No. 5 Men's Hockey Opens 2025-26 at No. 14 Arizona State This WeekendNo. 5 Men's Hockey Opens 2025-26 at No. 14 Arizona State This Weekend
Steven Walter

No. 5 Men's Hockey Opens 2025-26 at No. 14 Arizona State This Weekend

Nittany Lions set for first trip to Tempe, second overall to Arizona, to open the 2025-26 season at Mullett Arena against the 14th-ranked Sun Devils

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No. 5 Penn State vs. No. 14 Arizona State
Mullett Arena | Tempe, Arizona

No. 5 Penn State vs. No. 14 Arizona State

No. 5 Penn State
No. 5 Penn State

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AT
No. 14 Arizona State
No. 14 Arizona State

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TEMPE, Ariz. – The fifth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions are set to open the 2025-26 season in the desert against No. 14 Arizona State at Mullet Arena this Friday and Saturday. Both contests will be broadcast worldwide on the NHL Network and on NHL YouTube.

Follow the Action

Follow the Action

2025-26 AUDIO BROADCASTS

 

Audio broadcasts for all Penn State hockey games for the 2025-26 season are available on the Penn State Sports Network via radio affiliates and streaming on GoPSUsports.com. 

 

Former Nittany Lion goaltender Chris Funkey and 2017-18 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Trevor Hamilton will join play-by-play broadcaster Brian Tripp for most games throughout the season. Hamilton will be on the call for both games at Arizona State.

 

Pregame coverage beings 20 minutes prior to puck drop.

Series Breakdown

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

  • This weekend marks the ninth and 10th meetings in the all-time series and is Penn State’s second trip to the desert. This is a return trip from the Covid season in 2020-21 when the Sun Devils played a Big Ten schedule as a non-conference member. This is the first-ever trip to Tempe as the Nittany Lions will visit Mullett Arena for the first time.
  • Penn State is 7-1-0 all-time against Arizona State including two victories in the only two games played in Arizona with 7-0 and 4-2 wins back in November 2017 at Gila River Arena in Glendale.
  • This marks the first meetings since back-to-back overtime victories for the Nittany Lions at Pegula Ice Arena in December 2020. The last three matchups between the two sides have been settled in overtime with the last four all being one-goal games.
  • The two games in Tempe between the 59th and 60th NCAA Division I programs are also the first-two games in the all-time series where both teams are ranked as Penn State enters No. 5 and ASU No. 14.
  • This is only the sixth time in 14 seasons that Penn State has opened play on the road, however, it marks the third-consecutive season after the Nittany Lions began the 2023-24 campaign on Long Island with a 3-2 victory over LIU and 2024-25 started in Alaska with a sweep of the Nanooks. Penn State is 9-3-1 all-time in season opening contests and have won six of the last seven including four-straight. After last season, Penn State is 3-2-0 all-time in season openers on the road.

STOCK RISING

  • Penn State enters the season ranked No. 5 in the preseason USCHO.com poll, its highest preseason ranking all-time after finishing the 2024-25 campaign also ranked No. 5 for its highest postseason finish all-time.
  • The Nittany Lions were also picked to finish second behind the two-time defending B1G Champion Michigan State Spartans in the seven-team Big Ten by the leagues head coaches, the highest preseason pick since the Nittany Lions went wire-to-wire to claim the 2019-20 conference championship.

THE B1G GADOWSKY

  • Head Coach Guy Gadowsky enters the 2025-26 season with 404 career wins ranking 29th all-time and 8th among active coaches.
  • Following Jeff Jackson’s retirement, Gadowsky is now the longest tenured coach in the Big Ten and the 13th longest tenured in the nation. He had led Penn State to six 20+-win seasons, all within the past 10 years, and four NCAA Tournaments (five if you include 2020) and the 2025 Frozen Four.

SCOUTING ARIZONA STATE

  • Arizona State finished last season 21-14-2 including a 16-10-1 record in NCHC play to finish second in the conference. The Sun Devils advanced all the way to the Frozen Faceoff in Saint Paul during its first season in the NCHC before falling to Denver. ASU finished the season No. 15 in the Pairwise Rankings and became the first team out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
  • Prior to Thursday’s season opener, Arizona State will retire the No. 35 jersey of current Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord who played for the Sun Devils from 2016-19.
  • The Sun Devils are without the services of four of their top-five scorers including each of the top-three from its 2024-25 roster. Former Nittany Lion Ryan Kirwan paced ASU last season with 26 goals and 39 points before inking a professional contract with the Toronto Marlies.
  • Bennett Schimek is back for his senior season as the lone top-five scorer returning. He was second on the team with a career-best 15 goals and 37 points during his first season in the desert last year after transferring from Providence. Schimek will serve as a co-captain this season with Kyle Smolen.
  • Sophomore Cullen Potter returns for his second year in the desert after being selected by the Calgary Flames with the 32nd pick of the 2025 NHL Draft back in June. Potter finished eighth in scoring as a freshman last season with 22 points on 13 goals and nine assists. He was one of just five Sun Devils with double-digit goals.
  • Jack Beck, the brother of recent graduate Noah Beck, made waves a few weeks ago when it was announced he was joining Arizona State after playing 40 professional hockey games last season split between the ECHL and AHL, but as part of the NCAA’s delayed enrollment rules he is ineligible to compete in the first six games of the 2025-26 season.
  • ASU is also breaking in a new goaltender after losing Luke Pavicich to the pro ranks and Gibson Homer to the transfer portal. The duo played all available minutes for the Sun Devils in 2024-25 combining for a .909 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average.
  • The Sun Devil powerplay paced the nation a season ago finishing just shy of 30 percent at 29.6 percent (32-for-108). Kirwan paced the team with eight man-advantage markers while Smolen ranked second with five.
  • ASU also finished just one shorthanded goal shy of Penn State to rank tied for fourth in the nation with seven including three from Schimek, a mark good for second nationally. Along with the seven shorthanded tallies, the Sun Devils finished second in the NCHC and 12th in the nation at 83.5 percent (91-for-109).

B1G PRESEASON ACCOLADES

  • Junior classmates and 2025 Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalists Aiden Fink & Mac Gadowsky were each recognized as preseason First-Team All-B1G honorees while freshman Gavin McKenna was named to the second-team.
  • Penn State’s three preseason all-conference selections are the most of any team in the Big Ten while McKenna was the lone incoming freshman to be recognized.

CAN’T SCORE IF YOU PASS

  • Penn State returns 75 percent of its total offense and 83 percent of its goal scoring, including each of its top six goal scorers from its 2024-25 roster while adding seven skaters who combined for 563 points on 201 goals and 362 assists in 435 games across five different leagues last season.
  • Penn State has the most returning goals (115) and points (282) in the nation while its percentage of returning goals and points rank fourth and sixth nationally, respectively, but rank atop the Big Ten for each category.

PHENOMENAL FINK

  • Junior Aiden Fink became Penn State’s first-ever Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalist last season while also earning second-team All-American honors, the third Nittany Lion to earn such accolades. Fink was also the only unanimous All-Big Ten selection in the league becoming the seventh Nittany Lion first-team honoree all-time and the first since 2020.
  • Fink set new Penn State single-season records across the board last season with 23 goals and 30 assists for 53 points, a mark that topped the Big Ten and ranked fourth in the nation.
  • The Calgary, Alberta native has 87 points on 38 goals and 49 assists in 74 career games played entering the year just outside the top-10 all-time at Penn State in all three categories as he looks to become the fastest Nittany Lion to 100 career points all-time, currently held by Alex Limoges who reached that milestone in his 102nd career game.
  • Fink’s 87 points are the fifth-most among active players and rank second in the Big Ten behind Michigan’s T.J. Hughes with 122 while his goal total is third among active players and also second in the B1G behind Hughes’ 47. Fink’s 16 powerplay tallies are also the third-most among active players and second behind Hughes’ 22 in conference.
  • Fink became just the third Nittany Lion all time to reach 40 points and 20 goals in the same season in 2024-25 joining Casey Bailey (22-18-40 in 2014-15) and Alex Limoges (23-27-50 in 2018-19) and he is also the only Nittany Lion to begin his career with back-to-back 30+-point seasons and just the seventh all-time to have multiple such seasons following his 34-point freshman campaign in 2023-24.
  • The junior’s 1.18 points per game pace for his career is the top mark in Penn State history while his 16 career powerplay tallies are also the program standard. 

THE B1G MAC

  • Penn State landed Army West Point transfer Mac Gadowsky, the son of head coach Guy Gadowsky, this offseason following a career year with the Black Knights which saw him lead all defensemen in the nation with 16 goals while adding 26 assists for 42 points. He was named a First-Team All-American and a Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalist along with numerous conference accolades.
  • Gadowsky enters the 2025-26 season second in the nation among active defensemen in points (65) and third in goals (20) while his assist (45) total ranks eighth.

FULL VIDEO

McKENNA MAGIC

  • The consensus No. 1 overall pick for the 2026 NHL Draft, Gavin McKenna, sent shockwaves across the college hockey world when he announced his decision to play his draft season at Penn State back in July. With the new rule change allowing CHL players to be eligible for college hockey starting this season, McKenna’s decision is a seismic shift in the hockey world.
  • McKenna led Medicine Hat to the WHL Championship this past season and a berth in the Memorial Cup Finals and was named the WHL and CHL Player of the Year after registering an eye-popping 173 points in 76 games split between the regular-season, playoffs and Memorial Cup. He became the third-youngest CHL Player of the Year behind NHL greats Sidney Crosby and John Tavares.
  • In 162 total WHL games with Medicine Hat, McKenna amassed 295 points on 94 goals and 201 assists over the past two seasons.

IN THE CREASE

  • Last season, UConn transfer Arsenii Sergeev backstopped the Nittany Lions to their first-ever Frozen Four and following the season inked his entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames leaving the net open for a new star to emerge in 2025-26.
  • Sergeev’s 19 wins last season were the second-most in a single-season by a Nittany Lion net-minder while his four shutouts were also a single-season record. Sergeev’s .919 save percentage and 2.54 goals-against average ranked second and third all-time at Penn State.
  • This season Penn State has another transfer goaltender in 6-7 Swedish net-minder Kevin Reidler from Nebraska-Omaha. As a freshman in 2024-25, Reidler appeared in eight games with five starts posting a 4-1-0 record with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage. Reidler is 1-1-0 in two career starts against ASU with a .942 save percentage and a 2.50 goals-against average.
  • Joining Reidler in the crease is freshman Josh Fleming out of the QMJHL where he posted a 29-20-3 record with a .908 save percentage and a 3.08 goals-against average in 53 games played for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

NON-CONFERENCE DOMINATION

  • Penn State concluded its 2024-25 non-conference slate with an 9-1-0 record.
  • Penn State has now registered at least eight non-conference victories nine times and have a 76.2 percent all-time winning percentage in regular-season non-conference games since the Big Ten’s inception prior to the 2013-14 season.
  • The Nittany Lions are an eye-popping 53-7-1 in regular-season non-conference games since the start of the 2018-19 season including a 26-4-0 mark over the past three seasons.

NEXT UP

  • Penn State returns home for a Thursday-Friday series against Clarkson to open Homecoming Weekend.
  • Thursday night’s game will air on the B1G Network and feature a pregame ceremony to honor last year’s Frozen Four team.

For more information on the 2025-26 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.

Follow the Nittany Lions

Follow the Nittany Lions

Visit GoPSUSports.com for more information on Penn State men's ice hockey. Fans can keep up to date with all things Hockey Valley on X and Instagram @PennStateMHKY, in addition to the team’s Facebook page at facebook.com/pennstatemenshockey.