Penn State men’s hockey is moving on in Allentown. Two goals each by Matt DiMarsico and Dane Dowiak and another by JJ Wiebusch pushed the No. 4-seeded Nittany Lions to a 5-1 upset win over regional top seed Maine in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night.
It’s Penn State’s first tournament in two seasons, when Guy Gadowsky’s program defeated Michigan Tech, 8-0, in the first round in 2023.
The Nittany Lions will move on to quarterfinals for a meeting with Connecticut, which claimed a 4-1 first-round win over Quinnipiac in the Huskies’ first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. UConn, which fell to Maine in the Hockey East championship game last Friday, is 1-2 all-time against Penn State.
Wiebusch erased the Bears’ early lead with a power play score to tie the game, 1-1, in the first period. DiMarsico and Dowiak later followed, giving Penn State a 3-1 lead to close the first period. DiMarsico scored again early into the second period before Dowiak put the nail in the coffin, scoring on an empty net late in the third period.
Penn State’s road to the quarterfinals has been filled with ups and downs. The team started the year slow, losing seven of its first 11 games. But the Nittany Lions quickly flipped the script, winning 17 of their next 23 games to conclude the regular season.
Gadowksy’s squad only gained steam in the Big Ten Tournament, where it swept Michigan in a best-of-three series in the first round before narrowly falling, 4-3, in overtime to Ohio State in the semifinals.
Penn State is led by sophomore forward Aiden Fink, the Big Ten’s current points leader (53), as well as the dominant line of DiMarsico, Wiebusch and freshman Charlie Cerrato, who dished out three assists in Friday’s win.
