Penn State men’s hockey pulled off the largest comeback in program history on Saturday, shocking Army 7-6 at Pegula Ice Arena. It was far from pretty, but the Nittany Lions got the job done.

Although Penn State has a 10-7-3 overall record, the team has found ways to stay in games. The Nittany Lions’ intensity never seems to falter, which has kept them in some games longer than they should’ve been in and even propelled comebacks on a few occasions. In those ways, Saturday’s contest was the epitome of Penn State’s season thus far.

“All year we’ve stayed calm,” senior defenseman and captain Christian Berger said. “I think we have a lot of confidence in our group, and when we go down, I think there’s positivity and there’s confidence we can come back, but there’s also a little bit of urgency.”

Penn State trailed 6-2 early in the second period against Army. The Black Knights were having their way against both Noah Grannan and then Liam Souliere, who each conceded three goals. Another loss against a non-conference team seemed inevitable, but then, there was a sudden spark.

Reese Laubach scored at the 13-minute mark, and then, Ryan Kirwan scored five minutes later. In Guy Gadowsky’s view, Kirwan’s goal was perhaps the most pivotal moment of the game.

“I turned to [Keith Fisher] and I was like, ‘That was big. That one was big,'” Gadowsky said. “If we didn’t get that one, I don’t think it would’ve happened. It was right then that you saw a little bit of doubt creeping into Army, and a little bit of, ‘Hey, we just got a little bit taller after that.'”

When the period ended following Kirwan’s goal, the energy in the locker room was different. The team was riding momentum and a confidence boost, which helped propel them to pull off the comeback.

“I felt that after that goal, that the vibe in the locker room was one of, ‘We are going to get this done,’ whereas if that didn’t happen, I don’t know. I think it would have been very much different,” Gadowsky said.

It translated on the ice almost immediately, as Kirwan grabbed another goal just 1:44 into the third period to make it 6-5. He scored again not even a minute later to tie the game, and then Aiden Fink scored the go-ahead goal halfway through the period.

Although Penn State held on to win, Gadowsky was adamant that he walked away from the game with mixed emotions.

“We were pretty impressed that the guys were able to come back from six down,” he said. “It’s impressive that they were able to pull it out; impressive how they did it. It wasn’t guys going rogue and changing what we do. They did it how Penn State hockey scores goals, which was nice to see, but at the same time, very frustrated that we put ourselves in that position.”

Penn State has a daunting series against Michigan State this weekend, the start of the second half of the Big Ten schedule. It’s a stretch that hasn’t been kind to the team in recent years, but the group is keen on each other as there’s significant trust in the room.

“The biggest thing is we have trust in each other and trust in our group,” Kirwan said. “We think we can beat anybody, so whenever we’re down like that, we don’t have any quit in the locker room and a lot of heart, so I just think that’s a credit to our leadership group.”