NON-CONFERENCE DOMINATION
- Penn State concluded its 2025-26 non-conference slate with an 8-2-0 record.
- Penn State has now registered at least eight non-conference victories 10 times in 14 seasons and have a 76.7 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 62-9-1 in regular-season non-conference games since the start of the 2018-19 season including a 34-6-0 mark over the past four seasons.
THE B1G GADOWSKY
- Head Coach Guy Gadowsky ranks 27th all-time and 6th among active coaches with 425 career victories with 252 coming at Penn State.
- Following Jeff Jackson’s retirement following the 2024-25 campaign, Gadowsky is now the longest tenured coach in the Big Ten and the ninth longest tenured in the nation in his 15th season in Hockey Valley. He has led Penn State to seven 20+-win seasons, all within the past 11 years, and five NCAA Tournaments (six if you include 2020) along with the 2025 Frozen Four.
NEW YEAR, NEW OPPORTUNITIES
- Penn State saw five different players ink NHL entry-level contracts following the 2025-26 season including 2026 No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna.
- Overall, the Nittany Lions are replacing 13 players with 12 newcomers including a trio of transfers.
- Penn State lost 63 percent of its overall scoring along with 60 percent of its goal scoring from a season ago, the most in the Big Ten and the seventh and eighth most nationally.
- Of the 12 newcomers, PSU brought in Justin Poirier from Maine, one of the top scorers in the transfer portal along with some of the top scorers from the CHL in Justin Larose (QMJHL), Marco Mignosa (OHL) and Kale Dach (WHL).
- In total Penn State’s freshman crop of six skaters (Larose, Mignosa, Dach, Weber, Pitre, Busch) combined for 18 seasons in the CHL playing a total of 1,118 games scoring 398 goals while adding 553 assists for 951 points.
- Of the 12 newcomers, seven have been drafted by NHL teams giving the Nittany Lions 11 total draft picks on the 2026-27 roster, the most in a single-season in program history. Of those 11 only nine remain tied to the organizations that drafted them as Nolan Collins and Kaden Pitre’s rights have since expired and they have become free agents.
BLUELINE BEAUTIES
- Sophomore Jackson Smith and senior Mac Gadowsky are two of the top returning defensemen in the nation.
- Smith set the Penn State single-season goal record for defensemen with 11 last year to lead all Big Ten defensemen and rank fourth in the nation. Smith finished the year with 26 points, the second most in the Big Ten and 15th nationally among blueliners.
- Smith’s 11 goals already rank tied for eighth all-time for Nittany Lion blueliners while his seven powerplay tallies also topped the nation among defensemen a season ago while being a Nittany Lion single-season record for blueliners and tied for the second-most in a single-season all-time.
- Smith was named a B1G All-Freshman Team honoree and Second Team All-Big Ten selection a season ago and earlier this year landed on the Preseason All-B1G Second Team.
- Gadowsky, a former First-Team All-American, finished second on the team in defenseman scoring behind Smith with 18 points on one goal and 17 assists during his first season in Hockey Valley after transferring from Army West Point.
- Gadowsky enters his senior season with 83 career points, just one shy of Minnesota’s Evan Murr for the most among active blueliners in the nation while his 21 goals are two behind Murr for the national lead. Gadowsky’s 62 assists lead all returning defensemen nationally and are good for third among all skaters.
DON’T GET SHORT WITH US
- Penn State registered six shorthanded goals last season including four by captain Dane Dowiak who enters 2026-27 with six career shortys, just one shy of Michigan’s Garrett Schifsky for the most among returners nationally.
- Dowiak currently ranks second all-time for shorthanded goals by a Nittany Lion sitting just three behind current assistant coach Andrew Sturtz for the program record.
SPECIAL SITUATIONS
- Penn State led the Big Ten and tied for 12th in the nation with an 83.7 percent penalty kill last season while ranking eighth in the nation, but just sixth in the conference, with a 26 percent powerplay.
- Penn State scored a single-season program record 38 man-advantage goals in 2025-26 to lead the Big Ten and rank third in the nation.
- However, of those 38 powerplay goals only 14 return as Penn State looks to replace 63 percent of its powerplay goals and 69 percent of its overall powerplay points.
- Jackson Smith is the leading PP point getter returning after registering seven goals and 13 points on the man-advantage last season.
IN THE CREASE
- Penn State returns sophomore Josh Fleming between the pipes after setting a single-season program record with a .924 save percentage to rank second in the Big Ten and 11th in the nation last season. Fleming finished the year with a 10-7-2 record and a 2.61 goals-against average.
- The Nittany Lions also added the reigning CHL and OHL Goaltender of the Year, Ryder Fetterolf. Fetterolf was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the fourth round (No. 125 overall) of the 2026 NHL Draft.
- He appeared in 41 games posting a 29-9-3 record with a 2.07 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage and six shutouts for the Ottawa 67’s.
- His six shutouts were an OHL and CHL record for most shutouts by a rookie while he became just the second rookie goaltender and the first in the last 31 years to be named both the OHL and CHL Goaltender of the Year.
TOSS THE HATS
- Penn State has registered a single-season program best seven hat-tricks last season by five different players including a pair of hattys in the same game from junior Dane Dowiak and freshman Gavin McKenna at Wisconsin in January.
- Penn State now has 22 hat-tricks all-time with Dowiak and McKenna’s becoming just the fifth and sixth recorded away from Hockey Valley.
- Matt DiMarsico registered a program record three hat-tricks last season as he became the first Nittany Lion all-time with multiple hat-tricks in a single season.
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
- Senior Dane Dowiak was named the 12th captain in Penn State Hockey history last season and he is joined by classmate Reese Laubach donning the ‘C’ this season.
- Dowiak becomes just the third Nittany Lion all-time to don the ‘C’ for multiple seasons joining Tommy Olczyk (2012-14) and Paul DeNaples (2021-23). Laubach becomes the 13th different Nittany Lion to wear the captain’s patch.
NEXT UP
Penn State returns to Hockey Valley for its home opener at Pegula Ice Arena against Quinnipiac next Friday at 7 p.m.
For more information on the 2026-27 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.
