Young Team Maturing as Penn State Men’s Hockey Ties No. 11 Ohio State, Wins Shootout

According to Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky, experience has been the biggest obstacle between the team the Nittany Lions are and the team they can become.

And in Gadowsky’s defense, 12 of the Nittany Lions’ 20 skaters on Friday night were freshmen or sophomores. It’s a striking change of pace for a program that benefited greatly in years past from continuity and experience. Now Penn State is learning on the fly, showing flashes of what can be – see a win over North Dakota – but not without flashes of inexperience up and down the roster.

However that character trait is slowly changing as the experiences pile up. Last weekend a series sweep against Wisconsin saw the Nittany Lions skating with swagger, responding to third period challenges and turning in solid and confidence-building performances.

Friday night was a different kind of test though, Penn State hosting Big Ten leading Ohio State (albeit tied with Michigan, facing a Buckeye roster full of talent and goal-scoring coupled with stout defense and steady goaltending. On the whole Ohio State posed a far more ridged litmus test for the Nittany Lions than the Badgers seven days earlier.

And while Penn State and Ohio State technically tied 2-2 on Friday evening, the Nittany Lions felt the winner, coming out on top of the shootout to gain the extra point in the Big Ten standings. It was the kind of performance that felt like a win for Penn State simply because the Nittany Lions played so well on both ends of the ice against a team of Ohio State’s quality. They could have lost on Friday, but it wouldn’t have been for a lack of effort. Sometimes in hockey the puck doesn’t bounce your way.

But Penn State managed solid goaltending from sophomore Liam Souliere and were carried on offense entirely by underclassmen. Freshman Danny Dzhaniyev scored just 4:51 into regulation to give Penn State a 1-0 lead while fellow freshman Ben Schoen would tie the game at 2-2 just 5:52 into the third period before scoring the shootout winning goal a half hour or so later. All of the assists on those goals also coming from underclassmen.

“I think we’re close to where we don’t have freshmen anymore,” Gadowsky said after the game of his team’s growing experience. “And I think all of them are playing at a much higher level in terms of confidence, but also in terms of a team game than they were at the start of the year. It means that we have great leadership on the team that they’re following. They believe in that leadership and pure accountability. It’s not just what you do in practice or meetings, what really matters is when the coaches leave the room. And that’s where freshmen really grow. And for that you really have to credit the leadership in the locker room.”

Of course any team can turn in one good performance, so Saturday night will be a test in its own right. And while the Nittany Lions might be surging too little too late, they’re young, which means they’ll be back.

And so will the experience.