UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Head coach Guy Gadowsky and the Penn State men’s ice hockey team announced captains for the 2024-25 season over the weekend. Senior defenseman Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) will don the ‘C’ this winter with senior forward Carson Dyck (Lethbridge, Alberta) and fifth-year defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr. (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.) serving as alternates.
Mack becomes the 11th Nittany Lion captain in program history replacing Christian Berger ’24. The defenseman in the fourth Penn State blue-liner to serve as team captain as this marks the fourth-straight season a defensive player has been voted captain (Paul DeNaples 2022 and 2023, Berger 2024). Mack along with Dyck and Dowd Jr. are each wearing a letter for the first time in their Nittany Lion careers marking back-to-back seasons Penn State has had an entirely new leadership group.
“With the amount of leadership in our locker room, it is an absolute honour to be recognized as a captain of this program,” commented Mack. “This type of privilege is not something I take lightly and I’m looking forward to helping lead this team back to the postseason!”
Mack has been one of Penn State’s most consistent defensemen since arriving in Hockey Valley having missed just four games the prior three seasons after skating in all 36 games in 2023-24. Mack had a career-high 16 points last season leading all Nittany Lion blue-liners on four goals and 12 assists while ranking third on the team with 42 blocked shots. Mack enters the 2024-25 campaign with 35 career points on eight goals and 35 assists while his plus-18 rating is the best of all returners.
Dyck skated in a career-high 30 games last season collecting a pair of assists to go along with 24 blocked shots, the second-most by a Nittany Lion forward. Dyck has skated in 61 games over the prior three seasons collecting one goal with 12 assists for 13 points.
Dowd Jr. exercised the option to return for a fifth season bringing 123 games of experience back to the blue-line. The New Jersey native enters his final year in Hockey Valley second on the all-time points list by a defenseman with 63, 15 shy of Cole Hults’ record of 78. Dowd’s 11 goals are the sixth-most by a Penn State defenseman while his 52 assists rank second.
The Nittany Lions open their season in The Last Frontier on October 5-6 against Alaska Fairbanks. Puck drop is slated for 11:07 p.m. ET and 9:07 p.m. ET, respectively.
For more information on the 2024-25 season, visit the men's hockey ticket page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.