There’ve been no we-told-you-so’s from the Penn State men’s hockey team, but they did keep saying this could happen.
“This” would be the team playing winning hockey.
Not that long ago, Penn State’s season felt like it was fading away, with everything ready to collapse after an 0-8 start in Big Ten Conference play and another round of action against the nation’s best hockey conference looming as the season moved into the 2025 portion of the campaign.
A few weeks later, it’s an entirely different vibe.
At least that’s how it feels to fans.
For those behind the bench, pulling on skates and battling through shift after shift, the mindset has been consistent and steady.
While the team was certainly frustrated at the lack of victories despite sometimes solid play, coach Guy Gadowsky and his players consistently pointed to the positives — that the team was playing generally good hockey, but just not quite good enough.
They said victories would come once they started to play more consistently.
It sounded like cliches and coach speak, but it turned out to be correct.
The team has found its “identity,” meaning it’s playing consistently hard and not making mistakes. Plus, transfer goalie Arsenii Sergeev has returned from an injury and has been steady in net.
So, Penn State’s postseason playoff hopes are alive and the team is playing perhaps the best hockey in the nation. The team is 8-1-1 in its last 10 games, and it made history the by sweeping conference series in consecutive weekends for the first time.
Not the first time the season, or in a few seasons. The first time … ever.
Plus, Penn State has a legitimate Hobey Baker Award nominee with sophomore forward Aiden Fink, who leads the nation in scoring with 44 points (22 goals, 22 assists) in 30 games.
Penn State’s reward for all that success? Another big challenge.
The 18th-ranked Nittany Lions open a two-game series Friday in East Lansing, Mich., against top-ranked Michigan State. The games Friday and Saturday night both start at 6 p.m. and both air on the Big Ten Network.
It’s the latest most-important-series ever for Penn State, which needed its hot streak to salvage the season. It has moved from the basement of the conference to a position where it could earn a spot in the 16-team NCAA Tournament.
It probably cannot maintain that position if it were to drop both games this weekend, though, so the MSU series is important.
Still, that’s no different from any of the past four series for the team, and the team’s unified message remains grounded in playing hard and playing to its “identity.” Again, it sounds trite, but based on the past 10 games it looks true.
While finding itself, the team has found it might be better than expected.
Well, maybe not better than it expected but probably better than some fans expected based on the results during the first half of the season.
Michigan State is 10-2-1 at home this season, dropping only a Feb. 7 decision to rival Michigan and an Oct. 11 game against No. 2 Boston College.
In two games earlier this season against MSU in Hockey Valley, Penn State earned a shootout victory after a 2-2 tie and dropped a 6-4 decision on home ice. Penn State’s last victory at MSU came 1,092 days ago on Feb. 25, 2022 — although the Nittany Lions did get a tie and shootout victory on Nov. 10, 2023.
It’s people on the outside that look at those things, though.
The hockey team just stays focused on itself.
So, no matter what happens, even if the team adds another couple conference victories this weekend and next (when it closes the regular season against No. 5 Minnesota and former Penn State goalie Liam Souliere), the we-told-you-so’s are not coming.
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