No. 4 Men's Hockey Opens Home Slate Against Clarkson to Jumpstart Homecoming Weekend in Happy ValleyNo. 4 Men's Hockey Opens Home Slate Against Clarkson to Jumpstart Homecoming Weekend in Happy Valley

No. 4 Men's Hockey Opens Home Slate Against Clarkson to Jumpstart Homecoming Weekend in Happy Valley

Coming off a season opening sweep last weekend, the fourth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions are set to open their 2025-26 home slate with a Thursday-Friday series against Clarkson to begin a six-game homestand.

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No. 4 Penn State vs. Clarkson
Pegula Ice Arena | University Park, Pa.

No. 4 Penn State vs. Clarkson

No. 4 Penn State
No. 4 Penn State

2-0-0 | 0-0-0 B1G

VS
Clarkson
Clarkson

0-1-0 | 0-0-0 ECAC

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 oncom.
  • 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.
  • Funkey will be Tripp’s broadcast partner this week with pregame coverage beginning 20 minutes prior to puck drop each night.

Series Breakdown

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

  • This weekend marks the sixth and seventh meetings between the two schools and the first at Pegula Ice Arena in seven years dating back to a Nittany Lion sweep on October 11-12, 2018. Penn State holds the 4-1-0 all-time advantage in the series including three-straight victories. The last meeting was back in 2023, a 4-2 win for PSU in Potsdam.
  • Penn State is 9-3-1 all-time in home openers and 9-2-1 all-time in home openers played at Pegula Ice Arena including victories in four-straight. The Nittany Lions are outscoring their opponents 50-35 in home openers averaging 3.85 goals per game while only allowing 2.69.
  • Penn State is the 13th youngest team in the nation this season with an average age of 21 years and seven months while Clarkson is middle of the pack with an average age of 22 years and two months.
  • Following an opening weekend sweep at No. 14 Arizona State, the Nittany Lions climbed to No. 4 in the latest USCHO.com poll marking the highest ranking for Penn State since also ranking No. 4 on January 23, 2017.
  • The ranked sweep to open the season marks just the second-time Penn State has swept a ranked team to begin the year, the last time being that season opening series against Clarkson back in 2018 with the Golden Knights ranked No. 17.

SCOUTING CLARKSON

  • Clarkson has just 11 returning players to compliment 15 newcomers on the roster and are without the services of each of its top-four scorers from the 2024-25 roster including Ayrton Martino who paced the team with 25 goals and 51 points.
  • The Golden Knights went 24-12-3 last season and narrowly missed out on the NCAA Tournament losing to Cornell in the ECAC Championship game.
  • The Golden Knights leading scorer returning in 2025-26 is defenseman Tristan Sarsland. The senior notched 23 points from the blueline a season ago on eight goals and 15 assists to set new career-best marks across the board. He opened 2025-26 with an assist on Clarkson’s lone goal in a 3-1 loss to Canisius last weekend.
  • Clarkson is also without the services of goaltender Ethan Langenegger who started 35 of the 39 games a season ago posting a 22-10-2 record with a .914 save percentage and a 2.14 goals-against average. The Knights have three brand new goaltenders on their roster this season after also losing backup goaltender and Marcus Brannman to the professional ranks back in Sweden.
  • Curry College transfer Shane Soderwall earned the start between the pipes in Clarkson’s lone game this season a 3-1 loss to Canisius to open the year.

PARKING ADVISORY

  • Parking for all athletics events requires a valid university permit or payment of an applicable parking fee. Parking can be purchased in advance (by 11:59 p.m. the day prior to each event) at a discounted rate on ParkWhiz. Parking can also be purchased at full price on game day on ParkWhiz.
  • Parking for men’s ice hockey games at Pegula Ice Arena can be found in the Stadium West, Jordan East, and Porter North lots.
  • Parking for all non-football athletics events is managed by Penn State Transportation services.
  • With the annual Homecoming Parade and an event in the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, October 10, heavy traffic and parking congestion is expected around Pegula Ice Arena. Hockey fans are encouraged to park in the Stadium West parking lot and purchase their parking by 11:59 p.m. Thursday in order to receive the discounted parking rate as parking on Friday will be $20 night-of due to the Bryce Jordan Center event.

THE B1G GADOWSKY

  • Head Coach Guy Gadowsky ranks 29th all-time and 8th among active coaches with 406 career victories and sits just two shy of former Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota Bench Boss, Dean Blais for 28th.
  • Following Jeff Jackson’s retirement, Gadowsky is now the longest tenured coach in the Big Ten and the 13th longest tenured in the nation in his 14th season in Hockey Valley. He has 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.

NITTANY LION SPECIAL

  • Penn State has opened the season with strong special teams play going 3-for-8 (37.5 percent) on the man-advantage with at least one PPG in each contest.
  • The PK unit is also off to a hot start going 11-for-12 (91.7 percent) against ASU and have killed off nine-straight including an extended 5-on-3 in the third period last Saturday.
  • The unit also has one shorthanded goal after finishing the 2024-25 season with a Big Ten best eight, the third most in a single-season in program history.

THIRD PERIOD THEATRICS

  • The Nittany Lions scored eight of their 10 goals last weekend over the final 20 minutes of play with back-to-back four-goal third periods.
  • Penn State entered the third period trailing by one goal on Friday night and a pair on Saturday before using four-unanswered goals each night to complete the comeback and earn the series sweep.
  • Last season, the Nittany Lions trailed entering the third period on 12 occasions and could not muster a comeback going 0-10-2 in such games. This season they begin the year 2-0-0 when trailing after two periods of play.
  • Penn State has yet to surrender a first period or third period goal with all five of its goals against being allowed in the second period this season. The Nittany Lions themselves have failed to light the lamp during the middle 20 minutes over the first two games.

THE BIG SWEDE

  • Nebraska-Omaha transfer, Kevin Reidler impressed in his Nittany Lion debut last weekend stopping 80-of-85 shots for a .941 save percentage and a 2.50 goals-against average against the Sun Devils. He backstopped a PK unit that went 6-for-6 on Saturday including an extended 5-on-3 in the third period while making a career-high 45 saves.

FROM THE HAT TO HOCKEY VALLEY

  • Gavin McKenna had the eyes of the entire hockey world fixated on him last weekend and he delivered with a pair of primary assists in his first game Friday followed by an absolute clapper on the powerplay late in the third period of game two for his first collegiate goal, breaking a tie and finishing off the series sweep.
  • McKenna, the fourth youngest player in the nation this season, became the third-youngest CHL Player of the Year behind NHL greats Sidney Crosby and John Tavares a season ago after leading the Medicine Hat Tigers to the WHL Championship and a Memorial Cup Finals appearance.
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WHAT’S UP, CHUCK?

  • Sophomore Charlie Cerrato was named the B1G First Star of the Week after factoring into six of Penn State’s 10 goals over the weekend in a series sweep at No. 14 Arizona State. He collected a pair of goals to go along with four assists and a plus-4 rating.
  • Cerrato’s six points on the weekend were good for second in the nation over the two games. He factored in the first five goals of a 6-3 win on Friday night including the primary assist on the game-tying and game-winning goals in a career-high five-point effort. The five points tied a Penn State single-game record.
  • Going back to last season, Cerrato has now registered at least one point in 10 of his last 11 games with multi-point efforts in seven of those.

HOCKEY VALLEY HAT-TRICK

  • Junior Matt DiMarsico picked up right where he left off last season registering his first collegiate hat-trick with three goals in the third period to lead Penn State to a come-from-behind 6-3 victory on Friday night.
  • The hat-trick marks the 16th all-time for the Nittany Lions, but just the second single-period hat-trick in program history as he joins Casey Bailey (1/9/15).
  • It also marks just the fourth road hat-trick for the Nittany Lions all-time and is the second-ever in a season opener, joining Cole Hults who potted a hat-trick to open the 2019-20 season in an 8-2 win over Sacred Heart.

B-T-B BOYS BACK AGAIN

  • Along with Cerrato and DiMarsico, sophomore JJ Wiebusch completes that trio as one of the most productive lines in all of college hockey dating back to the second half of last year. The line combined for 11 points in Friday’s opener and finished the weekend with six goals and eight assists for 14 points.
  • Going all the way back to January that trio has skated in 26 games together registering 38 goals and 49 assists for 87 points, an average of 3.35 points per game.

PHENOMENAL FINK

  • Junior Aiden Fink wasted little time snapping his eight-game goalless streak to end the 2024-25 season as he blasted home a powerplay goal for the first Nittany Lion tally of the season last Friday.
  • Fink added a trio of assists throughout the weekend for a four-point opening series giving him 91 career points in just 76 games 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. He now sits just two points back of Danny Dzhaniyev ‘25 for 10th on the all-time points list.
  • The junior’s 39 career goals are also just two shy of Brando Biro ‘20 for 10th on the all-time list.
  • Fink became Penn State’s first-ever Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalist last season while also earning second-team All-America honors, the third Nittany Lion to earn such accolades. He 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.

NEXT UP

  • Penn State remains home as non-conference play rolls along with a weekend series against LIU next Friday and Saturday at Pegula Ice Arena.

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.