Fink Takes National Lead in Points as No. 18/18 Men's Hockey Sweeps Notre Dame Following, 3-2, WinFink Takes National Lead in Points as No. 18/18 Men's Hockey Sweeps Notre Dame Following, 3-2, Win
Steven Walter

Fink Takes National Lead in Points as No. 18/18 Men's Hockey Sweeps Notre Dame Following, 3-2, Win

Sophomore Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta) moved into the national lead in points with a two-point effort including the game-winning goal as No. 18/18 Penn State defeated Notre Dame, 3-2, to complete the series sweep in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday evening.

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sophomore Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta) moved into the national lead in points with a two-point effort including the game-winning goal as No. 18/18 Penn State defeated Notre Dame, 3-2, to complete the series sweep in Big Ten Conference action at Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday evening.

The Nittany Lions are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and winners of four-straight improving to 16-11-3 on the year and 7-10-3-1-1-2 in league play while the Irish fall to 9-20-1 overall and 3-16-1-2-2-1 in conference action.

The series sweep is the first-ever for Penn State over Notre Dame and also marks the first time in program history the Nittany Lions have had back-to-back Big Ten regular-season sweeps in which they collected all the available points.

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HOW IT HAPPENED

  • Penn State opened the scoring as senior Danny Dzhaniyev (Brooklyn, N.Y.) caused an offensive zone turnover and the puck found the stick of Fink who fed then found Dzhaniyev in open ice at the far post and he one-timed the puck into a yawning net for the 1-0 edge at 17:37 of the first period.
  • The Irish evened the contest taking advantage of a five-minute major powerplay as Blake Biondi slipped in a rebound after Cole Knuble’s initial chance was turned aside for the 1-1 score at 4:33 of the second period.
  • The Nittany Lions regained the lead as freshman Nic DeGraves (Edmonton, Alberta) redirected a point offering from Dzhaniyev that found its way through Notre Dame net-minder Owen Say for the 2-1 advantage at 15:05 of the second period.
  • Penn State extended the lead to 3-1 taking advantage of a major powerplay of its own as Fink ripped a wicked wrister short side off the bar and in from the far dot at 6:37 of the third period.
  • Notre Dame responded with a shorthanded tally cutting the deficit back to a single goal as Justin Janicke finished over the blocker of Nittany Lion junior goaltender Arsenii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) for the 3-2 deficit at 9:06 of the third period.

GOALTENDING

Sergeev moves to 13-6-3 on the year after making 26 saves in the victory while Say drops to 7-13-0 after stopping 25 shots in the loss.

NOTES

  • Notre Dame held the commanding, 38-28, edge in shots on goal including a 16-8 mark during the third period while each team converted once with the man-advantage as the Nittany Lions went 1-for-4 and the Irish went 1-for-5.
  • Saturday night’s attendance of 6,589 marks the third largest attendance of the season and of all-time at Pegula Ice Arena.
  • The overall series attendance of 13,195 marks a new single-series attendance record for Pegula Ice Arena.
  • With one goal and one assist, Fink secures his team-leading 13th multi-point game of the season and the 22nd of his career as he is now on a six-game point streak (7-3-10), one-shy of his career-best, with goals in five of those six games.
  • Fink’s 44 points move past Liam Folkes ’20 and Evan Barratt for the third-most in a single-season in Penn State history only trailing the 47 of Denis Smirnov in 2016-17 and the 50 from Alex Limoges in 2018-19.
  • Fink currently leads the nation with his 44 points while his 22 goals are tied for the Big Ten lead and tied for second in the nation while also tying for the second-most in a single-season in Penn State history.
  • With his powerplay goal, Fink extends his own program record to 15 as he sits just one powerplay tally shy of his own single-season record of eight achieved as a freshman last season.
  • Dzhaniyev also collected one goal and one assist for his eighth multi-point effort of the season and the 24th of his career.
  • Dzhaniyev’s 10 goals are a career-best while his 88 career points break a tie with Kevin Wall ’23 and are now good for the 10th-most in Penn State history. Next on the list would be Evan Barratt who had 95 career points.
  • With one assist senior captain Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) moves into a tie with Erik Autio ’18 for third on the Penn State all-time list for assists by a defenseman while his 59 career points break a tie with Autio and are now good for the fifth-most by a Nittany Lion blueliner all-time.
  • Mack’s 23 assists this season lead the Big Ten and are tied for the sixth-most nationally and rank second in the nation among defenseman. The 23 assists are also now tied for the most in a single-season for a Penn State defenseman with former Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Trevor Hamilton ’23.
  • Mack’s 24 points this season move him into a tie with Luke Juha ’16 for the sixth-most by a Nittany Lion defenseman in a single-season all-time.
  • Penn State improves to a perfect 15-0-0 when leading after two periods and are now 13-4-1 when scoring first this season.
  • The shorthanded goal allowed by the Nittany Lions was the first this season and the first since March 1, 2024 against Ohio State.

NEXT UP

Penn State hits the road next weekend for a crucial battle against No. 2 Michigan State in East Lansing on Friday and Saturday evening. Both games will be broadcast nationally on the B1G Network.

For more information on the 2024-25 season, visit the men's hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.