Josh Fleming hesitated for a split second. Gavin McKenna gathered the puck and immediately passed it to Reese Laubach.
But Laubach was covered. By the time it hit his stick, Grayden Siepmann knocked the puck onto Hunter Anderson’s stick. From there, Anderson’s wrister whistled behind Fleming.
It was a small mistake of a slow breakout. It had massive repercussions.
It was the kind of mistake that cost teams runs deep to the Frozen Four and beyond.
Penn State lost to Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, 3-1, on Friday night because two small mistakes that the Bulldogs used to punish Penn State.
The penance of that punishment? The end of the 2025-26 Penn State men’s hockey season.
Penn State played much of the first period in a way that showed promise. It fired the puck repeatedly at Adam Gajan. It was attacked and sustained zone pressure. It resulted in a 1-0 lead thanks to Shea Van Olm after an impressive forecheck.
But as the period lingered, Penn State in the defensive end wasn’t as strong on the puck. A lost battle in the corner led to the Bulldogs taking control of the puck, where Zam Plante found his brother Max on the backdoor.
As the puck slid across the ice, Penn State defenseman Jackson Smith, who had a strong game otherwise, half-heartedly went for a stick lift. It wasn’t enough. It was the first small mistake that Penn State couldn’t afford.
Penn State’s offensive push was answered by a second period push by Minnesota-Duluth in the second period where the Bulldogs outshot Penn State, 17-6. But for as good as Duluth’s Gajan was, Fleming was quick to answer for Penn State.
And Penn State, for the most part, did what it was supposed to do to win. It stayed out of the box against a lethal power play. It generated chances — maybe not as sustained in the second and third periods — on the attack. It got key stops – 36 of them – from Fleming in net.
But it was the fatal error of a late third-period turnover with just over five minutes remaining that ended Penn State’s season.
In the final minutes, Penn State pushed back yet again. But without their best center in Charlie Cerrato, who left the game in the second period without injury, the Nittany Lions couldn’t crack Gajan. His effort in the third period won Duluth the game – the type of game that also punishes mistakes in single-elimination hockey.
The Bulldogs made sure to round out that effort, completing the evening with an empty net goal with a second left in the game and Penn State completed its most publicized season yet.
McKenna, who wasn’t at his best Friday night and finished -3, was the star of college hockey in 2025-26. But it’s more than likely he’s off to the NHL to be a star there. With that decision, he leaves a legacy that needs time not to form but to solidify, to truly understand its impact on the program and the sport.
In the immediacy, Penn State must grapple with the obvious. Penn State did not accomplish what it set out to accomplish this season, two more wins than it had last year. But health and momentum are also essential ingredients in winning playoff hockey. It’s a program that found that last year and learned that this year.
That lesson came in the form of two mistakes on Friday night — though it manifested at times throughout the season. In the lesson’s wake, the bitterness of starting an offseason and the wait for next year beginning sooner than anticipated.
The burden for two mistakes in playoff hockey comes with the heftiest price.
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