Jim Meinecke

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State hockey season doesn’t start until Sunday, Oct. 2, but hockey is alive and well in Happy Valley. On Sept. 26, the Buffalo Sabres and Minnesota Wild squared off for their first preseason game of the 2016-17 season. They also brought the first taste of NHL action to the State…

For the first time since their last Stanley Cup win in 2009, the Penguins held off the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in front of a raucous Consol Energy Center crowd on Thursday night to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

By now, pretty much everyone knows the story. Mike Johnston’s Pittsburgh Penguins were struggling to stay in the playoff hunt. They weren’t having fun together. They weren’t scoring goals. They weren’t winning. They were underachieving. Maybe more importantly, they had no resolve.

When the clock ran down on April 23, as the Pittsburgh Penguins made quick work of the New York Rangers in five games, an energy was felt around the team that hadn’t been there for a number of years. Another weight was off of the veterans’ collective backs.

It was the second week of December, and the Pittsburgh Penguins sat in the middle of the Eastern Conference standings at 15-10-3. The team was struggling to string wins together. The Pens were playing a boring brand of hockey.

Tommy Olczyk’s final weekend at Pegula Ice Arena brought some mixed results. After Penn State drubbed Ohio State 6-1 on Feb. 19, they were outplayed for much of the following day during Senior Day before ultimately falling to the Buckeyes, 7-4.

UNIVERSITY PARK — After a disappointing 7-4 loss to the Michigan Wolverines on Jan. 28 at Pegula Arena, the Penn State men’s hockey team could not earn a split in New York’s Madison Square Garden on Jan. 30. The Nittany Lions lost again, 6-3, to the Wolverines. It is the first time the…

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State men’s hockey team earned six crucial points in the Big Ten standings as they swept Wisconsin Jan. 15 and 16 at Pegula Ice Arena. The Friday game was closely contested and came down to an overtime winning goal from David Goodwin. It was the first time in…

UNIVERSITY PARK — For the most part, the Penn State men’s hockey team cruised through the first half of the season going 11-2-3. Over the last four games, however, they are 2-2-0 and find themselves facing their biggest test of the season. No, it is not Wisconsin, who is Penn State’s next opponent Friday,…

PITTSBURGH — The Penn State men’s hockey team found itself in an unfamiliar spot Dec. 29. The Nittany Lions had just lost the previous night for the first time in nearly two months at the hands of Robert Morris. They found themselves trying to turn the page quickly as they played Clarkson in…