B1G tournament when Jones stood on his head for two straight double OT games, practically dragging the rest of the team kicking and screaming to the B1G tourney title, Jones can seem like a brick wall in net sometimes. It’s just a matter of which guy shows up.
Penn State’s penalty kill is solid, and while its powerplay numbers are good, it’s often been hard for the Nittany Lions to find the back of the net with the man advantage recently. That could be a key area in Cincinnati this weekend.