{"id":153753,"date":"2025-04-10T23:55:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T04:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/?p=153753"},"modified":"2025-04-11T01:02:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T06:02:40","slug":"left-for-dead-earlier-in-season-penn-state-appreciates-run-to-frozen-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2025\/04\/10\/left-for-dead-earlier-in-season-penn-state-appreciates-run-to-frozen-four\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Left for dead’ earlier in season, Penn State appreciates run to Frozen Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Penn State’s Nic DeGraves celebrates his third-period goal against Boston University (photo: Jim Rosvold).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ST. LOUIS — Penn State wasn’t supposed to be here.<\/p>\n

Or so people thought.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions lost their first eight games in the Big Ten before picking up a point in a shootout loss vs. Notre Dame on Jan. 3, outdoors at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

It probably wasn’t a surprise for the team picked to finish second from last to be sitting at the bottom of the standings.<\/p>\n

“We were left for dead not long ago,” said Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky.<\/p>\n

But his team still felt it had life.<\/p>\n

After a win at Notre Dame on Jan. 5, Penn State began a turnaround for which the coach and players credit senior leadership.<\/p>\n

“I learned a lesson from them this year,” said Gadowsky. “I mean, the way that they stuck together and stayed positive in the hardest times — when it would’ve been really easy not to — is just, is really, really impressive.”<\/p>\n

“The senior class did an unbelievable job with the leadership this year, showing us the way,” said sophomore forward Aiden Fink, a Hobey Baker Award top 10 finalist and team-leading scorer.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions went 9-3-3 over the rest of the conference season, finishing in fifth place. They went on to upset Michigan in a first-round sweep in the Big Ten playoffs before losing to Ohio State in overtime.<\/p>\n

A successful nonconference schedule and favorable playoff results in other leagues got Penn State into the NCAA tournament as an at-large team.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions dominated Maine and squeaked by UConn in overtime to advance to Thursday’s semifinal, where Penn State came up short in a 3-1 loss to Boston University.<\/p>\n

The team had its chances against BU, including a couple of short-handed breakaways and some grade-A chances.<\/p>\n

“We just didn’t finish. So sometimes you don’t have your A game and you finish,” said Gadowsky. “We certainly got momentum later, but when we had chances to — big chances when we weren’t playing our A game — we just didn’t finish.”<\/p>\n

“It’s super tough with the outcome that happened, but just to be able to wear the Penn State crest for the past five years — it means everything to me,” said Jimmy Dowd, Jr., a grad student taking advantage of his fifth year.<\/p>\n

Gadowsky turned his comments from finishing plays well to finishing well in life.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s a lot of eyes on our game, but I hope there are a lot of eyes on what type of men these guys are,” Gadowsky said.<\/p>\n

“They’re fantastic students,” said Gadowsky, who pointed out Dowd. “He could be the mayor of State College. He could. Everywhere I go, people look at me and they ask if I know Jimmy Dowd, and that’s a wonderful thing.<\/p>\n

“And then [2024 Hockey Humanitarian Award winner] Dylan Lugris, what he did in the community is incredible. The community is going to be a much, much better place because of this senior class and the type of guys they were.”<\/p>\n

Penn State checked a box, according to Gadowsky, by making it to the Frozen Four. And he agreed that the step forward will bring more attention to the team on the ice.<\/p>\n

But more than that is the way the team responded, learned, and grew amid difficulty.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just how we played in the success they had. I think it’s what kind of men they are,” said Gadowsky. “And I think that will be just as impactful.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nittany Lions fell short in their first Frozen Four appearance after losing to Boston University on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1426],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[816],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Left for dead' earlier in season, Penn State appreciates run to Frozen Four - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Nittany Lions fell short in their first Frozen Four appearance after losing to Boston University on Thursday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153753\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Left for dead' earlier in season, Penn State appreciates run to Frozen Four - 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