‘Excited to see the Roar Zone.’ Penn State men’s hockey ready for home-opening series

A week after the official homecoming weekend at Penn State, the 12th-ranked men’s hockey team anticipates its home-opening series after playing the first three games of the season on the road.

There’s no parade Friday, but it’s a good feeling.

“The way this works out is really good,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “We’re really excited to see the Roar Zone and Pegula.”

It’ll be the first chance for most of the fan base to see the team, too.

While a small vocal contingent traveled to the season opener at LIU two weeks ago, there will be a much larger and likely even-more-vocal group supporting the team during the games Friday and Saturday (depending on how the football team’s result impacts attendance for the second game of the series).

Ryan Kirwan leads Penn State with five points, three goals and two assists, through the season’s first three games. Eight other players have scored a goal and 14 others have recorded a least one point.

That’s an early sampling of the kind of balance Penn State needs to succeed this year.

“We don’t stack one line,” Gadowsky said. “For us to be at our best, we need scoring form every line. It’s hard to say we’ll see it every weekend but it’s nice to see so far.”

Gadowsky has been pleased with the team’s mentality on power plays early in the season as well. It’s a small three-game sample, with the Nittany Lions converting 23.1% (3 of 13), but he’s happy with the depth, with the pucks that have reached the back of the net and with the effort when a goal was not the result.

“I think we have two units that create a lot of opportunities,” he said. “Even on power plays when we haven’t scored it’s generated momentum.”

AIC has been outscored 16-5 in its first three games, one against UMass and two against Quinnipiac.

No. 12 Penn State (3-0) vs. AIC (0-3)

Series: 7 p.m. Friday, 5 p.m. Saturday

Broadcast(s): Legends 104.3 FM, GoPSUsports.com

Notable: Penn State leads the all-time series, 4-2, and lost the last meeting, 3-2, in overtime at home 11 years ago (Oct. 12, 2012). … Hockey at AIC (American International College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, started as a varsity sport in 1948. Now a member of Atlantic Hockey, the Yellow Jackets have won the regular season title the past four seasons. … Ryan Kirwan has scored at least one goal in three consecutive games to open the season, becoming only the third player to do that in program history. The others were Andrew Sturtz in 2020 and Kevin Wall in 2023. Wall’s four-game goal-scoring streak in 2023 is the school record.