Penn State Hockey Leaves Frozen Four ‘Hopeful’ About its Future

Penn State wasn’t ready to end the party in St. Louis, where the Nittany Lions were playing in their first Frozen Four against one of college hockey’s biggest brands. Penn State fell to Boston University 3-1 on Thursday night, ending a supercharged three months during which the team climbed from last place in the Big Ten to the NCAA Hockey Tournament semifinals.

So what’s next for Penn State hockey? Early Friday morning in St. Louis, not long after their season had ended, the Nittany Lions’ seniors already began prodding the young players about the future.

“Just remember this feeling now,” senior Jimmy Dowd Jr. said at the post-game press conference in St. Louis. “Like, it’s tough now obviously with the loss. … You want to leave the place better than you found it. I think that’s what we did this year. It’s a testament to our leadership but also the younger guys and everyone buying in every single day and just to keep it rolling from here.”

Penn State (22-14-4) finished the season with 15 wins in its last 24 games, each vital to reaching the Frozen Four. The Nittany Lions put together a seven-game points streak late in the regular season just to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, where they swept Michigan to make the semifinals.

Penn State earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and won the Allentown regional (including a dramatic overtime victory vs. UConn) to make the Frozen Four for the first time in program history. That prompted a huge outpouring of support from the players and officials who helpd build Penn State hockey from club sport to NCAA title contender.

“The current players may not understand that yet,” said Joe Battista, who coached the Penn State Icers club team and was instrumental in starting the school’s Division I hockey programs. “They went out and won a hockey game [against UConn in the regional final], and that’s special for them. That bond will last forever for them. But the influence, the impact that it had on a much greater scale, is something they won’t understand for years.”

Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky, in his 13th season with the program, had been close to the Frozen Four before, losing a pair of regional finals in overtime (one at Penn State, one at Princeton). This postseason run appeared distant in early January, when the Nittany Lions were winless in the Big Ten, which made it that much sweeter.

“I honestly can’t help but feel so grateful and positive about this year and this team because, I’ve
said it before, we were left for dead not long ago,” Gadowsky told reporters after the semifinal. “And for these guys to come back and play in St. Louis is remarkable, and better than that is how they did it. They are such great representatives to our university, which is really important at Penn State.

“And I learned a lesson from them this year. I mean, the way that they stuck together and stayed positive in the hardest times when it would have been easy not to is just really, really impressive. They’re really good men, and I’m really proud to be a part of this group.”

Penn State trailed BU 2-0 after two periods but made a relentless push in the third. The Nittany Lions outshot the Terriers 18-9 in the third period, scored their lone goal and had some juicy looks at the potential tying goal. BU goaltender Mikhail Yegorov made 17 of his 32 saves in the third, including a nervy glove-handed grab in the final 2 minutes.

“It’s hard to end a team’s season,” Terriers coach Jay Pandolfo said. “So you knew they were going to push. They’re a team that funnels everything to the net, and that’s how they ended up getting that first goal there, and it certainly gave them life. And they started believing. And they were putting everything to our net. Someone took care of a lot of those shots. Big Mike did a heck of a job there in the third when we were a little bit under siege.”

Penn State put plenty of teams “under siege” during its 2025 run to the Frozen Four and wants to build on that foundation. Asked how this season could “catapult” Penn State hockey into its future, Gadowsky began by shouting out his players.

“We have work to do for that to happen, but this is a nice start,” he said. “Whenever you get to check
a box that you did something for the first time, it certainly helps. I like to think that the way these guys
are helps. I think there’s a lot of eyes on our game, but I hope there’s a lot of eyes on what type of men these guys are.”

Gadowsky added that Penn State enters its future “hopeful.”

“I think we’re more hopeful because of the lesson that the program learned,” he said. “And the lesson that we learned isn’t something you can read about and just say, ‘OK, we got it.’ You can’t. You really need to go through it. And the fact that we were so far back, so left for dead and came back to make the Frozen Four, is something I don’t think any of these guys are ever going to forget. I know I’m not.
I’m really grateful to be part of this group because of that lesson.

“It’s not just a lesson in hockey for next year … but it’s a lesson that these guys are going to carry with them well beyond Penn State and also well beyond hockey. It’s true. You can talk about it as much as you want: ‘Oh, that’s the way to do things.’ But when you’re really faced with a challenge and you’re really in a down spot and you pull each other together and lift each other up and you see success, it’s something you don’t forget. For not only because of the young talent but because of the lessons we
learned, yes, I’m very optimistic about the future.”