Penn State men’s hockey has struggled to find wins through the first 10 games of the season, but head coach Guy Gadowsky believes his team is finally turning a corner.

Despite getting swept by Notre Dame and falling to 2-7-1, Gadowsky called Saturday’s 4-2 loss the Nittany Lions’ best team performance of the season.

“Result-wise, yeah, we’d like to get absolutely better results,” Guy Gadowsky said Monday. “But as I said at the end of Saturday night, and doing all the analytics and video, I’m telling you that was our best team performance. It was, so we’re taking steps.”

It’s an interesting evaluation considering how the weekend unfolded.

On Friday, Penn State surrendered a 4-2 lead on the way to a 5-4 overtime loss. Gadowsky didn’t hide his frustration afterward, saying his team wasn’t playing Penn State hockey and that the coaching staff and players weren’t entirely on the same page.

“It’s on me. It’s not on the guys. It’s on me and the coaches,” Gadowsky said Friday.

Just 24 hours later, Penn State suffered another loss, this time allowing four unanswered goals before Dane Dowiak cut the deficit to two late in the third period.

However, Gadowsky’s assessment of his team’s performance was drastically different.

“Look, we did take a step tonight. We did from a coaching perspective,” Guy Gadowsky said Saturday. “We like a lot, lot more of tonight than last night, and they did.”

So what exactly did Penn State improve?

Gadowsky pointed to three areas in particular: communication, puck management and supporting teammates. Those improvements address some of the same problems that killed Penn State on Friday.

Forward Shea Busch identified turnovers and managing pucks at the blue lines as areas needing immediate improvement, while defenseman Mac Gadowsky said small mistakes were turning into major opportunities for the other teams.

Better puck management means making smarter decisions with possession, especially around the blue lines, where turnovers can quickly become scoring chances the other way. Supporting teammates also creates passing options and lets players move the puck more effectively.

The coaching staff believes Saturday represented progress in those areas, even if the scoreboard didn’t reflect it.

Penn State outshot Notre Dame 38-29, won 40 of 66 faceoffs and killed all three penalties Saturday. However, two Irish goals in the opening 2:32 of the third period put Penn State in a three-goal hole it couldn’t climb out of.

Guy Gadowsky attributed part of that stretch to a miscommunication between goaltender Josh Fleming and his forwards, rather than a problem with the team’s mentality.

The head coach also said Monday that, over the past four or five years, Penn State has won more than 87% of its games when it accomplishes certain in-game objectives. While he didn’t identify every objective, he believes those measures provide a more accurate picture of his team’s performance than wins and losses alone.

“You can get really fooled into just looking at the results,” Guy Gadowsky said. “You look at the results, and it determines whether you played well or not. Well, you really miss opportunities if that’s what you think.”

That doesn’t mean that Guy Gadowsky is satisfied with the team’s record.

He acknowledged multiple times that hockey is a result-based business and that Penn State still needs to find ways to score goals at the right times.

Dowiak shared a similar outlook Saturday. The captain agreed that Penn State made progress, but emphasized that improvement needs to come quickly in a conference as competitive as the Big Ten.

“I think we took a step tonight, but it’s the Big Ten, so it can’t just be a step,” Dowiak said. “It’s got to be a leap.”

A Tougher Test Awaits In Michigan

Penn State will have an opportunity to prove those improvements are sustainable when it travels to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a two-game series against No. 2 Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

The Wolverines enter the weekend 8-1-0 and boast one of the most productive offenses in college hockey, scoring 46 goals through nine games.

For comparison, Penn State has scored 27 goals in 10 games despite putting more shots on net than Michigan (352 to 300).

Michigan is led by Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Hage, who has recorded four goals and 16 assists for 20 points in nine games.

Carolina Hurricanes prospect Jayden Perron has been equally dangerous, leading the Wolverines with 10 goals while adding nine assists. New York Rangers prospect Malcolm Spence has also contributed six goals and four assists.

Michigan’s offensive talent isn’t limited to its forwards, either.

Freshman defenseman Landon DuPont, a highly regarded prospect eligible for the 2027 NHL Draft, has already recorded eight assists in eight games. DuPont was granted exceptional status in the Canadian Hockey League in 2024, allowing him to enter the WHL early, before making the jump to Michigan.

Guy Gadowsky specifically pointed to Hage’s speed as something his team will have to prepare for, stressing that defending him will require more than just the defensemen.

“Obviously, their whole team is very talented. So this is a great test for us,” Guy Gadowsky said Monday. “We look forward to seeing if we can get the same team play, results aside, as we did Saturday.”

The challenge for Penn State is no longer just showing signs of improvement. It’s finding a way to turn those improvements into wins.

And against the second-ranked team in the country, the Nittany Lions will have little room for the mistakes that have defined their early season struggles.

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