Five Penn State hockey players made history — and gained fans — at Switzerland’s Spengler Cup

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Imagine filling a roster with 25 of the best Division I hockey players. It almost sounds daunting.

That was the task assigned to Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky, who assumed the same position for the United States Collegiate Selects during their inaugural campaign at the 2025 Spengler Cup.

The Spengler Cup, which began in 1923 and is considered the world’s oldest invitational ice hockey tournament, features six club and national teams from around the world. It was played this year from Dec. 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland, and is annually hosted by local pro team HC Davos.

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“The entire experience was tremendous,” Gadowsky said. “Everybody was curious about how we were going to do. Most [people] thought that we weren’t going to win a game. And the way the team played, the locals in Switzerland really got behind them, and you started to hear ‘USA’ chants when we walked down the street, went to a restaurant, walked into the arena.”

The coach wasn’t exaggerating. As the lone collegiate squad among four professional teams and a fifth composed of Canadian pros, the U.S. Selects were massive underdogs, expected to participate and nothing more.

After an opening-game 3-2 loss to Canada and Flyers farmhand Anthony Richard, those lowly expectations remained. That is, until the U.S. Selects stunned host HC Davos, 5-3, on Dec. 27 in a result that showcased college hockey’s growing talent. HC Davos, which leads Switzerland’s top league, featured several former NHLers, including Filip Zadina, Rasmus Asplund, and former Flyer Brendan Lemieux.

“What we learned is that college hockey is really good,” Gadowsky said. “You’re playing some of the best professional teams in Europe, with 1,000-plus NHL games on their roster. And our guys played with them tooth-and-nail.”

The coach wasn’t the only Penn Stater in Davos. Five Nittany Lions skaters — Aiden Fink, Charlie Cerrato, JJ Wiebusch, Matt DiMarsico, and Guy’s son, Mac Gadowsky — joined their coach at the Spengler Cup. The roster also had a local flair with Flyers prospect Cole Knuble (Notre Dame), Sewell’s Chris Pelosi (Quinipiac), and Philadelphia’s Vinny Borgesi (Northeastern) all making the team.

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Fink and Mac Gadowsky received automatic invitations because they earned All-American honors last season. Guy Gadowsky said he selected the other three, labeled the “behind-the-back boys” for their skilled passing while playing on the same line at Penn State, because when rosters were due in November, they were three of the top six goal scorers in Division I.

Fink, a Nashville Predators draft pick who recently became the fastest Nittany Lion to reach 100 career points, led the U.S. Selects with four goals in Switzerland. His eight points led the entire tournament and earned him recognition on the 97th Spengler Cup All-Star team.

“The experience I had [in Davos] was unforgettable,” said Fink, who tallied two points in the U.S. Selects’ victory over HC Davos. “It was my first experience [in Europe], and it was beautiful. The hockey was great.”

After dropping their first contest, the U.S. Selects rattled off consecutive wins over professional squads. Their second victory was a 5-3 win in the semifinals over HC Sparta Prague, a team in seventh place in the Czech Republic’s top professional league.

The underdogs had conquered two giants. And the Davos locals noticed and rallied behind the 25 college kids as they earned a spot in the tournament’s championship game.

“You’d be walking down the street, and every person would stop you to try to get pictures,” Fink said. “All our merchandise was sold out. [The Davos locals] were super nice to us. It was pretty cool seeing that.”

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Knuble, who faced off against Fink last weekend when Notre Dame visited State College for a Big Ten series, skated alongside the Predators prospect with the U.S. Selects.

The 5-foot-10 forward lauded the local support and labeled the event “a hockey party,” one he said he will remember for the rest of his life.

“The excitement in the town for the tournament was insane,” Knuble said. “I don’t think [the locals] knew anything about college hockey and expected us to not be competitive. But everywhere we went, we were stopped, and people were really curious about where we were from and how we were enjoying our time.”

The Flyers selected Knuble in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL draft. He is the son of former Flyers winger Mike Knuble, who spent five productive seasons with the organization.

Knuble tallied his lone Spengler Cup point in the championship game — a net-front feed to Cornell’s Ryan Walsh to knot the score at 1. But the U.S. Selects lost that game, 6-3, after a third-period surge from HC Davos and fell just short of their ultimate goal.

While they didn’t return with a trophy, they had earned the respect of the hockey world. A team of inexperienced college kids had marched into Switzerland and proved it could hang with some of Europe’s best.

And for that, it was mission accomplished.

“We definitely felt a responsibility as the first college select team [to play in the Spengler Cup],” Knuble said. “Before the tournament, we talked about how we are making an impression on people about what college hockey is, and [we] wanted to prove that this team should be back.”