College hockey: Penn State continues improbable turnaround in NCAA tourney

Penn State has a rich tradition in many of the 24 interscholastic sports that the NCAA offers. Even with a drastic turnaround spearheaded by coach Guy Gadowsky since the Nittany Lions made the jump to the NCAA in 2012 in men’s hockey, the Nittany Lions had just two NCAA Tournament wins in program history and zero Frozen Four appearances entering Friday night’s clash with No. 3 Maine.

The Black Bears (24-8-6) have as many national championships as the Nittany Lions have wins in the tournament and appeared in 11 Frozen Fours from 1988-2007, becoming one of the most historic programs in the sport along the way.

The “hungry” Nittany Lions, as senior Tyler Paquette referred to them in Thursday afternoon’s media session, weren’t fazed by an 0-9 start to Big Ten play earlier this season and didn’t let the third-ranked team in the nation, or an early 1-0 deficit, set them off by cruising to a 5-1 victory over the Black Bears at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday night.

It was the 16th win in a 19-game stretch for the Nittany Lions (21-13-4) who remain one of the hottest teams in college hockey.

“It almost feels like every game has been a playoff game since January,” sophomore Matt DiMarsico, who tied for a team-high two goals on the night with Dane Dowiak, said. “I think that honestly has prepared us really well for games like tonight and games like Sunday. Just having that mentality in practice – you don’t want to lose a game or a mini-game or anything like that – and I think that’s translated.”

Gadowsky’s group will face UConn (23-11-4), the region’s No. 2 seed, back at the PPL Center at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2 after the Huskies defeated Quinnipiac 4-1 in the first matchup on Friday night. Both teams will be striving for their first Frozen Four appearance in program history when the puck drops at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

“I’m very happy for everybody to have the opportunity to win a game and go to the Frozen Four,” Gadowsky said. “I know it will mean a lot to everybody in our program and everybody that came here.”

The Black Bears opened the scoring with an obscure deflection that slowly sent the puck flying over a blinded Penn State goaltender Arseni Sergeev a little under five minutes into the contest.

Less than a minute later, and only six seconds into a power play, Penn State responded with a beautiful set play orchestrated to find JJ Wiebusch for an easy equalizer with 14:56 left on the first period clock. The freshman then went on to assist Matt DiMarsico, who notched two goals and an assist on the night, to give the Nittany Lions a lead they never relented in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Wiebusch’s cross-ice pass hit DiMarsico perfectly in stride and the sophomore left winger did the rest on his preferred left hand, ripping the point-blank shot into the top right corner. Before the first period came to a close, sophomore forward Dane Dowiak got just enough on a Danny Dzhaniyev shot to deflect it past star goaltender Albin Boija and give the Nittany Lions their second power-play goal of the opening 20 minutes.

The second line of DiMarsico, Wiebusch and Charlie Cerrato – a group of two freshmen and a sophomore – put their outstanding chemistry and talent on full display by accounting for seven of the team’s 12 points. Cerrato tallied three assists and won 11 of 18 faceoffs to earn the game’s second star.

“We’ve been playing together for a while now, almost since the beginning of the year, and we complement each other well. We work well off each other, stay positive on the bench and communicate all the time,” Cerrato said.

“I think hockey IQ plays a big part of it. I think we’re all really smart hockey players, and like Charlie [Cerrato] said, when we kind of started clicking, it’s been really good,” DiMarsico said.

One of the nation’s best teams in the penalty killing department, ranked 10th in the NCAA in the category, struggled with a potent Penn State power play attack that capitalized on two of its three opportunities in the first period. In a battle of strength versus strength, the Nittany Lions, who have the seventh most power-play goals in the country, used the man-up advantages to notch one of the most memorable wins in program history.

A raucous crowd at the PPL Center, from the student section and band in the upper deck to the alumni and fans circling the ice, reflected the magnitude of the remarkable victory.

“There’s so many games at Pegula Ice Arena where we ride the atmosphere and the Roar Zone, and it’s been so important to us since inception and especially this year as well,” Gadowsky said. “We had a big chunk of it come here to Allentown with unbelievable support.

“I think it was very similar to our big wins in Pegula. We just rode their wave and it was wonderful to see and wonderful to have that support.”

Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.