No. three-seeded Penn State men’s hockey (21-14-2, 12-10-2 Big Ten) fell to No. 2-seeded Minnesota-Duluth (24-14-1, 11-12-1 NCHC) 3-1 on Friday night at MVP Arena in Albany, New York.

Josh Fleming turned aside 36 of 38 shots, with Shea Van Olm being the only Nittany Lion to find the back of the net, as Penn State was unable to fight off the Bulldogs in upstate New York.

How It Happened

Penn State came out of the gates with multiple scoring chances coming off the sticks of Gavin McKenna and Aiden Fink, but Adam Gajan stood tall early.

Shea Van Olm opened the scoring 9:37 into the game after receiving a cross-ice feed from Casey Aman, beating Gajan under the blocker to give Penn State a 1-0 lead.

An SVO Snipe gets us going!!#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/hCS0c2doUI

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) March 28, 2026

Kyler Kovich nearly tied the game for Minnesota-Duluth minutes later after receiving a pass just outside of the crease, but Fleming stuck out the pad just in time to turn his shot away.

The tying goal would come with 4:59 to go into the period, though, after Max Plante tapped home a cross-ice feed from his brother Zam Plante to even the score at 1-1.

Fleming shut the door on Callum Arnott in the opening minute of the second period, but the Bulldogs would earn the game’s first power play 32 seconds later after Penn State was caught with too many men on the ice.

Minnesota-Duluth registered two shots on the man advantage, but was unable to generate any decent scoring chances.

On a two-on-one breakout with McKenna, Reesee Laubach decided to keep the puck and ripped a shot towards the net that beat Gajan, but rang off the iron and stayed out.

Laubach saw another chance shortly later, receiving the feed with a wide-open net after Fink wired a pass over to him, but the shot missed the net entirely. Moments later, Charlie Cerrato went down and left the ice with an injury, but he would later return.

In the final minute of the second period, Nic-Chin DeGraves fed Casey Aman the puck in the slot, but Riley Bodnarchuk sacrificed his body to block the shot.

Fleming robbed Kyle Gaffney to start the third, flashing the leather to keep his one-timer out of the back of the net, and later turned aside Scout Truman as well as Max Plante to keep it a tie game.

Laubach nearly stole the lead back for Penn State after taking the puck on his backhand, trying to go top shelf, but Gajan stretched out just enough to get a piece of the puck with his blocker.

Penn State would head to its first power play with 8:55 remaining in regulation, but couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity.

The Bulldogs took the lead back with 5:13 to play in the third period after McKenna tried to slide the puck over to Laubach, but Grayden Siepmann got his stick in between the play. The puck found Hunter Anderson’s stick, and he wired a shot that beat Fleming over the glove.

Ty Hanson iced it with the empty netter with 1.6 seconds left to make it 3-1.

Takeaways

• Fleming had an exceptional game in goal. Minnesota-Duluth had multiple grade A opportunities, specifically in the second period and to start the third period, but Fleming stood on his head to give Penn State a chance in this game.
• Penn State seemed to dominate play through the first 20 minutes of hockey, but Minnesota-Duluth controlled the second period, outshooting Penn State 17-6 and winning 12-17 face-offs. It was a similar story in the third period as Minnesota-Duluth outshot Penn State 12-6 and scored the dagger with 5:13 to play.
• The NCAA needs to seriously reconsider moving regional sites to college campuses. MVP Arena was more than half empty for an elimination NCAA tournament game, and you could hear a pin drop at times. It just didn’t feel like a playoff atmosphere at all.

What’s Next?

And with that, the 2025-26 season has come to an end.