ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The eighth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions resume play after a 41-day hiatus and open their 2026 slate with a home-and-home series against the RIT Tigers on Saturday night in Rochester and Sunday back home inside Pegula Ice Arena.

FOLLOW THE ACTION

Dates: Saturday, January 3 | Sunday, January 4

Place: Gene Polisseni Center – Rochester, N.Y. | Pegula Ice Arena – University Park, Pa.

Time: SAT: 7 p.m. | SUN: 5 p.m.

Listen: LionVision

THIS WEEK’S MATCHUP

This week marks just the fifth and sixth meetings between the two programs all-time with each series being a home-and-home. The teams last met three years ago with a home-and-home series on December 30-31, 2022, a series sweep for the Nittany Lions. Penn State is unbeaten in the all-time series with a 3-0-1 including a 2-0-0 mark in Rochester.

Penn State plays its first game in 41 days on Saturday and is 9-3-1 all-time in its first game back after winter break and are unbeaten in its last eight with a 7-0-1 record. The last loss for the Nittany Lions in their unofficial second half opener was a 3-0 decision at Ohio State on January 6, 2017. The Nittany Lions tied Notre Dame, 3-3, at the Frozen Confines a year ago to the day, to begin their incredible second half run last year.

Only four current Nittany Lions were on the team the last time these two teams met, Carter Schade, Alex Servagno, Ben Schoen and Jarod Crespo with only Servagno registering a point in the two games with a goal in game two.

Penn State is the fourth youngest team in the Big Ten and 13th youngest in the nation this season with an average age of 21 years and eight months while RIT is the sixth oldest team in the nation with an average age of 22 years and 10 months.

SCOUTING RIT

RIT enters the weekend having lost six of their last seven games after starting the season 9-2-0, including a 3-2 setback to Clarkson on Monday.

RIT is led by alumnus Matt Thomas in his first season behind the bench after long-time Bench Boss Wayne Wilson retired at the end of the 2024-25 season. Thomas was most recently an assistant coach for the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League for the past four seasons.

The Tigers are paced on offense by junior Christian Catalano with 13 points on six goals and seven assists. Evan Konyen and Tyler Mahan join Catalano for the team lead with six goals each.

Between the pipes sophomore Jakub Krbecek has taken a big step in year two as he currently sits with a 10-6-0 record with a 1.83 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage to rank sixth and tied for 11th in the nation, respectively.

RIT has excelled on the penalty kill this season allowing just five goals on 57 chances for a 91.2 percent PK, a mark good for tops in the Atlantic and fourth in the nation.

The Tiger powerplay unit on the other hand has struggled scoring just six goals on 65 chances for a 9.2 percent conversion rate ranking as the third-worst unit in the nation.

NON-CONFERENCE DOMINATION

Penn State concluded its 2024-25 non-conference slate with an 9-1-0 record and is currently 7-1-0 to start this season.

Penn State has registered at least eight non-conference victories nine times and have a 76.2 percent all-time winning percentage in regular-season non-conference games since the Big Ten’s inception prior to the 2013-14 season.

The Nittany Lions are an eye-popping 60-8-1 in regular-season non-conference games since the start of the 2018-19 season including a 33-5-0 mark over the past three-plus seasons. Penn State is 52-16-2 all-time against Atlantic Hockey.

FINKER FLEX

Junior Aiden Fink missed nearly half of the 16 games in the first half after injuring his thumb in the opening period of Penn State’s Big Ten opener at Ohio State back in October.

Fink returned to action last week with the U.S. Collegiate Selects at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland pacing the tournament with eight points on four goals and four assists including a semifinal hat-trick against HC Sparta Praha on Tuesday.

The junior has two goals and seven assists for nine points this season giving him 96 for his career as he now sits ninth on the Penn State all-time scoring list, just seven points shy of Liam Folkes ’20 for eighth.

Fink is now just four points shy of the century mark in just 83 total games as he looks to become the fastest Nittany Lion to 100 career points all-time, currently held by Alex Limoges who reached that milestone in his 102nd career game.

The junior’s 40 career goals are also just one shy of Brando Biro ’20 for 10th on the all-time list while his 56 assists are tied with Evan Barratt for 10th all-time.

THE SWISS SIX

Head coach Guy Gadowsky is returning from Switzerland with a runner-up finish in the 2025 Spengler Cup as he guided a group of collegiate selects, the first of its kind, into one of the most prestigious holiday tournaments in the world and nearly won it all.

Along with Fink, fellow forwards Charlie Cerrato, Matt DiMarsico and JJ Wiebusch as well as defenseman Mac Gadowsky all represented the Nittany Lions on the 25-man roster.

Fink paced the tournament in scoring and along with DiMarsico was named one of the team’s three stars of the tournament as well as player of the game in the semifinal and final. DiMarsico was player of the game in the team’s second contest and first win against HC Davos.

All five Nittany Lions registered points in the tournament as DiMarsico collected a pair of goals while Cerrato added one goal and one assist and both Wiebusch and Gadowsky had one assist.

WHAT’S UP CHUCK?

Sophomore Charlie Cerrato ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 21 points on five goals and 16 assists this season to rank tied for 15th in the nation in scoring while his 16 assists are good for third in the Big Ten and tied for eighth in the nation

Cerrato has points in 11-of-16 games this season including a team-high six multi-point efforts, tied with McKenna and fellow sophomore JJ Wiebusch.

WHITEHORSE WIZARD

Penn State is without the services of freshman phenom Gavin McKenna this weekend as he is competing for a Gold Medal with Team Canada at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Minneapolis.

McKenna ranks second in the Big Ten and tied for fifth nationally for rookie scoring with 18 points including at least one point in six of his first eight Big Ten contests and points in all but four games so far this season with six multi-point efforts.

McKenna’s 14 assists are the most among freshmen in the Big Ten and rank third in the nation among rookies.

TERRIFIC TANDEM

Freshman Josh Fleming and sophomore transfer Kevin Reidler have split time between the pipes this season with each performing exceptionally well.

Fleming has the slightly better numbers statistically posting a 5-2-0 record with a .929 save percentage and a 2.30 goals-against average to rank second in the Big Ten and tied for 11th nationally for save percentage while his GAA places him fourth in the conference and 23rd in the nation.

Reidler has a 6-3-0 record with a .906 save percentage and a 3.09 goals-against average and was exceptional his last time out, a 2-1 victory at Minnesota, where he stopped each of the final 21 shots he faced including 20 over the final two periods.

NEXT UP

Penn State remains home as Big Ten play resumes with the Minnesota Golden Gophers visiting Pegula Ice Arena for a pair of 6 p.m. puck drops, both of which will be broadcast nationally on the B1G Network.