The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s hockey team will play their final two home games of 2025 this weekend when the #5 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions come to 3M Arena at Mariucci. It will be Gophers fans
first look at highly touted freshman forward Gavin McKenna for Penn State—but there is more than just him to impress for PSU so far this season. Minnesota will look to pull a pair of quality games together and keep alive a six game winning streak over PSU on the Mariucci ice.
Minnesota continued their up and down season last weekend splitting a home series against the Long Island Sharks. The Gophers looked terrible on Friday falling 6-2 before jumping out early taking a 4-1 lead midway through the game before hanging on for a 6-3 win. Minnesota got goals from six different players and a 23 save performance from Nathan Airey in the win. Minnesota’s long dormant power play finally woke up helping them to three extra skater goals in the win.
Brody Lamb continues to be the consistent offensive force for the Gophers leading the team in scoring with seven goals and 14 points. Brodie Ziemer is not far behind him with 12 points on the season and six goals. The Gophers goaltending has been very up and down. Airey faired well last Saturday to move his season record to 2-4-1 with a 2.99 goals against average and a .895 save percentage. Michigan State transfer Luca DiPasquo had been better of late and then had a stinker last Friday giving up six goals to Long Island. He on the season is 3-4 with a 2.74 GAA and a .905 save percentage. Both goalies will likely get a start this weekend once again unless one dominates on Friday.
Penn State has used last year’s run to the Frozen Four as a stepping stone for this year’s team. They added more highly sought after talent from the CHL than most teams and have used that group along with many returees to run up the national rankings. But, they have run into a bit of a wall at the top of the Big Ten losing three of their last four to Michigan and Michigan State. Last weekend they hosted the Wolverines and fell 7-1 on Friday before responding with a 4-2 win Saturday. They currently are ranked #5 in the nation and sit in fourth place in the Big Ten just one point back of a three-way tie at the top between Michigan, MSU and Wisconsin.
The Nittany Lions are led by that young core with their star from a season ago Aiden Fink out with a shoulder injury. Sophomore Charlie Cerrato leads the Big Ten with 20 points on four goals and 16 assists so far this season to rank third in the nation in scoring while his 16 assists are the most nationally. Sophomore JJ Wiebusch is tied for second in the nation with 11 goals while his six powerplay tallies are also tied for tops in the country. Junior Matt DiMarsico has added eight goals on the year to rank tied for third in the Big Ten and ninth nationally.
And then there is McKenna. The potential #1 overall pick in the NHL draft next summer definitely made headlines when he announced he would play at Penn State this season. Its’ been a mostly good year with some bumps so far for the freshman. Offensively he looks the part with 15 points on four goals and 11 assists. But he is a -4 on the season and has been caught defensively many times. The Nittany Lions will certainly take the good with the bad, but Minnesota will need to try and attack him directly this weekend and not let him control the pace of play.
Penn State has played a goalie platoon this year as well with former Nebraska-Omaha goalie Kevin Reidler having played 8 games with a 5-3 record a 3.4 GAA and a save percentage of .901. Freshman goalie Josh Fleming has been very impressive posting a 5-1-0 record with a .934 save percentage and a 2.17 goals-against average.
The one thing the Gophers will need to do to win this weekend is find a way to turn around their struggling special teams. The Nittany Lions have been good on the power play this season scoring at over 21%. Fifteen of their 47 goals this season have come with an extra skater, so if the Gophers can shut that down, it could go a long way. Unfortunately the Gopher PK has been abysmal this season ranking second to last in the nation at just a 67.44% kill rate. So Minnesota MUST stay out of the box. Minnesota’s power play did finally erupt for three goals last Saturday, but for the season they still rank near the bottom of the country scoring on 15.91% of their chances. They should get plenty of chances as the Nittany Lions are the most penalized team in the country at over 20 minutes per game, but they have been good on the PK killing off 89.4 % of their chances to rank 6th in the nation.
Friday night’s game is a “Ice-Out” white-out for Minnesota with free white towels handed out at the game. Saturday is the annual teddy bear toss. Both games this weekend are set for a 7 PM puck drop with Friday’s game airing on FS1 and streaming on the Fox App, and Saturday’s airing on Fox9+ in the Twin Cities and streaming via B1g+. Both games can be heard on the radio with Wally Shaver on 1130 AM/ 103.5 FM/ I heart Radio.
