The 2023–24 Penn State Nittany Lions men's ice hockey season was the 18th season of play for the program and 11th in the Big Ten Conference. The Nittany Lions represented Penn State University in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Pegula Ice Arena and were coached by Guy Gadowsky in his 12th season.
In losing their top four scorers from the previous season, Penn State was looking for offense from new quarters. Despite this, the Nittany Lions looked good in the early part of the season when they opened with a 5–2 record in October. While a few cracks were shown on the defensive end, the good non conference record gave Penn State a solid foundation. Unfortunately, as soon as they started their Big Ten schedule, the flaws began to grow. Goaltending became an issue that would not go away thanks in large part due to the flagging play of Liam Soulière. The senior netminder couldn't keep the puck out of the net and saw his goals against average swell by nearly a full point. Backup Noah Grannan wasn't any better and the team had to contend with constantly needing to score goals. From the beginning of November until the end of February, Penn State allowed at least 3 goals against in 22 of 25 games. While the offense did get contributions from new quarters, particularly from freshman Aiden Fink, they weren't able to overcome the worst defense in the Big Ten.
Penn State ended the first half of the season with a winning record thanks entirely to its non-conference slate. After Christmas, with almost only Big Ten opponents remaining, the team sank below .500. The only saving grace for the Nittany Lions was a season sweep of Ohio State that prevented the club from finishing dead last in the conference. The struggles against conference opponents was not entirely unexpected as the Big Ten was one of the best leagues in '24, however, that didn't bode well for their postseason chances as the only way to reach the national tournament was to win a conference championship.
The first hurdle in their way was Minnesota and the game did not go in Penn State's favor. As they had over much of the second half of the season, the Lions could not generate enough offense against a strong team to overcome a poor performance in goal. The team fought back hard in the rematch and overcame a 2-goal deficit with a strong second period to tie the match. Penn State then outshot Minnesota 20–4 in the third but they could not get a further goal. Instead, with just over a minute remaining, Soulière surrendered the winning goal and Penn State's lackluster season came to an abrupt end.[1]
| Ashton Calder | Forward | Graduation (signed with Florida Everblades) | ||
| Ben Copeland | Forward | Graduation (signed with Cleveland Monsters) | ||
| Defenseman | Graduation (signed with HC TPS) | |||
| Tyler Gratton | Forward | Graduate transfer to Arizona State | ||
| Kenny Johnson | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) | ||
| Ture Linden | Forward | Graduation (signed with Ontario Reign) | ||
| Connor MacEachern | Forward | Graduation (signed with San Jose Barracuda) | ||
| Connor McMenamin | Forward | Graduate transfer to Minnesota Duluth | ||
| Kevin Wall | Forward | Graduation (signed with Milwaukee Admirals) |
| Casey Aman | Defenseman | 20 | Johnstown, PA | ||
| Jacques Bouquot | Forward | 23 | Columbus, OH
| ||
| Matthew DiMarsico | Forward | 19 | Wexford, PA | ||
| Dane Dowiak | Forward | 21 | Wexford, PA | ||
| Aiden Fink | Forward | 18 | Calgary, AB
| ||
| Reese Laubach | Forward | 19 | San Jose, CA
| ||
| Tanner Palocsik | Defenseman | 24 | Aliquippa, PA
|
As of July 24, 2023.[2]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 34 | 15 | 19 | 34 | 27 | |||
| 33 | 9 | 20 | 29 | 6 | |||
| 34 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 22 | |||
| 36 | 13 | 13 | 26 | 10 | |||
| 35 | 7 | 19 | 26 | 18 | |||
| 35 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 48 | |||
| 36 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 0 | |||
| 35 | 3 | 13 | 16 | 40 | |||
| 36 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 8 | |||
| 36 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 4 | |||
| 36 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 26 | |||
| 28 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 26 | |||
| 31 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 24 | |||
| 27 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 8 | |||
| 35 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 24 | |||
| 25 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 2 | |||
| 17 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 11 | |||
| 30 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | |||
| 30 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | |||
| 20 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 30 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 16 | |||
| 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | |||
| 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 113 | 197 | 310 | 331 |
|---|
| 11 | 523:08 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 29 | 223 | 0 | .885 | 3.33 | ||
| 29 | 1631:01 | 12 | 14 | 1 | 92 | 637 | 0 | .874 | 3.38 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 23:25 | - | - | - | 9 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 36 | 2177:34 | 15 | 18 | 3 | 130 | 860 | 0 | .869 | 3.58 |
|---|
See main article: 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings.
| Poll | Week | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 26 (Final) | ||
| USCHO.com | 16 | 18 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 19 | – | 19 | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | – | NR | |
| USA Today | 16 | 17 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 18 | – | 19 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | |