Penn State hockey begins postseason with trip to Ohio State
This has been a season about the process for Penn State hockey.
Head coach Guy Gadowsky’s message has wavered little since the puck dropped in October. The Nittany Lions hoped to resurrect their style and their culture after a listless 2019-20.
Now, it has to translate into results.
Penn State takes on Ohio State in a best-of-three Big Ten Quarterfinal series in Columbus this weekend. Ranked 26th in the Pairwise, any chance of an NCAA Tournament berth now rests on a Big Ten Tournament title for Penn State.
“Basically, it’s a whole, two-semester course of learning all you can for the final,” Gadowsky said this week. “Right now, this is the final. We feel really good about how much improvement we’ve made in certain areas.”
The Nittany Lions finished the Big Ten campaign at 6-17-1. They won just once in their final seven games, a 5-3 victory over Michigan State last Friday. That placed them fifth in the seven-team Big Ten, and set up a bout with the fourth-seeded Buckeyes.
Penn State had one regulation win in 16 games against the four teams above it in the conference standings. Several of those games were there to be won, though. And Gadowsky sounded an optimistic note over his team’s outlook this weekend.
“We’re going into the final, and we wanna prove how much we’ve learned,” he said. “If we put it all together, what we’ve learned, and we execute, I think we’ll do very well. But that’s the key, putting it all together.”
Penn State Preps For the Buckeyes
Ohio State was in the race for the Big Ten regular-season title before the final two weeks of the season.
Steve Rohlik’s team dropped its final four contests of the regular season, losing twice to Michigan and twice to Minnesota. Those results have the Buckeyes squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble heading into the Big Ten Tournament, sitting 13th in the Pairwise ratings.
Penn State lost three of its four meetings with Ohio State this season, the lone exception a shootout victory at Pegula in January.
“We really have to do a better job managing our shifts against them,” Gadowsky said. “I think they’re a very well-conditioned team, and the experience that we had there is we played very well for two periods each night and ran out of gas.
“They’re very talented, they’re going to finish if you give them the opportunity.”
Ohio State is led offensively by freshman Georgii Merkulov. His 18 goals are tops in the nation among freshmen and tied for ninth overall.
The Buckeyes can also rely on a superb talent in net. Freshman goaltender Jakub Dobes ranks tied for fifth in the nation and first in the Big Ten with a .933 save percentage.
Penn State has rotated its netminders throughout the season, but Gadowsky says he’ll give the nod to sophomore Liam Souliere in game one.
Souliere has played in 11 games for the Nittany Lions this season, posting a record of 5-5-1 and a .902 save percentage.
