ALLENTOWN —It was mostly matter of pace Friday night for the Penn State men’s hockey team.
OK, pace and attitude.
A fast and a productive approach powered the Nittany Lions past Maine, 5-1, and into the championship game in the Allentown Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Penn State will play UConn Sunday night at the PPL Center for a spot in the Frozen Four, scheduled April 10-12 in St. Louis.
Penn State led 3-1 after the first period against Maine, the top seed in the region, and did so on the strength of two power play goals and an approach that seemed to frustrate the Black Bears, who visited the penalty box three times in the opening period and five times overall.
Maine scored the first goal of the game, but its lead lasted less than a minute because Penn State took over with its attitude as well.
“We preach that give them nothing attitude,” said senior defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr.
Without regular standout Carson Schade on the back end, freshman Nick Fascia took his place, and the defense did not miss a beat.
In some ways it was Penn State’s best defensive effort of the season, at the most important time. That’s in part because the team lost in the conference semifinal round and had a chance to rest leading up to its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance.
“For all of us, we’d been going and going. We’ve sort of been in playoff mode since January,” Gadowsky said. “To have a weekend to breathe, the timing of that was excellent.”
Penn State certainly seemed more rested than Maine, which won its conference tournament to earn the top spot in the regional.
After Maine’s first goal, though, it was almost all Penn State – and a partisan crowd of 7,358 appreciated every moment.
“We got beat in every aspect of the game tonight,” Maine coach Ben Barr said. “Credit to Penn State, they were outstanding. For whatever reason we couldn’t get any traction tonight.”
Penn State freshman forward JJ Wiebusch scored the first goal, his sixth of the playoffs. Sophomore forwards Matt DiMarsico and Dane Dowiak scored subsequent goals and Penn State was in control at the first break.
DiMarsico’s second-period goal was the only tally for either team in that frame — and Maine sophomore goaltender Albin Boija, a finalist for the Mike Richter Award as the best at his position in college hockey, did all he could to keep his team alive. He stopped two breakaways by Penn State sophomore Aiden Fink, the leading scorer in college hockey, as well as a breakaway by senior Danny Dzhaniyev and a point-blank attempt by sophomore center Reese Laubach.
“We’re not really looking for offense. We’re looking for defense to create offense,” DiMarsico said. “A lot of the goals we’ve score haven’t been tic-tac-toes, some of them have been greasy goals and that’s why we’re playing the way we are.”
An empty net goal by Dowiak capped the scoring in the third period.
Although it was the first meeting for the two programs, Penn State goalie Arsenii Sergeev moved to 3-0 against Maine in his career. He transferred to Hockey Valley this season from UConn, where he went 2-0 against the Black Bears. He’ll be facing his former team in the regional championship game.
UConn reached the championship game with a steady 4-1 victory over Quinnipiac in the first semifinal matchup Friday.
It was more than speed for Penn State, though.
Maine tried a muscular approach early — which led to penalties and those Penn State power-play goals — but that physicality neither flustered nor frustrated the Nittany Lions. They responded in kind by being tough enough to stand toe-to-toe but not enough to be sloppy and draw penalties.
Plus, Penn State blocked shots and clogged passing lanes, preventing a typically more patient Maine squad from playing its preferred style. Maine fell to 20-2 when scoring first this season.
Maine successfully slowed things down in the third period, finding its pace a bit and making some big hits that initially did not draw any penalties or reviews. Eventually, though, the officials ditched that cliched approach to postseason hockey and had to whistle a couple of obvious infractions.
Penn State has been the hottest team in college hockey the second half of the season because of its balanced approach. It stopped two Maine power plays through the first two periods and moved to 8-2-1 in its 11 games with the victory.
Penn State’s victory also meant it was the only Big Ten Conference team still alive in the tournament. Four conference teams earned berths but Michigan State, Ohio State and Minnesota all lost games Thursday in which they were the higher seed.
Penn State improved to 3-1 in regional semifinal games during its four NCAA Tournament berths.
It has never reached the Frozen Four, though, and its next chance at that step comes Sunday.
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