Penn State Hockey Seeks to Ride Another Roar to the Frozen Four

The Nittany Lions hope to draw another big crowd to Allentown's PPL Center for the NCAA Hockey Tournament regional final vs. UConn.

Penn State goaltender Arsenii Sergeev (35) celebrates with Penn State defenseman Casey Aman (3) after a Big Ten Tournament game against the Michigan Wolverines at Yost Ice Arena. | Brian Bradshaw Sevald-Imagn Images

Penn State hockey is one win from its first Frozen Four appearance and seeks one more roar to get there. The Nittany Lions meet UConn on Sunday at PPL Center in the Allentown Regional final of the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament, where the program expects another home-ice advantage.

"What would it mean to us to have another huge crowd? The world," Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said Friday night after the Nittany Lions defeated Maine 5-1 in the regional semifinal. "... … It gives them a lot of energy. There’s nothing we can say as coaches that can match how well the Roar Zone motivates the team."

The Roar Zone is Penn State's student cheering section, which turns State College's Pegula Ice Arena into a nightly wall of noise. On Friday, Penn State brought the Roar Zone east to Allentown, where the crowd of 7,358 fans skewed largely in the Nittany Lions' direction.

After giving up the game's first goal, Penn State scored five unanswered to defeat Maine, the regional's top seed. The Nittany Lions jolted the crowd into the game soon after Maine's goal, as JJ Wiebusch scored the tying goal just 56 seconds later. Penn State scored two more goals to close the period with a 3-1 advantage, and the crowd guided it home.

"There’s so many games at Pegula Ice Arena that we ride the atmosphere of the Roar Zone," Gadowsky told reporters in Allentown on Friday. "It's been so important to us since [the program's] inception, really, especially this year as well. Basically we had a big chunk of it come here to Allentown. ... We feel it. We just rode their wave, and it was wonderful to see."

With the win, Penn State (21-13-4) moved within one win of its first trip to the NCAA Frozen Four and continued a stunning turnaround to its season. Since going winless in their first nine Big Ten games, the Nittany Lions are is 14-4-4 with three postseason wins. Penn State has lost just two games in regulation since Jan. 10 and clawed its way into the Big Ten Tournament with a seven-game points streak in February.

Several Nittany Lions said Friday that they have spent the past two months in "playoff mode," which kept them sharp but also extracted a toll. After falling to Ohio State 4-3 in the Big Ten semifinals, Penn State had 12 days off before playing Maine in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Maine, meanwhile, had a quicker turnaround, having defeated UConn 5-2 for the Hockey East title March 21.

"It was really important to us," Gadowsky said of the break. "Once we lost in the Big Ten [Tournament], we had two players [who] had significant injuries. I don't think we would have been able to play that way at all if we had to play the next week, no chance. ... We were grinding and grinding. We sort of have been in playoff mode since January. To be able to have a weekend to breathe, .... the timing of that was excellent."

Penn State, playing in its fourth NCAA Tournament, has been superb in regional semifinals. The Nittany Lions are 3-1 in tournament openers, having won the last two by a combined score of 13-1. However, Penn State is 0-3 with the Frozen Four on the line, most recently losing to Michigan in overtime at Allentown's PPL Center in 2023.

Penn State meets UConn at 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday at Allentown's PPL Center. ESPN2 will televise the game live. The winner earns its first trip to the Frozen Four, which begins April 10 in St. Louis. Tickets are available through TicketMaster.