Penn State men’s hockey doesn’t bring its best, drops home opener to Clarkson

As people filed into Pegula Ice Arena for Penn State men’s hockey’s home opener, there was a different buzz than usual throughout the concourse. The fans always wait seven months for the Nittany Lions to return home, but this time, they’d been waiting to get their Gavin McKenna jerseys and see the Frozen Four banner hanging from the rafters as well.

Penn State fan Matt Bird has been coming to games since the team’s first season at the Division I level in 2013. He arrived at this one sporting a white jersey and a Philadelphia Phillies hat, deciding like many to watch the Nittany Lions play some puck rather than stay home to stress over the Phillies’ second straight elimination game.

“(The atmosphere’s going to be) pretty fired up,” Bird said. “One of the top prospects in all of hockey in North America (is playing tonight), so pretty fired up.”

But Bird and the 6,248 others in attendance went home unsatisfied despite J.J. Wiebusch scoring a program-record four goals, as Clarkson won 6-4 win in a Thursday night upset.

Junior captain Dane Dowiak said at media day Penn State was going to have a target on its back and it had to be prepared for each team’s A-game. The Golden Knights certainly brought their best, and the Nittany Lions simply weren’t ready or focused enough to bring theirs too.

“They definitely wanted it more than us. Gotta give them credit,” Dowiak said postgame. “They battled hard. I think they out-hit us. They did the little things right, capitalized when we made mistakes. So I think we just need to look in the mirror and bring our A-game tomorrow.”

The Nittany Lions disappointed not only themselves, but an opening night crowd that wasn’t necessarily the loudest, though it was certainly energetic. McKenna’s introduction in the starting lineup earned deafening cheers, and introductions for junior Aiden Fink and freshman Jackson Smith garnered similar ones.

But the crowd didn’t have much to be happy about shortly thereafter, with Clarkson taking the lead just 1:07 into the contest. Penn State answered on the power play just over three minutes later as Wiebusch found the back of the net off McKenna’s first assist on home ice.

Wiebusch scored a hat trick in the second period alone, but the Nittany Lions struggled defensively with some sloppy puck-handling and movement. Clarkson entered the third period down 4-3 and scored four unanswered goals to take the victory and spoil Penn State’s party.

The Golden Knights embraced the underdog role as well. Erik Bargholtz sealed the win with an empty-net goal and taunted the Nittany Lions’ bench after. They were clearly hungry to get in the win column, and what better way to do so than upsetting the No. 4 team in the country?

“I think we know we have a very solid team this year, and every game we’re going to get the other team’s best, and we need to be ready for that. And I think that’s kind of where we struggled tonight,” Dowiak said. “Just moving forward, like piggybacking off of our atmosphere is something we need to do, and use that energy to play our best game.”

Head coach Guy Gadowsky said a player on the bench told the team “we’re not going to get anyone’s B-game.” Although he couldn’t remember who said it, Gadowsky thought it was an important reminder going forward.

Eventually, Penn State will begin Big Ten play where any team can win on any given night, and the NCAA Tournament doesn’t have any weak links either. So, the Nittany Lions are using this loss as a learning opportunity while also quickly getting over it before Game 2 on Friday night.

“Whether you win or lose on (Thursday) night, in college hockey, you playing back-to-back is you have to forget it quickly and be ready to be prepared for the next night and win or lose,” Gadowsky said. “So we had an opportunity in Arizona to win and get prepared, and now we have an opportunity to lose and get prepared.”