Penn State Men’s Hockey’s ‘Complete Games’ Leading To More Confidence & Wins

Penn State men’s hockey ended the 2024 portion of the season with its work cut out for it.
The Nittany Lions were winless in Big Ten play despite eight wins in non-conference matchups. After their final game of the calendar year, a win against Army in Washington, D.C., head coach Guy Gadowsky said his team would reflect on the first half of the season while resting ahead of the second.
“There’s a couple things you have to take care of yourself, physically but also mentally,” he said. “You have to reflect a little bit on the lessons that we’ve learned and make the decision that we are not gonna have to learn them again.”
Penn State took time to rest and prepare for the second half of the season during a three-week break between games. Freshmen who’d experienced challenging first halves felt more acclimated to college hockey’s pace and style. Others, including starting goaltender Arsenii Sergeev, regained full health.
“You get a lot of stats, a lot of analytics from your first half of the season being kind of at the halfway point, just trying to hone in more on like our entries, stop turning the puck over so much, and then just emphasizing ‘do your job,'” forward Tyler Paquette said. “Everyone has a different job on our team and embrace that role. And whatever you can do to bring value to our team is really important.”
Although things hadn’t gone well, Penn State players remained mentally tough. They knew that if they played good hockey and won games on the other side of the break, anything was possible.
“We came back from the Christmas break with a little bit of a different mindset, and we kind of had to reset, knowing we’re still in it because of how good our conference is,” forward Reese Laubach said.
Meanwhile, Gadowsky emphasized putting together “complete games,” which he believed was among the reasons that led to a subpar first half. The team would play one good period but perform badly in the next at times, which frustrated the team.
“It’s the summation of basically what we talked about for the first semester, that we’ve done a very good job in certain aspects of our game, but we have to put it all together. That was the message,” Gadowsky said. “And I think we came up pretty well.”
He was right.
Penn State began 2025 with a shootout loss — officially a tie—, and a 3-0 win at Notre Dame. It followed the series up with a 6-4 loss at No. 1 Michigan State and a shootout win the following game.
“I think we’re really just starting to click right now,” Paquette said after the Michigan State series.
Things continued to go Penn State’s way over the following two weeks. Students returned to Hockey Valley with a sweep against Canisius to end syllabus week. Last weekend, Penn State defeated No. 9 Ohio State in a shootout in game one and overtime in game two.
Penn State began to feel momentum on its side following the visit from the Spartans. The Ohio State series not only added fuel but confidence.
“It’s huge to start seeing some success,” defenseman and captain Simon Mack said. “It’s big for confidence, that momentum, we just need to kind of continue. We’ll push that week to week and finish at this last stretch of games on a high note and then take that into the playoffs.”
Sixteen teams make the NCAA Tournament, and Penn State was a bounce away from the Frozen Four two seasons ago. The Nittany Lions should qualify for the Big Ten Tournament if they keep this run of form up, which starts with a series against Michigan in Ann Arbor this weekend. The Wolverines are tied with the Buckeyes for No. 11 in the PairWise rankings, so a series sweep would be huge in making up ground.
“We gotta keep getting better. We gotta start closing out games in regulation. That’s a big thing for sure. It was right there, obviously, up with 20 seconds left. That sting,” Laubach said about Penn State’s overtime win over Ohio State. “Even though we won, it would have been nice to have those three points beside the two, but we’re getting better. We’re getting close and getting hot at the right time.”
In that game against Ohio State, Penn State had a lead before the Buckeyes tied it with 21 seconds left in regulation. A regulation win, of course, would’ve given the Nittany Lions three points, but instead, they got two for winning in overtime.
Even though regulation wins have been hard to attain, Penn State is hot right now. The team is finding ways to put complete games together, just as Gadowsky emphasized it needed to do during the break.
“Recently, we’re finding ways to do both at the same time. That’s been the key to success the last nine games,” Gadowsky said.
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