Even in defeat, Tessa Janecke has put Penn State women’s hockey onto the national stage
Tessa Janecke does not remember hearing the crowd’s collective excitement as the puck slid toward her near the blue line late in the third period Friday night. The audience of 5,000+ in Pegula Ice Arena gasped as it hit the middle of her stick with the team down a goal to the Wisconsin Badgers in the second semifinal of the Frozen Four.
And then the program-record crowd exploded with excitement as she flipped a backhand shot past Wisconsin goaltender Ava McNaughton to tie the game up and force overtime.
It would be easy to say the excitement was short-lived, with Wisconsin drawing a penalty and scoring the game-winning goal less than a minute into overtime to give the Badgers the 4-3 win and a berth in the national championship game. But Penn State’s star center is hoping for the opposite.
“We can compete with anybody,” Janecke said about what Friday night proved. “We can compete with the best. We get a lot of slander for our conference and whatnot‚ it doesn’t matter what conference you’re playing in, to go the whole season with only five losses, that’s something that’s not easy to do.”
Janecke and the program believe Friday night, even in defeat, can be the start of something special for Penn State women’s ice hockey.
She and Katelyn Roberts and the rest of the senior class wrapped up their Penn State careers with the loss to the Badgers, but their impact will be felt long after their departure. Head coach Jeff Kampersal, who has spent nearly a decade at the head of the program, has seen what they’ve changed in their four years on campus.
“It’s an awesome group in terms of humans,” Kampersal said after the loss. “... It got to a certain point when they got in here where coaches could have pure, genuine trust of the players. We know that they were doing the right thing. When we got here, there [were] other coaches on campus that wouldn’t let their athletes hang with our athletes and they were just getting in trouble. That doesn’t exist anymore. They’re athletes, they’re students, they’re great humans.”
And so when Janecke and Roberts and the rest of the team took the ice, and felt the crowd of 5,176 — a new attendance record for the women’s Frozen Four — they were in disbelief. Because in recent weeks, they’d become a bit of a punchline with recent poor attendance during the tournament. Kampersal said as much postgame, and acknowledged that he and the team had seen it.
But Friday night proved it doesn’t have to be that way. And while it isn’t usual for Penn State women’s hockey to pack Pegula Ice Arena, there’s nothing preventing it from happening if the team’s success can beget more success.
“We don’t just want that in a Frozen Four, we want that in every game and I think we deserve it,” Janecke said about the crowd. “... I just want that to continue. I want that for this team, for this group, for this program. People should be excited about it.”
Janecke was a big part of the excitement in Friday night’s game and throughout Penn State’s season. She tacked on another achievement with her 200th career point and has played so well that she’s a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, which goes to the nation’s top women’s college hockey player.
But for all of the good Janecke has brought to the program on the ice, there’s a chance she will bring even more off it.
She is a game-changer. The kind of player that can attract crowds and more importantly, future talent. Other hockey players have watched her shine in Pegula Ice Arena and on the world stage, where she earned a gold medal this winter at the Olympics with Team USA. Those kinds of accomplishments are the ones that get noticed.
Not just by pundits and fans. But by kids and aspiring athletes. That’s what she wants.
“It wasn’t just about the wins on the scoresheet or the points,” Janecke said. “We grew women’s hockey in Hockey Valley and Penn State in general. If we could just inspire one girl to want to play hockey, or anybody for that matter, then we did our job here.”
Maybe that next player will see her and play. And maybe they’ll follow in her footsteps and go to Penn State to try and emulate the success she’s had. And maybe they’ll find it. It’s not impossible, but it’s far from a guarantee.
Because Janecke has many firsts in her career. Friday was another, with the first Frozen Four appearance for the program.
And if she has her way it’ll be the first of many.
