No. 18 Penn State looks for first Big Ten win in Ann Arbor

The No. 18 Penn State Nittany Lions will travel to Ann Arbor to take on a familiar foe in the Michigan Wolverines.

Last season, these two squads faced off five times, including the Nittany Lions’ first win over a No. 1 ranked team.

However, the maize and blue had the last laugh, beating the blue and white in overtime in the Allentown Regional Final, spoiling Penn State’s chances of making the Frozen Four.

While the loss leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Guy Gadowsky’s squad, the prospect of taking on the same Michigan team gives the players an added chip on their shoulders.

“We want to win every game we play obviously, but we were one shot away from [the Frozen Four] last year,” forward Dylan Lugris said. “So that’s definitely something that we thought about a lot over the summer.”

Both Michigan and Penn State will be rolling out rather different squads from last year’s tournament bout, but the high-flying Michigan offense remains the lethal threat.

Rutger McGroarty leads the nation with 18 points, and several other players by the likes of T.J. Hughes, Seamus Casey and Gavin Brindley round out the top 10 point-getters in the nation.

“I think they have really good forwards but I think our defense is really good too,” forward Tyler Paquette said. “We had a couple of injuries but I think our d-core is one of the best in the nation.”

The injury bug has continued to plague the blue and white throughout the entire season, as head coach Guy Gadowsky has not had a fully healthy squad for a single game yet.

While forwards like Paquette and Jacque Bouquot returned from injury, key playmaker Danny Dzhaniyev went down with a lower-body injury in Game 1 against Michigan State and is unlikely to play this weekend in Ann Arbor.

Despite that, the coaching staff has complete confidence in the "next man up" mentality that's been implemented the last few weeks.

“We’re excited to see the internal competition that’s created in a positive way,” Gadowsky said. “And right now we have confidence in everybody that’s stepping up.”

The mass of injuries has prevented the blue and white from collecting an official Big Ten conference win, yet the team has two shootout wins on the year, both coming from multi-goal comebacks.

“We have that mentality of iron sharpens iron,” Lugris said. “We just really want to be a team that never quits no matter how far down we are.”

That “iron sharpens iron” mentality that has been echoed throughout the season could be the motivator to get Penn State over the hump at Yost Arena, an arena where the Nittany Lions hold a 3-14 record, and haven’t won since 2019.

Last season, the blue and white had a premier chance to break the curse, but squandered a three-goal lead thanks to a career performance from Luke Hughes.

Similar to Pegula Ice Arena, Yost plays host to one of the best student sections in all of college hockey, the Children of Yost.

“They do a good job, not quite as good as ours, but pretty good,” Gadowsky said. “You really have to be mentally tough to be able to have performance on demand regardless of what’s going on around you.”

With the injuries and aura surrounding Penn State’s history at Yost Arena, this weekend has a chance for the blue and white to slay a few of their demons in their quest to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

“Do we need more motivation to beat Michigan? No,” Gadowsky said. “They’re a great program and a great team. They’ve had a lot of success. I don’t think we need any more motivation.”

Joshua Bartosik is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jsb6137@psu.edu.