2020–21 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season

The 2020–21 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season was the 14th season of play for the program and the 8th season in the Big Ten Conference. The Nittany Lions represented Pennsylvania State University and were coached by Guy Gadowsky, in his 10th season.
==Season==
As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the entire college ice hockey season was delayed. Because the NCAA had previously announced that all winter sports athletes would retain whatever eligibility they possessed through at least the following year, none of Penn State's players would lose a season of play. However, the NCAA also approved a change in its transfer regulations that would allow players to transfer and play immediately rather than having to sit out a season, as the rules previously required.
Penn State had a dreadful start to their season, losing their first five games while facing a murderers row of ranked teams. The team rebounded sharply in their sixth contest, scoring 9 goals and nearly doubling their season total to that point. After the Nittany Lions' first win of the year, the team played much better and slowly climbed back to respectability, winning nine of twelve and pulled themselves above .500 near the end of January. Just when it seemed like the team had turned a corner, their season was derailed by COVID-19. All of PSU's games were cancelled in February and the team didn't play again until the end of the regular season. The 34-day layoff hamstrung the team and it showed in their poor performance; despite outshooting Notre Dame in both games, the Nittany Lions lost both by a combined score of 3–12.
By losing an entire months-worth of games, Penn State couldn't overcome their bad start and the team's only path into the NCAA Tournament was by winning the Big Ten. They faced the same Fighting Irish team that had soundly beaten them a week earlier in the first round, but the game time appeared to have knocked the rust off of the Penn State and the Lions scored 5 consecutive goals to give themselves a solid 6–3 win. Their next game was against league-leading Wisconsin and Penn State showed no fear, overcoming an early deficit and outshooting the Badgers to take two separate leads in the game. Once the game got into overtime, the fast pace of regulation seemed to have caught up with PSU and they were overwhelmed by the Badgers, surrendering 10 shots in under 7 minutes and they could only watch as the nation's leading goal-scorer ended their season.
==Departures==
Player 	Position 	Nationality	Cause
Evan Barratt 	Forward 	 	Signed professional contract (Chicago Blackhawks)
Brandon Biro 	Forward 	 	Graduation (Signed with Buffalo Sabres)
Liam Folkes 	Forward 	 	Graduation (Signed with Bakersfield Condors)
Blake Gober 	Forward 	 	Graduation
James Gobetz 	Defenseman	 	Graduation
Cole Hults 	Defenseman	 	Signed professional contract (Los Angeles Kings)
Peyton Jones 	Goaltender	 	Graduation (Signed with Colorado Eagles)
Kris Myllari 	Defenseman	 	Graduation (Signed with Utah Grizzlies)
Nikita Pavlychev	Forward 	 	Graduation (Signed with Syracuse Crunch)
Denis Smirnov 	Forward 	 	Graduation (Signed with Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Nate Sucese 	Forward 	 	Graduation (Signed with Arizona Coyotes)
==Recruiting==
Player 	Position 	Nationality	Age	Notes
Christian Berger	Defenseman	 	20 	St. Louis, MO
Tim Doherty 	Forward 	 	25 	Portsmouth, RI; graduate transfer from Maine
Jimmy Dowd 	Defenseman	 	20 	Point Pleasant, NJ
Xander Lamppa 	Forward 	 	21 	Rochester, MN
Chase McLane 	Forward 	 	20 	Trenton, MI; selected 209th overall in 2020
Tyler Paquette 	Forward 	 	19 	Collegeville, PA
Christian Sarlo 	Forward 	 	19 	Lynbrook, NY
Liam Soulière 	Goaltender	 	21 	Brampton, ON
Jared Westcott 	Forward 	 	21 	Imperial, MO
==Roster==
As of January 3, 2021.
==Standings==
==Schedule and Results==
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!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring Statistics==
Name 	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	
 	C 	22 	10 	12 	22 	2
 	RW 	22 	8 	11 	19 	4
 	C/LW 	22 	8 	10 	18 	4
 	LW 	22 	6 	9 	15 	4
 	C/LW 	21 	7 	6 	13 	6
 	F 	21 	5 	6 	11 	2
 	F 	21 	2 	9 	11 	6
 	D 	20 	2 	8 	10 	4
 	D 	20 	3 	4 	7 	25
 	LW 	19 	2 	5 	7 	10
 	D 	22 	2 	5 	7 	16
 	F 	17 	1 	5 	6 	4
 	C 	19 	3 	2 	5 	4
 	F 	21 	2 	2 	4 	20
 	C 	13 	2 	1 	3 	0
 	D 	17 	0 	3 	3 	6
 	F 	13 	1 	1 	2 	10
 	RW 	17 	1 	0 	1 	8
 	G 	5 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	RW 	6 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	D 	22 	0 	1 	1 	8
 	D 	22 	0 	1 	1 	21
 	F 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	2 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	D 	5 	0 	0 	0 	2
 	D 	12 	0 	0 	0 	2
 	G 	18 	0 	0 	0 	0
Bench	- 	- 	- 	- 	- 	2
Total	 	 	65 	103 	168 	170
==Goaltending statistics==
Name 	Games	Minutes	Wins	Losses	Ties	Goals Against	Saves	Shut Outs	 	
 	18 	1072 	9 	9 	0 	56 	474 	1 	.894	3.13
 	5 	248 	1 	3 	0 	77 	103 	0 	.844	4.60
 	2 	6:39 	0 	0 	0 	1 	3 	0 	.750	9.02
Empty Net	- 	12 	- 	- 	- 	5 	- 	- 	- 	-
Total 	22 	1340 	10 	12 	0 	81 	580 	1 	.877	3.63
==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 (Final)	 	 	
USCHO.com	9 	10 	15 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR 	 	 	
USA Today	9 	9 	14 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	 	 	
USCHO did not release a poll in week 20.
==References==
==External links==
Category:Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey seasons
Penn State Nittany Lions 
Penn State Nittany Lions 
Penn State Nittany Lions