A year ago, John Seifarth wasn’t even on the radar in the goaltending depth chart for the Penn State Nittany Lions. Tuesday, he was the starting and winning netminder for the struggling school.
Making his first NCAA Division I start, Seifarth would backstop the Nittany Lions to a 3-2 victory over the Colgate Red Raiders, thus ending Penn State’s six-game, three-week losing streak. Seifarth was making 25 saves to garner his first-ever NCAA victory.
JOHN SEIFARTH COMES OUT VICTORIOUS!! UNBELIEVABLE! #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/xkOIZWjSSx
— Hockey Valley Horizons (@HVHorizonsPSU) November 27, 2024
Majoring in statistics, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Seifarth didn’t have any at this level prior to last weekend. He came to replace junior starter Noah Grannan in a 10-6 loss to the No. 5 Michigan Wolverines. Seifarth stopped eight of 11 shots in his 17 minutes of work.
An injury to junior netminder Arsenii Sergeev was opening the door to Seifarth’s opportunity with the Nittany Lions varsity squad. A junior from Pittsburgh, Seifarth played last season with Penn State’s club hockey team the Penn State Ice Lions of the ACHA. Making 10 appearances, he was posting a 4-6-0 record with a .912 save percentage and a 3.24 goals-against average with one shutout.