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\t<\/p>\nInternational play never fails to bring out the competitive side of both hockey fans and players. When teams take the ice with national pride on the line, things can get tense, and rivalries, well, heated.<\/p>\n
This past week, the United States and Canada faced off in the Olympic gold medal game on both the women\u2019s and men\u2019s sides. With the addition of Canadian Hockey League players to the NCAA at the beginning of this season, Penn State men\u2019s hockey is mostly split between American players and those from north of the border.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the Games, the team has bonded over watching their respective countries compete at the highest level, despite each athlete\u2019s individual rooting interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat event is really cool. It\u2019s best on best, the best players in the world representing their countries,\u201d Dane Dowiak said. \u201cThere\u2019s chatter every day, who\u2019s gonna win, the U.S. or Canada, and then, you know, the wildcat Sweden. It\u2019s really cool. A tournament like that brings us closer together. We all sit there and have a little competitive nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, the team had one player in particular that everyone was able to root for. Tessa Janecke, a star forward for Penn State women\u2019s hockey, was overseas representing the Stars and Stripes. In seven games played, she registered an impressive five assists and a plus\/minus of seven.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really proud to have Olympians represent this Penn State program,\u201d Dowiak said.<\/p>\n
Janecke wound up securing a gold medal with her squad, becoming the first Nittany Lion to ever stand atop the podium at the Winter Games.<\/p>\n
On the men\u2019s side, common ground was much thinner. With both Canada and the United States\u2019 teams composed of all NHL players, the only skin Penn State had in the game was country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s [was] a bit of a rivalry going on,\u201d Luke Misa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Misa arrived in State College prior to the season after a four-year stint in the CHL. He was one of the guys in support of the Maple Leaf, and enjoyed bonding over the tournament with his fellow Penn Staters in the locker room.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Misa and many others, Jack Hughes netted the overtime winner for the United States, taking down Canada in overtime and securing a golden, 2-1 victory in Milan for the red, white, and blue.<\/p>\n
Despite the mixed reaction to the outcome of both jubilation and heartbreak, everyone could agree that watching the best in the world go at it is great for the sport and the group\u2019s morale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great game. It was one of the best games I\u2019ve ever watched,\u201d Shea Van Olm said. \u201cSome guys were up for it, and some guys weren\u2019t, but I think the majority of guys were watching it together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kevin Reidler was one of the guys who didn\u2019t bother turning it on, with the Swede representing the lone European player on Penn State\u2019s roster this season. Sweden was bounced by the United States in the quarterfinal round of the Olympic playoff.<\/p>\n
Guy Gadowsky spent most of the Olympics preparing his team for a crucial stretch of the season, so he wasn\u2019t able to watch as much of the tournament as he would have liked. That being said, it was difficult for him to resist tuning into the gold medal game.<\/p>\n
Although Gadowsky is an Edmonton, Canada, native, most of his family is American. Earlier this season, he had the honor of representing the U.S. Collegiate Selects team, a group made up of the best NCAA hockey players stemming from all national origins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While he was unclear where his rooting interest lay \u2014 though one can presume he sided with Team Canada \u2013 Gadowsky could not deny the significance of the moment for Team U.S.A. and the sport of hockey in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the story of it, 46 years later,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw in the movie [Miracle] that Jack Hughes\u2019 name was one of the names cut. That\u2019s incredible. You look at things like that, it was really cool to watch. And I think it\u2019s great for U.S. hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Penn State men\u2019s hockey has Free Bird running through its veins or perhaps maple syrup, the Olympics gave everybody a chance to connect, escape, and become a fan again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team aims to close out the season strong and secure a berth in the NCAA tournament, so these past two weeks have been a much-needed distraction from the grind of the Big Ten schedule.<\/p>\n
\t\t<\/p>\n
Jamie is a third-year statistics student from Chappaqua, NY. He loves to swim and is a member of the club team here at Penn State. Jamie is also in the Schreyer Honors College, and wishes there was an advanced course in college football fandom (scored 118\/133 on the mascot quiz). He\u2019s an avid ping-pong player, dairy lover, and has met two U.S. Presidents. If you have anything to share, or want to debate the AP Poll with someone, email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or reach out on instagram @jamie.ly3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International play never fails to bring out the competitive side of both hockey fans and players. When teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[25742,2144,3542,35747,2145,14636,5,2752,1210,4834,15213,15211,2602,2146,2147,2149,4765,9671,2150,15557,27600,17278,3037,3255,31137,1309,422,1581],"class_list":{"0":"post-474825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-2026-olympic-games","9":"tag-big-ten","10":"tag-canada-hockey","11":"tag-dane-dowiak","12":"tag-guy-gadowsky","13":"tag-happy-valley","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-hockey-canada","16":"tag-luke-misa","17":"tag-mens-hockey","18":"tag-milan","19":"tag-milano-cortina","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-onward-state","22":"tag-penn-state","23":"tag-penn-state-hockey","24":"tag-penn-state-mens-hockey","25":"tag-penn-state-womens-hockey","26":"tag-psu","27":"tag-shea-van-olm","28":"tag-spengler-cup","29":"tag-state-college","30":"tag-team-canada","31":"tag-team-usa","32":"tag-tessa-janecke","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-usa-hockey","35":"tag-womens-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116142024638630327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}