It may have been a weekend that saved Penn State men’s hockey’s season.
And it might be the beginning of the Nittany Lions’ youthful core coming to fruition.
With an important sweep over No. 9 Ohio State, Guy Gadowsky’s squad rescued its season, pumping a little more hope into 2024-25 thanks to its younger key core that could help push the program back to a deep NCAA Tournament run sometime soon.
When?
Well, let’s pump the brakes a bit.
Entering this week, Penn State sits 24th in the PairWise rankings, well outside of the top 12 or so it needs to be in to clinch a berth back to the NCAA Tournament where it hasn’t been in since it lost in the regional finals to Michigan in 2023.
It’s in that hole because for a large stretch of the 2024-25 season, Penn State played without junior goaltender Arsenii Sergeev, who missed nearly all of November and December with an injury. During the nine-game stretch he missed, Penn State’s only wins came against non-conference opponents Colgate and Army.
But in his return in the Notre Dame series, Sergeev helped Penn State earn three out of four points, before knocking off No. 1 Michigan State in a shootout in the second half of the following series.
Sergeev’s performance set up an important search-for-proof-things-had-turned-around series against No. 9 Ohio State this weekend that featured not one but two instant classics.
In night one, the Buckeyes jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the stalwart of the youthful core Aiden Fink scored the first of three straight Penn State goals. After surrendering a lead to Ohio State, Penn State’s Danny Dzhaniyev scored with 12 seconds left to blow the lid off of Pegula Ice Arena and force overtime.
The shootout victory – completed by Dylan Lugris’s winner – capped off one of the most memorable Penn State hockey games in program history and showed what that young core and its leader could do.
Fink – a sophomore and Nashville Predators draft pick – finished with three points, adding to his team leading pace of 34. He ranks inside the top 10 in points and goals in the country and earned his way onto the initial Hobey Baker nominations.
And while Fink went quiet in night two, sophomore Reese Laubach played hero, giving Penn State a 3-2 overtime win to complete the sweep.
Of Penn State’s combined nine goals on the weekend, seven came from underclassmen.
And of the 24 points recorded, two-thirds came from the stick of a sophomore or younger. Laubauch (also back after injury this weekend) led the team with four while Fink and freshman JJ Wiebusch both finished with three points each.
That ground-swelling from a younger core is important and one that seems to be as promised.
It was needed too.
In 2023-24, Penn State’s program took a step back but showed flashes from guys like Fink and Matt DiMarsico of what it could be. In the early half of this season, it seemed like Penn State couldn’t shake what was ailing as those injuries piled up.
But this core has brought momentum back to this season and it’s hard not to keep an eye on next year already, too.
As the floodgates of talent open from the Canadian Hockey League thanks to the new NCAA eligibility rules, Gadowsky appears to be leveraging that to the best of his abilities. Penn State picked up a commitment from the top goal scorer in the WHL, Spokane’s Shea Van Olm, and goalie Josh Fleming of the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst. Fleming ranks sixth in goals against average among goalies with 20 or more games played this season in that league.
Sergeev, who has one more season left, should stand in line to start in 2025-26 more often than not but with a frantic pace of Big Ten play, having two viable options in net is important.
So too is offensive production and much of Penn State’s 2024-25 production will be back next season as well. Fink, Laubach and Charlie Cerrato — all sophomores or younger — rank 1-2-3 in Penn State’s point totals, and barring an movement in the portal or elsewhere, will be back next season.
But next year is next year. Right now, there’s a stretch run left in Big Ten play that could see this core grow even more. Penn State heads to Michigan to take on the Wolverines, a team looking to find its groove. Then Penn State takes trip to Madison, is home against Notre Dame, returns out to East Lansing and wraps up the season against Minnesota.
While winning in the Big Ten is never easy, Penn State seems to be waking up at the right moment – and it showed this weekend against Ohio State.
It’s a series that felt like a true tone shift for this core and, most of all, this season.
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