Penn State Hockey Sweeps No. 14 Arizona State Behind McKenna’s Late Game-Winner

The No. 5 Penn State men’s ice hockey team completed a thrilling weekend sweep of No. 14 Arizona State on Saturday night at Mullett Arena, rallying for a 4–2 win to take both games in the nonconference series.

Freshman Gavin McKenna delivered the decisive blow late in the third period, netting a power-play goal at 18:07 to break a 2–2 tie and give the Nittany Lions the lead. Before that, Penn State had tied the game at 2–2 earlier in the period on a goal by JJ Wiebusch after a strong entry off the draw.

The comeback was powered by dominant special-teams play. Penn State went a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill (including 4-for-4 in the third), while converting 1 of 3 opportunities on the man-advantage.

The Sun Devils struck first, with Bennett Schimek opening the scoring at 2:07 of the second, followed by Cruz Lucius extending the lead later in the stanza. In the third, Nic Chin-DeGraves cut the deficit with a shorthanded tally, skating coast to coast before firing off the far post.

In goal, sophomore Kevin Reidler turned in a career-best 45-save performance to improve to 2–0 on the year. Arizona State’s Connor Hasley stopped 42 shots but fell to 0–2.

Penn State now leads the all-time series 9–1 vs. the Sun Devils and is a perfect 4–0 in road games against ASU.

Next, Penn State returns home for a six-game nonconference stretch beginning Thursday vs. Clarkson, with an opening puck drop at 6:30 p.m. ET on the B1G Network.