Blue White Illustrated

April 2025

Penn State Sports Magazine

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A P R I L 2 0 2 5 4 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M P enn State had to do a bit of score- board watching after its Big Ten Tournament run came to an end with a 4-3 overtime loss to Ohio State in the semifinal round March 15 in Colum- bus. In the end, though, everything worked out nicely for the Nittany Lions. By the time all the conference tournaments had wrapped up, there weren't enough bid stealers left to deny Penn State a spot in the NCAA field for the fourth time in the past nine seasons. PSU will face third overall seed Maine on March 28 at the PPL Center in Allen- town, Pa. The Lions, who were 13th in the PairWise Rankings heading into Selection Sunday, are seeded fourth in the Allen- town Regional, while the Black Bears are seeded first. Penn State is back in the tournament after missing out last year. What makes the Lions' reappearance especially grati- fying is that their chances of qualifying for the 16-team field had seemed remote at midseason. They were 7-9-1 and win- less in Big Ten play coming off a 3-3 tie versus Notre Dame at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Jan. 3. But after the deadlock with the Irish, which ended in a shootout loss, every- thing started to click. Sparked by sopho- more forward Aiden Fink, a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten choice and a Hobey Baker Award finalist, Penn State won 11 of its next 17 games and went into the Big Ten Tournament sporting an 18-12-4 record. The Lions still had work to do, but by that point they were riding a wave of momentum that had them feeling good heading into a trip to Ann Arbor for a best-of-three quarterfinal series against Michigan. "One thing that has prepared these guys well is going through the peaks and valleys that we did this season, because we had to stay very mentally tough when things didn't come easy," head coach Guy Gadowsky told GoPSUSports.com. "We had to learn how to stay positive and im- prove in those tough times, and I think we did both of those things. "Mentally-tough teams tend to have the advantage in the playoffs because of the intensity alone. But because of what we went through this season, that absolutely contributes to how far we've grown in that aspect." Against the Wolverines, a peren- nial collegiate hockey powerhouse that reached the Frozen Four the previous two seasons, Penn State lived up to Gad- owsky's optimistic talk. Freshman forward JJ Wiebusch scored Penn State's last three goals, including the overtime winner, to give the visitors a 6-5 win in the opener on March 7. It was the first hat trick of his career. The following night, Wiebusch was one of five goal-scorers for Penn State in a 5-2 victory that made the Nittany Li- ons the first visiting team ever to sweep a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal se- ries. The joyride ended at Ohio State when a neutral zone turnover led to a break- away, with Gunnarwolfe Fontaine firing a shot between the legs of junior goalie OLYMPIC SPORTS COMING ON STRONG A furious midseason rally propels PSU into the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M Led by forward Aiden Fink (18), Penn State stormed through the second half of the regular season and is set to face Maine on March 28 in the first round of the NCAA tourney. PHOTO BY STEVEN WALTER/PENN STATE ATHLETICS

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