Next up for Penn State’s Olympic gold medal winner Tessa Janecke: The NCAA women’s hockey tournament
The point-producing Janecke played more of a supporting role for the U.S. team. She and the Nittany Lions will host an NCAA regional this week.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — In January, Penn State forward Tessa Janecke said getting selected to the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team was always her dream.
A month later, the Penn State star was living out her dream in Milan, surrounded by women’s hockey icons she grew up watching. And the experience did not disappoint.
The U.S. women’s team went 7-0 and outscored its opponents 33-2 en route to the gold medal — the team’s first since 2018. The perfect run ended with a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada behind a slick move and finish by Megan Keller.
Janecke recorded five assists but no goals in the tournament, an unusual stat line for a prolific goal scorer who has tallied 23 goals and 22 assists for the Nittany Lions this season.
The 5-foot-8 forward went from Penn State’s star player one week to a fourth-line forward in Milan the next. She was asked to play a different role on the U.S. Olympic squad, a more passive and team-first approach that she took in stride.
“You have to put your own ego aside and play for what’s best for the team,” said Janecke, an Illinois native. “It’s a lot easier to score at [the college] level, but my role [at the Olympics] was to make the people I was playing with better. I would have loved to get a goal, but it doesn’t matter because you come home with a gold medal.”
» READ MORE: Johnny Gaudreau’s dream was to be an Olympian. His family lived it for him, in a moment fit for a ‘movie.’
Janecke didn’t record a point in the gold medal game, but she was on the ice for both U.S. goals.
With the U.S. trailing 1-0 with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, the young forward won a loose puck along the boards and fed it to the point, which started a series of passes that led to Hilary Knight’s game-tying goal. Without Janecke winning that loose puck, Canada may have won the game.
Her gritty play helped the U.S. win gold, and Jeff Kampersal, her head coach at Penn State, could not have been prouder of his star player.
“I’m proud that I recruited [Tessa]. That’s about it,” Kampersal said. “She’s done all the work. She is a really driven competitor, and she works extremely hard all the time. I felt like she had a good surge, whatever line she was on, whatever shift. … It was awesome to see her on the ice and be a plus-2 in the gold medal game.”
Janecke still has high-stakes hockey to play this month in collegiate competition, as her Nittany Lions have won a program-record 32 games ahead of another trip to the NCAA Tournament.
No matter what happens in the postseason, Penn State’s senior captain will go down as the greatest player in program history. Janecke will depart as Penn State’s all-time leader in points (198) and assists (112).
Playing alongside the game’s top skaters at the highest level of competition polished Janecke’s game, which is why she believes her best hockey is ahead.
“It’s a big jump, so just realizing how many more games you have [at Penn State], and just being grateful to play with this group,” Janecke said. “I feel like when you come back from something like that, you definitely see more openings and the game slows down for you. So I had a lot of opportunities today.”
Janecke wasn’t the only Nittany Lions skater who participated in the Olympics. Sophomore forward Nicole Hall represented Sweden, which finished in fourth place, and freshman forward Matilde Fantin played for Italy.
The Olympic trio was honored at Pegula Ice Arena before Thursday’s men’s game between No. 6 Penn State and No. 11 Wisconsin. Two days later in the same building, the Nittany Lions women won their fourth straight Atlantic Hockey America championship with a 3-2 victory over Mercyhurst.
Up next: the NCAA Tournament. The third-seeded Lions (32-5) will host an NCAA regional this week. UConn and Princeton will play in the regional semifinal on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Pegula Ice Arena, with the winner facing Penn State on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Nittany Lions also will host the women’s Frozen Four.
“[Winning the conference] is something that we wanted to accomplish, and we’re super happy. But we have our sights on the next goal,” Kampersal said. “Our first goal was to win the league in the regular season, which isn’t easy. [Winning the AHA] was the second goal. And trying to win a national championship in our home rink is our third goal.”