2021–22 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season

The 2021–22 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season will be the 15th season of play for the program. They will represent Penn State University in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. This season will mark the ninth season in the Big Ten Conference. They will be coached by Guy Gadowsky, in his 11th season, and play their home games at Pegula Ice Arena.
==Season==
Penn State's season began with a bang and the Nittany Lions won six of their first seven games, culminating with a win over North Dakota at the Bridgestone Arena, the home of the Nashville Predators. The hot start got PSU its first ranking of the season but their circumstances quickly changed. As soon as they began their conference schedule, Penn State lost four game in a row with both their offense and defense crumbling. They recovered a bit at the end of November but the respite didn't last long and the Nittany Lions finished the first half of their season near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
After a win over Army to kick off their second half, Penn State lost four consecutive game again and were wallowing at the bottom of their conference. Oskar Autio hadn't been playing well in goal and the team began to move away from his as the primary starter. Liam Soulière began sharing the load in goal and the team got a boost at the end of January when they made their only conference weekend sweep of the year. The offense then failed afterwards and Penn State lost another 5 games in a row before managing a split with Big Ten bottom-feeder Michigan State to close out the regular season.
The team's terrible season was supposed to end quickly against Ohio State, who were gearing up for the NCAA tournament. Instead of surrendering to expectations, the Lions fought hard against the Buckeyes; after losing the first game by just a goal, the offense bombarded the OSU cage with 81 shots in two games. Soulière held back the counterattack just enough to earn two 1-goal wins and Penn State knocked out #12 team in the country. The Lions were nearly able to pull off a stunning comeback the following game when they tied Minnesota after being down 0–2, but a late goal from the Gophers ultimately ended their season.
==Departures==
Evan Bell 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Tim Doherty 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Allen Americans)
Bobby Hampton 	Forward 		Graduation (retired)
William Holtforster	Goaltender		Graduation (retired)
Alex Limoges 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with San Diego Gulls)
Max Sauvé 	Forward 		Signed professional contract (Wheeling Nailers)
Sam Sternschein 	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Boston College
Alex Stevens 	Defenseman		Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers)
Aarne Talvitie 	Forward 		Signed professional contract (New Jersey Devils)
==Recruiting==
Ben Copeland 	Forward 		22	Edina, MN; transfer from Colorado College
Doug Dorr 	Goaltender		22	Pittsburgh, PA; already completed one year of classes
Carson Dyck 	Forward 		20	Lethbridge, AB
Danny Dzhaniyev	Forward 		19	Brooklyn, NY
Ryan Kirwan 	Forward 		19	DeWitt, NY
Simon Mack 	Defenseman		20	Brockville, ON
Ben Schoen 	Forward 		19	Toledo, OH
==Roster==
As of September 5, 2021.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring statistics==
 	RW 	38	16 	13 	29 	32
 	F 	36	14 	14 	28 	16
 	F 	36	13 	13 	26 	8
 	C 	33	6 	17 	23 	10
 	C 	37	6 	16 	22 	39
 	D 	37	3 	18 	21 	32
 	F 	36	6 	12 	18 	6
 	RW 	36	11 	4 	15 	6
 	LW 	38	5 	10 	15 	25
 	LW 	38	2 	13 	15 	6
 	C/RW	30	3 	10 	13 	22
 	RW 	37	9 	3 	12 	24
 	D 	32	5 	7 	12 	16
 	F 	38	5 	7 	12 	16
 	F 	29	1 	10 	11 	16
 	F 	29	2 	6 	8 	2
 	D 	38	2 	6 	8 	29
 	D 	38	3 	4 	7 	8
 	D 	37	0 	7 	7 	14
 	F 	17	4 	1 	5 	4
 	D 	31	1 	4 	5 	46
 	G 	23	0 	4 	4 	0
 	G 	1 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	15	0 	0 	0 	0
Bench	- 	- 	- 	- 	- 	2
Total	 	 	117	199	316	379
==Goaltending statistics==
 	1 	5:19	0 	0 	0	0 	1 	0	1.000	0.00
 	15	897 	7 	7 	1	43 	409 	0	.905 	2.88
 	23	1367	10	13	0	71 	591 	1	.893 	3.12
Empty Net	- 	42 	- 	- 	-	6 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	38	2311	17	20	1	122	1001	1	.891 	3.17
==Rankings==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 (Final)
USCHO.com	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	16 	19 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
==References==
==External links==
2021–22
Penn State Nittany Lions
Penn State Nittany Lions