Penn State men’s hockey led by returning, new stars on offense heading into new season

Six conference regular season wins is nothing to write home about, but Penn State men’s hockey had some highs last season.

Picked to finish fifth in the conference last year, the Nittany Lions finished its regular-season slate on par but excelled when the postseason rolled around. Becoming the only squad in tournament history to win a best-of-three road series, head coach Guy Gadowsky and company took down Ohio State in three games before facing Minnesota in a winner-takes-all matchup.

A late Gopher tally cost Penn State a chance at an unlikely tournament championship appearance and the opportunity to compete for its second Big Ten Tournament title.

However, despite being picked to finish sixth by the Big Ten’s coaches, with the return of most key players and addition of new proven faces, the blue and white has the potential to make a leap — if a few things work in its favor.

The biggest question mark heading into the season that starts Friday is likely in net. While it’s not about who will start, there are questions as to how that starter will fare.

Junior Liam Souliere spent his first two years in Happy Valley fighting for ice time, including splitting time with Oskar Autio in goal as a sophomore. Eventually, Souliere won the job and started for the blue and white at the regular season and for the entirety of the team’s playoff run.

Souliere was clearly the more gifted goaltender of the two, but he also had far worse off nights than his counterpart.

With Autio transferring to Vermont in the offseason, though, there’s little doubt whose job it is now. Despite this, the third-year netminder said there isn’t room for complacency on a Gadowosky-led squad.

“It’s always competitive, like nobody’s here to just coast, ‘cause if you’re here to coast, then you’re just not going to play,” Souliere said. “I’ve been, you know, raised into this culture and brought in through my competitiveness. So I’m planning on keeping that too.”

Behind Souliere are freshman Noah Grannan, the expected backup, and junior Doug Dorr, a former walk-on from the university’s club team. Between the two are zero starts, one appearance and one save at the collegiate level.

In a similar fashion, a good chunk of Penn State’s defensive core carries a similar level of inexperience.

Outside of junior Jimmy Dowd Jr., fifth-year Paul DeNaples and Kenny Johnson, all of which play a different but known role for the squad, there is an air of uncertainty throughout the defensive core.

Unknown defenders

Junior Chrisitian Berger and sophomore Simon Mack aren’t the most straight forward players to analyze, but both have immense potential.

Berger started off the year hot, gathering six points in his first six games before falling off a cliff offensively until the end of the year. Defensively, Berger morphed into one of the team’s most reliable blueliners, while finishing the year second on the team in blocked shots.

The younger Mack carried high expectations in his freshman year, especially on the offensive end after tallying 40 points in 51 games in the season before heading to University Park. Teammates and Gadowsky alike sung Mack’s praises in the preseason, but the Nittany Lion never truly found consistent footing in Year 1.

Freshmen defenders

The three remaining members of the group are all first-year collegiate defenders. Jarod Crespo, Dylan Gratton and Carter Schade should all see ice time as they look to help fill the gap left by the departures of alternate captains Clayton Phillips and Adam Pilewicz.

Schade earned the most recognition from members of the team, with several people comparing him to Cole Hults, the program’s all-time leader for points by a defenseman.

Gadowsky alluded to growing pains at first with the core of defending freshmen but said he believes there will be growth as the year goes on.

“We’ve got some learning to do but we feel by the end of the year or the second half, that you will see an improvement,” Gadowsky said. “If one of these three defenseman — for example — ended up, you know, playing a major role and doing really well statistically, I don’t know if it’s a surprise, because I think that we have the belief that all three of them could.”

Penn State’s strongest position group is easily its batch of forwards.

Highlighted by returning standouts, the Nittany Lions have a surplus of depth on the front end that will give it plenty of options as the season progresses.

Locked-in forwards

Realistically, the team’s top five scorers from last year will likely hold those spots in a similar order in 2022-23.

Seniors Kevin Wall, Connor MacEachern and Ben Copeland all had obvious low moments — as many athletes do — but were generally three of the team’s most reliable contributors on the offensive side of the ice.

Sophomore Ben Schoen was shaky at points at the start of last season but eventually molded into one of the team’s most impactful skaters. Should he improve in the faceoff circle, Schoen should continue in a similar role.

Fellow sophomore Ryan Kirwan was arguably Penn State’s best player as a freshman and should solidify that spot in Year 2. A two-way winger, Kirwan very rarely experienced growing pains on the ice in his first year in the blue and white.

Connor McMenamin and Tyler Gratton, both captains for the 2022-23 campaign, weren’t always maintained in the score column as third-years but contributed in different ways — which should make them maintains in the squad’s top four lines, assuming they stay level.

The team’s head coach also said Chase McLane, the team’s go-to two-way center, won’t be available to start the year but seems to be ahead of schedule. In his role, McLane was the team’s most reliable player when healthy.

Transfer forwards

Two more forwards are all but guaranteed to see consistent ice time, despite never playing for Penn State.

North Dakota transfer Ashton Calder and RPI transfer Ture Linden didn’t come to Hockey Valley to sit on the bench. The fifth-year veterans should find themselves in the lineup night in and night out, if they continue to produce at the level they did in the past.

Unknown forwards

With 10 spots probably set with a healthy McLane, two more remain open for the taking with seven forwards in the mix.

Junior Tyler Paquette has the size, skill and stats to lock up one of the other two spots. For him, it’s just a matter of avoiding major dry spells like the ones he had last year.

Sophomores Danny Dzhaniyev and Carson Dyck both had solid starts to last season, with Dyck impressing at the dot and Dzhaniyev lighting it up on the score sheet, but neither likely did enough to guarantee a much more than a semi-rotational spot.

Junior Christian Sarlo made a few highlight-reel plays last year but was inconsistent and often made questionable plays that landed him in the box, led to less ice time or both. Sophomore Dylan Lugris scored in his first game as a Nittany Lion, after joining the squad over winter break, but didn’t find the back of the net again until going on what Gadowsky said was a “surprise” tear at the end of the season.

It’s fairly unlikely Xander Lamppa and freshman Alex Servagno will see the ice often for the blue and white.

When asked how some of the returning players fit in, specifically on offense, Gadowsky said he wasn’t sure.

“We don’t know, we’ll find out,” Gadowsky said. “We ask that often. We’re curious about the answer.”

In short, the Nittany Lions are set offensively, half uncertain defensively and banking on their guy panning out in net. It’s not a terrible spot to be in, but it sure isn’t comfortable either.

The blue and white opens its season against Canisius at home at 7 p.m. Friday and kicks off Big Ten play three weeks later against Wisconsin on the road.