When Penn State men’s hockey opened its second half on January 3 against RIT, it was the healthiest and most complete the roster had been all season.

While Gavin McKenna was still in Minneapolis at World Juniors and wouldn’t rejoin the team until the Minnesota series, the Nittany Lions welcomed defenseman Cade Christenson and All-American forward Aiden Fink back to the lineup. The two were a needed jolt, both scoring on January 4 against RIT after Penn State was shut out in Rochester.

But we still haven’t seen a Penn State team at full strength this season. Early in the series finale against RIT, Shea Van Olm left with an undisclosed injury, playing just 1:36. While the Nittany Lions got McKenna back for last Friday’s victory over Minnesota, Charlie Cerrato exited the game in the first period and missed the remainder of the weekend.

Add in Casey Aman being scratched for Saturday’s contest and Braedon Ford’s significant lower-body injury suffered in the second period, and you suddenly have an injury bug that’s testing their depth.

“There’s no use complaining about it,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said to the media on Monday. “We just have to deal with it.”

In the thick of conference play, any prolonged absences would be brutal to a team that hasn’t gotten to fully flash all of its talent at the same time. While it seems like it’ll be a challenge for Ford to return to the lineup this season, Gadowsky stated that Van Olm, Cerrato, and Aman are all “day-to-day.”

A unique problem that Gadowsky and the Nittany Lions will face this season, however, is the newly-instated NCAA roster cap. While teams used to be able to roster an unlimited number of players, the changing landscape of college athletics has caused all Division I sports to now offer a full athletic scholarship to every athlete instead of having players split scholarships in certain sports.

Because of this, each college hockey team can only roster 26 players. When you factor in that hockey teams can dress 22 players (12 forwards, six defensemen, one extra skater, three goalies), it only means four players are designated as scratches.

If none of the four injured Nittany Lions can go on Friday against Notre Dame, though, Penn State wouldn’t be able to dress 22 players due to Keaton Peters missing the entire season due to injury. It shoehorns Gadowsky into an awkward position, but one that he has no choice but to be in.

“That’s why it’s important that you know your entire roster and have guys who are really positive about Penn State,” Gadowsky said. “They’re here for Penn State, and you need that because you have to work just as hard in the weight room, you have to practice just as hard, and when you’re called on, you better be ready to roll.”

The players whose statuses are up in the air for Friday play all sorts of roles for the Nittany Lions. Cerrato is one-third of one of the most productive lines in college hockey, Van Olm lengthens the lineup with his scoring ability in the bottom-six, and Aman has been extremely versatile as an extra skater who can pair with several different defensemen while providing a physical edge.

“We got a lot of guys that can play like that,” Christenson said about replacing the physicality that Aman and Ford bring. “As a group, we just have to fill those roles, not just as one person, but through a lot of people. I think we got a lot of guys that can do that, and I think we’ll be alright these next few weeks.”

“Injuries are part of the game,” Fink said on Monday. “Nothing we can do about it, but I think as a group, we’re all going to step up. We’re down people, but if we all step up, we’re going to be perfectly fine.”

“It sucks,” Reese Laubach, who stepped into Cerrato’s place between Matt DiMarsico and JJ Wiebusch over the weekend, said about the injuries. “We have guys that are banged up, but I think everyone knows that we need to step up right now.”

Laubach talked about last season’s team that rallied from an 0-9 start in conference play to a Frozen Four berth about dealing with adversity, especially in the face of injury.

“We had guys hurt last year, too,” he said. “It was this time of year, [Cerrato] was hurt, I was hurt for a little bit, but this was when we turned our season around. Whether we got everyone healthy or not, the guys who are healthy are going to grind every day and push every day to keep winning games and keep getting better.”

Laubach’s words ring true, especially as the Nittany Lions prepare to host a Notre Dame team in an identical position to Penn State last year. Last January, it was Penn State that sparked a midseason turnaround by going 1-0-1 against Notre Dame on the road, and the winless Fighting Irish might look to follow the blueprint in Hockey Valley this weekend.

“You can come back from 0-10, we proved that last year,” he said. “They may not be ranked all the way up there right now, but this is still the Big Ten. This is still the best conference in college hockey, so anyone can beat anyone on any given day, whoever it is.”