Men's Hockey Lands Finalists for All Five B1G Major AwardsMen's Hockey Lands Finalists for All Five B1G Major Awards

Men's Hockey Lands Finalists for All Five B1G Major Awards

Charlie Cerrato, Aiden Fink, Arsenii Sergeev, Simon Mack and Guy Gadowsky are each up for Big Ten recognition

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Ahead of its Big Ten semifinal matchup against No. 10 Ohio State on Saturday, No. 11 Penn State garnered a finalist in each of the five Big Ten major award categories as announced by the conference office on Wednesday afternoon.

Each class earned representation as freshman Charlie Cerrato (Fallston, Md.), sophomore Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta), junior Arsenii Sergeev (Yaroslavl, Russia) and senior Simon Mack (Brockville, Ontario) all gathered finalist recognition from the Big Ten along with head coach Guy Gadowsky. Each of the four players recognized are producing some of the best statistical seasons in Penn State history.

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Fink becomes the first Nittany Lion to be named a Player of the Year finalist since Cole Hults was named the B1G POTY following the 2019-20 season while Mack is the fourth different Nittany Lion to be named a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year award. He joins Paul DeNaples (2018-19), Trevor Hamilton (2017-18) and Hults (2019-20), with the latter two both being recognized as the award recipient following those seasons.

Sergeev becomes the first Nittany Lion net-minder to be recognized as a Goaltender of the Year finalist while Cerrato earns a nod as a finalist for Freshman of the Year, marking the second-consecutive season a Penn State rookie has been honored as a finalist after Fink was a contender last season.

Gadowsky, the 2014-15 Big Ten Coach of the Year, is on the finalist ballot for the second time (2019-20) in his 13-year stint in Hockey Valley after leading Penn State to its sixth 20-win season under his tutelage.

The Nittany Lions are the hottest team in college hockey with a 12-2-2 record in their last 16 games including a series sweep at Michigan in the Big Ten quarterfinals last weekend. With that sweep, Penn State became the first visiting team to earn a series sweep in the quarterfinals since the Big Ten adopted its current playoff format prior to the 2017-18 season.

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Fink’s 51 points this season lead the nation and are a new Penn State single-season record while his 23 goals and 28 assists are each tied for the Nittany Lion single-season record while ranking tops in the Big Ten and tied for second and sixth nationally.

The sophomore is a +18 for the season while his eight powerplay tallies and two shorthanded scores both rank in the top-10 nationally with his man-advantage total tying his own PSU single-season record set last year. Fink leads the team with 15 multi-point efforts on the campaign and has only been kept off the scoresheet in eight of the 36 games this season.

Mack is having one of the best seasons statistically for a Nittany Lion defenseman all-time with career-high totals for points (27) and assists (24). Those marks rank fifth and first all-time for Penn State blueliners in a single-season and are good for second and first in the Big Ten and seventh and fifth in the nation, respectively, for defensemen. The Brockville, Ontario native also leads the team with a plus-19 rating.

Sergeev is also having one of the best goaltending seasons in Penn State history posting a 17-7-4 record (.708 winning percentage) with a .915 save percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average. The Yaroslavl, Russia native is 13-3-4 since returning from injury in January with the 13 wins being the most in the Big Ten, six better than the next closest, and second-most nationally over that timeframe to go along with three shootout wins.

Sergeev’s 17 wins this season are tied for the fifth-most in a single-season by a Nittany Lion net-minder while his save percentage and goals-against average are currently the fourth and fifth best.

Cerrato has flipped a switch in the second half of the season with 24 of his 36 points coming in 18 games played since January including 11 points (3G, 8A) during his current career-long five-game point streak. The rookies 36 points are tied for the second-most in a single-season by a Penn State freshman and are good for tops in the Big Ten and third in the nation among first-year players.

Cerrato has 15 goals and 21 assists which rank first and second in the Big Ten for rookies and third and fifth nationally for freshmen. His assists are the second-most in a season by a Nittany Lion rookie all-time while his 15 goals tie Aiden Fink’s mark from a season ago for the fifth-most.

Full Big Ten Release

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