Penn State men’s hockey mourns end of most anticipated season in program history
The Penn State locker room in MVP Arena was mostly quiet. Gavin McKenna slouched in front of his locker, eyes red from crying. Aiden Fink had his jersey — one he may have worn for the last time — pulled over his eyes as he dampened it with tears. Ben Schoen sat silently as his face scrunched and the emotions overcame him.
Schoen inhaled sharply as he composed himself to discuss what he was feeling, taking time to gather his thoughts.
“I’m just — five years. I love this place,” Schoen told the Centre Daily Times as tears began to well up again. “It’s been a home for me for five years. These are my brothers for life. To see it end like that is just one of the worst feelings in the world. Five years that went by so fast.”
This was not supposed to be how this group’s time together ended.
But it was how it did.
Penn State men’s hockey’s season came to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night with a 3-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth — bringing an end to the most anticipated year in program history.
There will inevitably be conversations about the group falling short. Those are the kind of things that happen when you add the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft to a team that just made the Frozen Four. But for the players in that locker room, this will never be about that. The sadness, for as much as it was about losing and not reaching the goal the team had set, wasn’t really about the team’s performance.
It was about this group never playing together again.
“It’s tough with any team when you lose,” Fink told the CDT, his voice cracking. “But I just thought this team was so special this year. The brotherhood I made, throughout my three years — this team has been awesome. These are my brothers.”
It’s not just McKenna — who said his future in college will depend on what the team who drafts him wants — who is likely gone. Schoen is out of eligibility. As are Jared Crespo, Carter Schade, Alex Servagno and Chris McFayden. Fink could be off to the NHL. So could others.
There are a number of players who have spent several years at Penn State who will not be on the team next year. They all glowed about their team in State College — how it embraced them and changed them for the better. And the player who spent the least time there, the one who could have easily been viewed as a mercenary who was just getting ready for what should be a fruitful NHL career, is the one many of them will remember.
“Honestly man, playing with (McKenna) was awesome, but hanging out with him as a guy — he became one of my best boys this year,” captain Dane Dowiak said as his eyes began to redden and tears welled up. “I just turned 24 today and he just turned 18 a couple months ago and I would’ve never thought that I would’ve become as close as I am with him.”
McKenna will remember them, too. A season that was, from the outside, about him and what he could accomplish, quickly became about all of them and what they were able to do. The hockey phenom was not above his teammates. He did not behave like a superstar. He was just one of the guys.
And after Minnesota Duluth made it 3-1 with an empty net goal with just a few seconds left on the clock, McKenna hunched over the boards, head down, eyes staring at the ice beneath him. That’s when it became real. Their season would be coming to an end. And likely, too, his college career.
“This could potentially be my last time ever wearing the white and blue,” McKenna told the CDT about what he was thinking in that moment. “So it sucks. You never want to leave a place like this. You never want to leave your buddies.”
McKenna came to Penn State after it was fresh off that Frozen Four run. He chose to join a program that could help him grow and found one that he can call home. It’s difficult to envision a world where he suits up in the blue and white again.
Because, odds are, he’ll go No. 1 in this year’s draft. And when he does highlights of his time in a Penn State uniform will play on the broadcast. That will be how much of the hockey world will remember his time with the program — what he did on the ice.
But that won’t likely be what he remembers. He’ll remember Dowiak and Fink and Schoen and Crespo and everyone else that he played with. Because this year, for as much as it was about his development on the ice, was just as much about the relationships he built off it.
And for that, his teammates will remember him forever.
