In sports, you can usually find a defining moment that signified a massive change in the trajectory of a program or organization, for better or worse. Usually, that moment is found in terms of an acquisition, whether through the draft, a trade, or a big-time recruit.

Very rarely, though, do we find this defining moment to come in a game. In the case of Penn State men’s hockey, we may not have to look further than overtime in the NCAA Tournament Regional Final on March 30, 2025, against UConn.

In a game where the regional hosts, Penn State, started strong in front of a partisan crowd in Allentown, the walls were slowly closing in on the No. 4 seed. Over the final 38 minutes of the game, UConn outshot the Nittany Lions 28-13, inching closer and closer to a game-winning goal that would send the Huskies to their first-ever Frozen Four. Penn State goaltender Arsenii Sergeev fought off 42 of UConn’s 44 shots on the night, looking to hold on long enough for his offense to come through.

With just over two minutes to play in the first overtime, Charlie Cerrato broke into the offensive zone with a nice move around the defenseman, before swinging a behind-the-back pass to tee up his teammate, Matt DiMarsico, with a one-timer just inside the right faceoff circle. DiMarsico’s shot would be the 41st shot on goal of the game for Penn State, and it soared over the right shoulder of UConn goaltender Callum Tung and went bar-down for the game-winning goal.

Bar Down. Hands Up. Mama Cries.

Hear @BTrippTweets on the call and @Funks33 with the added screech as Matt DiMarsico sends us to our first-ever Frozen Four!!#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/ycc1IJZ8xZ

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) March 31, 2025

DiMarsico’s heroics sent Penn State to their first Frozen Four in program history, capping off an unbelievable turnaround that began in early January, when the team began conference play 0-8-1. Starting with their January 5 win at Notre Dame, the Nittany Lions went 14-4-3 through the Regional Final, before ending their Cinderella story in St. Louis with a 3-1 loss against Boston University.

Beyond the impact of the massive in-season turnaround, it offered a point of reflection. Penn State hockey didn’t play at the Division I level 15 years ago. When Guy Gadowsky, a veteran coach at Princeton, took the job as head coach in 2011, the university’s hockey program was still a club sport, playing its home games at the 1,300-seat Penn State Ice Pavilion.

It took a nine-figure investment by billionaire alumnus Terry Pegula to elevate the program into a varsity sport, where it began play in 2012-13. That investment not only built Pegula Ice Arena, but also turned Penn State into a genuine player in college hockey with its upgraded facilities.

From there, Penn State enjoyed a decent amount of success as a Big Ten hockey program playing for a name-brand school. They had made the NCAA Tournament in 2017, 2018, and 2023, making it as far as the Regional Final in 2017 and 2023. Their best team to date, eerily similar to the school’s basketball program, had their Big Ten regular season championship season ended early due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

What the program had been lacking, however, was star power. To date, no Penn State alumnus has played more than 30 games in the NHL, with former Buffalo Sabres forward Brett Murray leading the pack with only 26. The Frozen Four team had its share of studs, including Hobey Baker Award finalist Aiden Fink, but the highest drafted player to ever don the Penn State sweater was picked No. 70 overall, goaltender Eamon McAdam in 2013.

Even Fink and Sergeev, the two biggest names on the program’s best team in history, weren’t picked in the first six rounds of their respective drafts.

Following up their miracle Frozen Four appearance seemed like a Herculean task for the program, especially with the departure of Sergeev, who signed his entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames.

But, with the introduction of NIL in college sports and the bombshell news that Canadian Hockey League (CHL) products could jump to college hockey for the first time starting in 2025-26, it gave the Nittany Lions a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use the Frozen Four as a springboard.

First, Guy Gadowsky went to the transfer portal. Along with adding goaltender Kevin Reidler from Omaha, Penn State was able to land the commitment of another Hobey Baker finalist in defenseman Mac Gadowsky, son of Guy Gadowsky.

While those two additions will be big for the state of Penn State hockey going forward, the long-term shift they’re looking to make comes in poaching talent from the CHL. Coach Gadowsky and company went to work, landing the commitments of CHLers Lev Katzin, Nolan Collins, Josh Fleming, Shea Van Olm, and Luke Misa. These commitments added several players already in NHL organizations, a big boost for a team that had just two seventh-round picks last year.

But, they weren’t done there. What this new CHL-to-NCAA pipeline enabled was a massive transfusion of talent into college hockey, with NIL beginning to lure several big-time prospects to the U.S. to play collegiately before embarking on their NHL careers.

Penn State’s then-biggest recruit in program history put pen to paper in June, when defenseman Jackson Smith committed to play in Happy Valley just two weeks before being drafted in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the first first-round selection in program history. But Gadowsky and his staff didn’t stop there.

Gadowsky had one more gigantic fish he was still hunting. The consensus No. 1 amateur hockey player in the world, 17-year-old Gavin McKenna, was considering making the jump to college hockey for 2025-26. The teenage phenom is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, and he ultimately came down to two finalists: Penn State and Michigan State. On Tuesday night, a day after the tea leaves pointed towards Happy Valley, McKenna made it official, live on ESPN, in front of the entire sports world.

Gavin McKenna is coming to Hockey Valley
pic.twitter.com/xlECL6oCop

— Onward State (@OnwardState) July 8, 2025

This is what Penn State hockey has been missing—national recognition.

In their Frozen Four campaign, the Nittany Lions had just seven of their regular-season games broadcast on the Big Ten Network, with most games being behind a paywall on Big Ten Plus. Coming off of their best season, while adding some of the premier young talent in all of hockey, the program will become must-see TV for the 2025-26 season.

And moving forward? Penn State now has a generational prospect that will forever be linked to its ice hockey program. When McKenna is drafted next June, he’ll be introduced as hailing from Penn State University. His success will pay dividends in how future Penn State hockey teams recruit and continue to build a foundation into a college hockey powerhouse.

Gadowsky will be entering his 15th season as Penn State hockey’s head coach and will have by far his most talented roster. When asked about building off of the program’s first Frozen Four at the end-of-season press conference in April, Gadwosky echoed the journey the Nittany Lion program has endured.

“We have to build off of what we’ve done. The lessons that we learned, specifically the last half of the year, to allow us to go to the Frozen Four can’t be forgotten,” Gadowsky said.

Collegiate rosters can change heavily from year to year, especially in the modern era, but the holdovers will be able to rub off on the newcomers on how to succeed at the collegiate level.

“I feel really good about our leaders,” Gadowsky said in the end-of-season presser, “Like, really, really good. We saw how important leadership was this year.”

All of this shapes up for 2025-26 to be a really special season for Penn State men’s hockey.

It begs the question. Does all of this happen without that shot by DiMarsico?

“I think the main goal is obviously to win a championship. Kind of saw what Penn State did this year, making it to the Frozen Four,” McKenna said during his interview on ESPN following his commitment. “They’ve come a long way, and I think next year, when I go there, obviously that’s the goal, to win a championship with them.”

Whether or not Penn State hockey takes that next step and wins a national championship in its (likely) only year with McKenna and Smith, the culture has been changed forever. An investment 15 years in the making has turned Hockey Valley into a destination for future NHL talent. When we look back in five, 10, 15 years at the state of the hockey program, we might have Matt DiMarsico to thank for all of it.

Penn State. Hockey school.

The EPICENTER #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/5Z0lHR8TGe

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) July 8, 2025