Penn State men’s hockey to open highly-anticipated season in road series vs. ASU

He’s never been inside Mullett Arena and never played a hockey game in the state of Arizona, but Charlie Cerrato knows what to expect this weekend.

When the Penn State men’s hockey team opens its season with a two-game series at Arizona State, it’ll be something special, for a lot of reasons, inside the 5,000 seat-arena in the center of ASU’s campus.

The Nittany Lions, who reached the program’s first Frozen Four last season, enter this season ranked fifth nationally. The team returns its top six goal scorers, including Aiden Fink, a finalist for the Hoby Baker Award as the sport’s best player. The team also welcomes a freshmen class that includes Jackson Smith, a first-round pick in the NHL Draft this year, Gavin McKenna, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick next year, and another Hoby Baker Award finalist making a homecoming, Mac Gadowsky.

“We’re as talented as we’ve ever been, and there are high expectations,” said Cerrato, a sophomore forward who produced 15 goals and 27 assists, good for 42 points, last season. “We’re excited to play there, it’s Gav’s first game, the place is going to be jumping.”

Penn State’s returning players produced 83% of the team’s goals during the campaign that ended at the Frozen Four, and the newcomers combined for 201 goals and 362 assists in 435 games played in five different leagues last season.

For an always offensive-minded Penn State program, it seems like an embarrassment of riches. Still, nobody’s embarrassed the program has made the most of changes that allow Canadian Hockey Players to play college hockey, or for name, image and likeness financial support to reshape rosters.

Former Western Hockey League standouts Smith and McKenna might be in Hockey Valley for just a season each, but the pedigree of the blue-and-white roster seems higher than any time in program history.

Coach Guy Gadowsky expects the depth of college hockey to be better in general, and he anticipates immediate feedback about the transition of his team’s newcomers this weekend. “We’ll find out really quickly,” he said.

Penn State lost Arsenii Sergeev, the goalie who backstopped its special postseason run, but the replacements at that position seem more than capable.

Kevin Reidler, the initial starter in net, transferred from Nebraska-Omaha. A fifth-round NHL pick in 2022, He was 4-1 with a 2.75 goals-against average and .920 save percentage in limited action last season. Reidler, from Sweden, helped his home country earn a silver medal at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships.

Behind him, Josh Fleming played parts of the past three seasons with Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.

Still, Penn State’s strength might remain in its intangibles. Its culture. Its down-to-earth, focused approach. Even with a roster of players who have a more accolades, and likely more attention paid to them, than their predecessors, a workmanlike mindset matter.

Team captain Dane Dowiak, appreciates and embraces the expectations on the verge of the season. At the same time, he’s not looking very far ahead.

“We’re going to have a target on our back every night, and we’re going get every team’s best game,” Dowiak said. “But we’re going to hold onto our own values and our team. I think we’re just focused on game one at ASU and getting a win.”

No. 5 Penn State at No. 14 Arizona State

Series: 10 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday

Audio/Radio: GoPSUsports.com

Streaming/TV: NHL Network

Notable: Penn State leads the all-time series, 7-1. These will be the first games in Arizona for the teams since Nov. 17-18, 2017. … Aiden Fink last scored a goal for Penn State on Feb. 22, in a game at Michigan State. … ASU will retire the jersey of program standout Joe Daccord during a pregame ceremony Friday. Daccord, a goalie from 2016-2019, led the program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance and was the first ASU player to play in an NHL game.