2017–18 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season

The 2017–18 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season was the 12th season of play for the program and the 5th season in the Big Ten Conference. The Nittany Lions represented Pennsylvania State University and were coached by Guy Gadowsky, in his 7th season.
==Season==
Fresh off of their first tournament appearance, Penn State entered the season looking to improve on their newfound success. Unfortunately, the team had some difficulty finding traction early in the season. The Nittany Lions split each of their first five weekends of the season, progressively declining in the rankings, until they were knocked out altogether by Notre Dame. Peyton Jones, who had played spectacularly as a freshman, was struggling early in his sophomore season and began losing his first grip on the starting role.
In mid-November Penn State began to find their form and began a nearly 2-month unbeaten streak. They jumped back into the top-20 after a 4–0 shoutout against Ohio State that saw Jones seize his primary job in the crease and by mid-January the team had nearly returned to their preseason ranking. Immediately following their run, however, the offense flagged and the team went 8 games without a win. Because that stretch was played almost entirely against ranked teams, PSU wasn't punished too harshly in the standings (ending up at 16), but their hopes at returning to the tournament were balanced on a razor's edge. The team was tied for 5th in the conference entering the final weekend and they were facing a top-10 team in Minnesota. Surprisingly, the Nittany Lions easily handled the Gophers and leapt ahead of Minnesota in the standings, ending up as the 4th seed by just 1 point.
When the conference tournament began, PSU was again facing Minnesota. The team took advantage of their home games and swept the Golden Gophers with a nail-biter in the second match. The four consecutive wins essentially flipped Minnesota and Penn State in the rankings. When the team headed to South Bend the following week they were ranked 12th in the country and all but guaranteed a spot in the tournament regardless of the result. The team performed well against the Fighting Irish but fell 2–3.
Penn State was ranked 12th by the NCAA selection committee and given a #3 seed in the tournament. They opened against Denver as the de facto home team since they were the host for the Midwest Regional. Unfortunately, the team was overwhelmed by the Pioneers; Denver scored the first four goals and outshout the Nittany Lions 42–27 en route to a 5–1 win.
==Departures==
Ricky DeRosa 	Forward 		Graduation (Retired)
David Goodwin 	Forward 		Graduation (Signed with SaiPa)
Sean Kohler 	Forward 		Left Program (Retired)
Vince Pedrie 	Defenseman		Signed Professional Contract (New York Rangers)
Dylan Richard 	Forward 		Graduation (Signed with Manglerud Star Ishockey)
Zach Saar 	Forward 		Graduation (Signed with Utah Grizzlies)
David Thompson	Defenseman		Graduation (Retired)
==Recruiting==
Evan Barratt 	Forward 		18	Bristol, PA; selected 90th overall in 2017
Cole Hults 	Defenseman		19	Stoughton, WI; selected 134th overall in 2017
Alex Limoges 	Forward 		20	Winchester, VA
Adam Pilewicz 	Defenseman		21	Sewickley, PA
Sam Sternschein	Forward 		19	Syosset, NY
Alex Stevens 	Defenseman		20	Plymouth, MI
==Roster==
As of September 3, 2017.
==Standings==
==Schedule and Results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
|colspan=12|Penn State wins series 2–0
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring Statistics==
 	RW 	37	14 	26 	40 	62
 	LW 	37	9 	22 	31 	18
 	LW 	36	14 	15 	29 	26
 	D 	38	6 	23 	29 	35
 	LW/RW	30	15 	12 	27 	6
 	C 	38	11 	16 	27 	4
 	C 	38	13 	10 	23 	0
 	C 	37	7 	14 	21 	16
 	D 	38	3 	17 	20 	43
 	C/LW 	32	11 	7 	18 	34
 	C 	35	9 	5 	14 	36
 	D 	38	5 	9 	14 	4
 	D 	30	2 	12 	14 	10
 	F 	37	6 	5 	11 	53
 	LW 	25	5 	5 	10 	6
 	D 	20	1 	9 	10 	4
 	C/LW 	35	2 	7 	9 	24
 	D 	35	1 	8 	9 	18
 	LW 	21	1 	5 	6 	23
 	D 	22	1 	3 	4 	6
 	G 	35	0 	4 	4 	0
 	F 	16	2 	1 	3 	2
 	G 	6 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	G 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	7 	0 	0 	0 	2
Bench	- 	- 	- 	- 	- 	2
Total	 	 	138	236	374	424
==Goaltending statistics==
 	2 	4:07	0 	0 	0	0 	1 	0	1.000	0.00
 	6 	243 	1 	2 	1	12 	104 	1	.897 	2.96
 	35	2036	17	13	4	103	983 	1	.905 	3.03
Empty Net	- 	26 	- 	- 	-	5 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	38	2309	18	15	5	120	1088	2	.901 	3.12
==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
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 (Final)
USCHO.com	10 	– 	11 	11 	15 	17 	19 	NR 	NR 	NR 	18 	15 	14 	13 	12 	14 	17 	16 	16 	18 	15 	12 	13 	12 	13
USA Today	10 	11 	11 	11 	15 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	13 	13 	13 	12 	12 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	13 	12 	12 	12 	13
*USCHO did not release a poll in week 1.
==Players drafted into the NHL==
===2018 NHL Entry Draft===
No Penn State players were selected in 2018.
==References==
==External links==
Category:Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey seasons
Penn State Nittany Lions
Penn State Nittany Lions