Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1534903
M A Y 2 0 2 5 41 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M had just concluded and a spirit of opti- mism for the ones to come. That the Nittany Lions found them- selves in St. Louis on the season's final weekend was miraculous in its own right. They had gone 0-8-1 to start the Big Ten season and seemed destined to finish well short of NCAA Tournament con- tention. PSU's senior class had other ideas, though. Unwilling to let their careers end quietly, they exerted leadership by meet- ing individually with their teammates at midseason in hope of getting everyone refocused. "We came together as a class, and we decided to do those meetings," senior forward Carson Dyck said. "We knew it was our last year as a class, and we didn't want to leave with any regrets. We knew we had the team to do it. It was just [a matter of] gathering everyone together and figuring out their roles." Their intuition turned out to be right. Led by sophomore forward Aiden Fink, a Hobey Baker Award finalist, and junior goalie Arsenii Sergeev, the Nittany Lions went 11-3-3 to close out the regular sea- son, then reached the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament with a two-game sweep of perennial power Michigan in the opening round. They fell to Ohio State, 4-3 in overtime, in the semifinals, but by that point they had done enough to earn an at-large spot in the 16-team NCAA Tournament field and were in- stalled as the fourth seed in the Allen- town (Pa.) Regional. Having been playing what amounted to playoff hockey for two solid months, the Lions went into the tournament bat- tle-tested and confident that their ap- proach could continue to produce wins. "We've been in playoff mode for a pretty long time here," Gadowsky said. "We believe that our routine has worked, so why change? We know what's at stake. It's business as usual, and that message really came from the leadership group, not necessarily the coaching staff. I think it's a good one. It's consistent with what we do, and I don't see a reason to change." In their NCAA Tournament opener against Maine on March 28, the Lions fell behind early but responded with 5 unan- swered goals in a 5-1 win. The victory de- lighted a partisan blue-and-white crowd at the PPL Center, and the atmosphere was even more ecstatic two nights later when sophomore forward Matt DiMar- sico scored with just over two minutes remaining in overtime to lift PSU past Connecticut, 3-2, in the regional final. "It's just an unbelievable feeling," Di- Marsico told ESPN in a postgame inter- view, "especially for the culture and for the fans who traveled here to Allentown. … To make the first Frozen Four in pro- gram history means the world to us — our team and our fans." Penn State's regional win was indeed a milestone. It had been 15 years since Terry and Kim Pegula's $88 million gift had re- vived varsity ice hockey at PSU, allowing for the creation of men's and women's teams and bankrolling the construction of the Pegula Ice Arena. It had been 11 years since the Big Ten formed an ice hockey league, creating a gauntlet that required the fledgling Nittany Lion program to compete against some of the nation's most historically successful teams. And now here they were in St. Louis. The last Big Ten team standing, the Lions had ascended to college hockey's biggest stage. "I don't think anybody had any doubts," Gadowsky said, recalling the program's inception. "It's Penn State, and they've proved to be pretty successful athleti- cally. The support that our administration gives all student-athletes is extreme. I think everybody thought it would hap- pen. Jumping into the Big Ten Conference earlier than we were supposed to was a little bit daunting, but you have guys who don't mind that challenge. They're the ones who built the foundation for this to happen." The next challenge will be to build on the momentum this year's history-mak- ing team established. In their relatively brief history, the Nittany Lions have been more of a developmental program, the kind that maxes out the potential of its recruits but must do battle against long- established teams that routinely send players to the NHL. No one knows better than Gadowsky the difficulties that lie ahead if Penn State is going to break into the upper echelon of a conference whose other six hockey- playing members have combined to make 79 Frozen Four appearances and claim 23 national championships. "We have work to do for that to hap- pen," the veteran coach said just after Penn State made its Frozen Four exit. "But this is a nice start." ■ M E N ' S I C E H O C K E Y R E S U L T S ( 2 2 - 1 4 - 4 , 9 - 1 1 - 4 B I G T E N ) Date Opponent Result Oct. 5 at Alaska W, 4-3 (OT) Oct. 6 at Alaska W, 5-0 Oct. 12 at Quinnipiac L, 3-2 Oct. 25 ST. LAWRENCE W, 3-2 Oct. 26 ST. LAWRENCE W, 3-1 Nov. 1 at Minnesota L, 3-1 Nov. 2 at Minnesota L, 1-0 Nov. 15 WISCONSIN L, 5-4 (OT) Nov. 16 WISCONSIN L, 6-3 Nov. 22 MICHIGAN L, 6-5 Nov. 23 MICHIGAN L, 10-6 Nov. 26 COLGATE W, 3-2 Nov. 27 COLGATE W, 7-1 Dec. 5 at Ohio State L, 4-0 Dec. 6 at Ohio State L, 4-2 Dec. 12 Army* W, 4-1 Jan. 3 Notre Dame** T, 3-3 (SOL) Jan. 5 at Notre Dame W, 3-0 Jan. 10 MICHIGAN STATE L, 6-4 Jan. 11 MICHIGAN STATE T, 2-2 (SOW) Jan. 17 CANISIUS W, 4-0 Jan. 18 CANISIUS W, 3-2 Jan. 24 OHIO STATE T, 6-6 (SOW) Jan. 25 OHIO STATE W, 3-2 (OT) Jan. 31 at Michigan W, 5-4 Feb. 1 at Michigan L, 7-3 Feb. 7 at Wisconsin W, 2-0 Feb. 8 at Wisconsin W, 6-2 Feb. 14 NOTRE DAME W, 5-3 Feb. 15 NOTRE DAME W, 3-2 Feb. 21 at Michigan State T, 2-2 (SOW) Feb. 22 at Michigan State W, 3-2 Feb. 28 MINNESOTA W, 4-3 (OT) Mar. 1 MINNESOTA L, 5-3 Mar. 7 at Michigan^ W, 6-5 (OT) Mar. 8 at Michigan^ W, 5-2 Mar. 15 at Ohio State^ L, 4-3 (OT) Mar. 28 Maine^^ W, 5-1 Mar. 30 UConn^^ W, 3-2 (OT) Apr. 10 Boston U.% L, 3-1 * at Washington, D.C. ** at Wrigley Field, Chicago ^ Big Ten Tournament ^^ NCAA Tournament at Allentown, Pa. % Frozen Four at St. Louis