Penn State hockey falls short in comeback bid against top 10 foe

Penn State hockey spent its second weekend of the year on the road again. This trip, in terms of travel, was much less daunting, with only 317 miles separating Hamden, Connecticut, and State College, PA. That is compared to over 4,000 miles the Nittany Lions (2-1) traveled to get to Fairbanks, Alaska, to open the 2024-25 season last week.

The opponent, however, represented a much more demanding task. The No. 8 ranked Quinnipiac Bobcats enter this season having made the last six NCAA Tournaments, winning it all in 2023. While there are many new faces for the Bobcats (1-0), they are still a formidable foe, and it showed on Saturday. 

Penn State sputters out of the gate

Quinnipiac controlled the game from the jump once the puck dropped to start the first period. A ferocious forecheck by the Bobcats prevented Penn State from exiting its zone and generating anything offensively.

The Bobcats were able to cash in about halfway through the period when a rebound was put past junior goaltender Arsenii Sergeev to give Quinnipiac a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later, a shot from the point was deflected into the net to double the advantage for the home team.

Penn State was unable to use a late power play and headed to the first intermission down 2-0 on the scoreboard and trailing 10-3 in the shot count, a rather jarring number for the Nittany Lions’ typical style of hockey. 

Quinnipiac was able to jump on Penn State hockey again just about a minute into the second period to make it 3-0. It looked like the rout was on in Hamden. 

Nittany Lions stop the bleeding

After the third goal, Penn State hockey was able to settle in and play its style of hockey. Things did get a bit hairy late in the period when the Nittany Lions took back-to-back faceoff violation penalties, rare to see called once, let alone twice, in a game. 

Penn State killed off both minor penalties, boosting momentum heading into the break. The period finished with a 9-8 shot advantage for Penn State, an encouraging sign that the Nittany Lions could play more to their style in the middle frame. 

Comeback falls just short

Penn State hockey finally broke through to start the third period. Beginning the period on a power play, senior forward Ben Schoen collected a bounce off sophomore forward Aiden Fink’s skate and buried it to make it a 3-1 game. This was Schoen’s first goal since November 2022 after missing the last year and a half with an injury sustained in January 2023. 

Still in the early part of the period, senior forward Danny Dzhaniyev scored on a wrap-around to cut the deficit down to one. Dzhaniyev now has a point in every game this season and eight straight games dating back to last year. Fink had another assist on the tally, his second straight multi-point game. 

Despite pushing and peppering the Quinnipiac goal, the Nittany Lions could not get one more puck to find twine, ultimately falling 3-2. The game marks the first loss of the season for Guy Gadowsky’s squad after a series sweep last weekend.

There is no shame in this result for a young Penn State hockey program. The Nittany Lions were able to go into the building of a top-10 team and put a scare into the home crowd.

The pollsters took notice of this weekend’s result. Penn State received 32 votes in this week’s USCHO.com poll, falling just outside the top-20 rankings at No. 22. 

Lions gear up for return to Pegula

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Penn State hockey will have an early season bye next week, perhaps needed after all the travel over the past few weeks. When the Nittany Lions return to action, they will return home to Pegula Ice Arena to face the St. Lawrence Skating Saints on October 25 and 26. Puck drops for both games are to be determined.

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