“Obviously, a real important weekend against Penn State,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “They’re playing really well. They’ve got a lot of things going right now and I’m sure their confidence is sky high. Offensively, they’ve been putting up big numbers… they have probably one of the most effective lines in the country right now.”

The forward line consisting of Casey Bailey, Taylor Holstrom and David Goodwin has produced 84 points for PSU this season (33 P, 27 P, 24 P). That number is good for 34.5 percent of the Nittany Lions total offensive production, making them one of the most effective lines in the country.

“Those three, they just click really well together. They know where they’re going to be at,” senior defenseman Ron Boyd said. “I’m not too worried about it. I think everyone on our team is good enough to shut them down, if you’re first line guy to fourth line guy, we shut them down and that’s the pride of our team… It’s just a grind type of hockey.”

The line of Bailey, Holstrom and Goodwin was key for PSU when they hosted MSU in mid-January. The trio combined for 11 points on the weekend helping PSU record a win and tie against the Spartans.

“They can definitely control the pace of a game just by their speed, their tenacity, but I think this weekend, we have to go out there and we have to control the pace,” junior forward Matt DeBlouw said. “We have to control the game in order for us to have a different outcome than last time.”

Anastos sees the Nittany Lions as one of the hardest working teams that MSU will face this season. The players were warned of PSU’s work ethic before the January series, and while they handled it well in the first matchup where MSU won in a shootout, the Spartans were completely outplayed in a 5-2 loss the following night.

“You have to have pushback,” Anastos said. “You’ve got to be able to do the same to your opponent and stand up to whatever physicality, whatever intensity level, and when you’re at home it’s even that much more important. I think you’ve got to find that right balance and we talk about it with our team all the time. You’ve got to find the balance of playing with emotion and yet playing disciplined.”

Discipline might be a key factor this weekend. For Boyd, he still has some bad blood with PSU from the last series.

“I’m not a fan of Penn State,” Boyd said. “It’s like playing Michigan for me almost. They just a little edge on them and I like that, but we just have to bring in an attitude where we’re not going to take any of that because they came out with a physical attitude and they were hammering us, and we just can’t allow them to push us around like they did last time, and it’s not going to happen like that.”