“One word to describe our mentality heading into tonight… Hungry,” said senior Tyler Paquette, as the Nittany Lions prepare for the first round of the NCAA tournament where they face an unfamiliar foe in the University of Maine.
Penn State serves as the host for the Allentown Regional, where Maine is the No. 1 seed, followed by Quinnipiac, UConn, and the Blue & White. But if there’s one thing this season has taught us about Penn State, it’s to never count them out, no matter the circumstance.
After being swept in four consecutive weekends of Big Ten play, the Nittany Lions were universally overlooked, despite their strengths and competitive efforts. Flash forward to the conclusion of the regular season, Penn State turned their 0-8 start to a 9-11-4 record, and rapidly climbed through the pairwise rankings.
The Maine Black Bears have been an undeniable force not only in Hockey East, but the entire collegiate hockey realm throughout the whole season. They enter with an astounding 24-7-6 record on the year, their only seven losses coming from teams that also received tournament bids.
For the first time in each program’s history, these two forces will collide at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night, both in search of advancing to Sunday night’s regional final.
Heating up in the Postseason
Maine enters the contest hot on the heels of a Hockey East tournament championship, where their two consecutive preliminary matches sent them to a matchup against UConn in the championship, where they reigned victorious with a 5-2 final score.
This win secured the Black Bears the third overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the top-seed in Allentown. This marks their sixth Hockey East championship in program history, to send them to their 20th NCAA tournament.
Downing UMass-Lowell, Northeastern and UConn, respectively, Maine outscored their opponents a combined 16-5 to trek their way to the championship.
For the Nittany Lions, Penn State’s second half comeback secured the fifth overall seed in the Big Ten Tournament, sending them on the road to Yost Ice Arena where they faced a common foe in the Michigan Wolverines.
What was expected to be a major feat for Penn State turned into a historic weekend as they earned the program’s first-ever sweep over Michigan on the road, to send them to the semifinals against Ohio State. A tough battle turned to an overtime loss for the Nittany Lions, but they did enough to earn an at-large bid thanks to a 13-4-4 second half.
Unfamiliar Foes
For the first time in program history, the Maine Black Bears and Penn State Nittany Lions are squaring off. Penn State is 8-10-2 all time against Hockey East teams. In this year’s tournament, Penn State has yet to face four teams competing in the 16-team bracket, all of which belong to Hockey East.
The two teams have faced two familiar opponents this year; each team earned a win over Army, Penn State notching a 4-1 win over the Black Knights, Maine a 5-0 exhibition win. The Black Bears also earned a series sweep over Quinnipiac, 2-1 and 6-5 (OT), respectively, while the Nittany Lions fell in an early 3-2 defeat to the Bobcats.
The last matchup between the Nittany Lions and the Black Bears in any sport came in February of 2022 in baseball.
Despite making the 2024 NCAA tournament, Maine has not earned a tournament win since 2007 where they defeated Massachusetts 3-1 and is 2-3 in opening rounds of the tournament dating back to 2005. The Black Bears have two National Championships to their credit (1993, 1999).
The Nittany Lions are 2-3 all-time in the NCAA tournament, their most recent in the 2023 season where they had a historic 8-0 first round win over Michigan Tech, before falling to the University of Michigan in the regional final in Allentown.
Striking in the Slot
Both teams enter the contest with nationally ranked scoring offenses; Penn State sitting at seventh, averaging 3.51 goals-per-game, Maine at 14th averaging 3.32 goals-per-game. On the contrary, Maine holds the advantage in scoring margin, ranking seventh with a 1.43 goal differential, while Penn State is 22nd with a 0.43 scoring margin.
Penn State’s leading scorer, Aiden Fink, is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. Fink comes into this matchup as Penn State’s single-season points leader with 52 points on 23 goals and 29 assists, including eight power-play goals and four game-winning goals.
The Nittany Lions have six players in double-figures for scoring, while the Black Bears have five, and Penn State also holds the slight edge in powerplay goals, with 31 to Maine’s 29.
Penn State’s leading scoring line, consisting of Aiden Fink, Reese Laubach, and Danny Dzhaniyev have combined for 49 goals and 62 assists. The Nittany Lions also present two standout freshmen in Charlie Cerrato and J.J. Wiebusch, who have had their hand in scoring contributions in the latter half of the year, Cerrato with 15 goals and 22 assists, Wiebusch with 12 goals and 18 assists.
Maine’s leading goal-scorer is senior Harrison Scott, with 18 goals and 17 assists, followed by senior Taylor Makar with 18 goals and 12 assists. The Black Bears are hot on the heels of a Hockey East Tournament that saw eleven different goal scorers across three games.
Feared Leaders
Guy Gadowsky is in the driver's seat for the Nittany Lions, leading them to their fourth NCAA tournament in program history, and is fresh on the heels of his 400th career win in their final regular-season victory as the Nittany Lions downed Minnesota at home on February 28th.
In Penn State’s most recent tournament appearance in 2023, Gadowsky’s squad set an NCAA tournament record for most goals in a shutout victory in their 8-0 win in the first round over Michigan Tech. The Nittany Lions went on to lose a heartbreaker to Michigan in overtime.
Gadowsky is now 229-199-32 in his Penn State career, and has 402 career wins, chasing another victory on the season.
Leading the Black Bears to a historic season is head coach Ben Barr, in his fourth season with Maine. On the heels of an incredibly positive year for the program, Barr led the Black bears to a 23-12-2 record, a trip to the Hockey East Championship game, and their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012.
Despite losing 3-1 to Cornell in the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament, this program has been trending upwards at the hand of Barr, and he’s eager to wash the taste of last year's feat against Penn State.
“Last year we were just dipping our feet in as a program. This year, we want a lot more out of it, and we’re ready to go all the way,” said Barr.
Barr is 51-50-12 in his all-time career at Maine, his best season to date being a 23-win season from 2023-24, just one win away from tying that in the 2024-25 season. In his first season with the Black Bears, they posted an underwhelming 7-22-4 finish. In just four seasons, he has redirected the program, influenced the mindset of his group, and allowed them to reach new heights as a unit.
The Beauties vs. the Beasts
Each team was asked the golden question: If you had to use one word to describe your approach heading into tomorrow, what would it be?
When given the opportunity to answer, the responses from coaches and players alike could not have been more fitting for the matchup at hand.
Penn State’s immediate response was, “Hungry,” from senior Tyler Paquette and head coach Guy Gadowsky. This gritty, relentless approach has fueled the Nittany Lions all season, as they’ve had to claw back from their underwhelming start.
“Truthfully, especially in this league, I feel like we’ve been playing playoff hockey since October,” said Gadowsky ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, and reinforced at Thursday’s media session. “We compete in the monster conference of college hockey, so every game in the early stages will come into play and prepare us for whatever else we encounter down the line.”
When facing the same question, Black Bear forward Thomas Freel was quick to respond, “Detail”.
“When you’re playing such a fast, skilled offensive team, any sort of slip-ups in your detail give them high end opportunities, and ones they can take advantage of,” said Freel. “For us, it’s always going to come down to being detailed, being on the right side of the pocket, finishing checks and slowing them down in the neutral zone, and if we do all that right tomorrow, it’ll work to our advantage.”
“I think we have been drawing on experiences that we’ve had all year, I mean, it’s been playoff hockey. If they wanted to get this done, they knew they had to bring it every single weekend, regardless of where it was, what the environment was, or who it was. So, I think we’re just going to maintain that attitude.”
“We have a lot of familiar faces here that have been in this situation before, and we’re hungry to win. We have a lot of younger guys who are getting their first experience, and they’re just as fired up as us. We all want to win, we have such a tight-knit group, and we’re all sharing that common goal,” said Tyler Paquette.
“The Big Ten is an awesome conference. You’re used to playing in not only hostile environments, but even at home, you’re playing against some amazing teams, and top to bottom, there are no easy nights. There’s a lot of diversity in the Big Ten between teams, with a lot of different playing styles, so that’ll help us for sure,” said Tyler Paquette.
Puck drop is slated for 8:30 on Friday night, the winner of this matchup will advance to Sunday’s Regional Final and face the winner of the opening game between UConn and Quinnipiac.