Penn State’s Jimmy Dowd Jr. looks to follow in his father’s footsteps as he chases an NCAA hockey title

ALLENTOWN, PA. — Penn State junior defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr. carries more than just his father’s name. He’ll also represent his father’s legacy of homegrown New Jersey hockey talent in the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

That father is Jim Dowd Sr., who became the second-ever New Jersey high school hockey player to make it to the NHL when he debuted for the New Jersey Devils during the 1991-92 season. Dowd, who played 728 games for 10 NHL teams, spent the 2007-08 season, the last of his career, with the Flyers.

“I’ve been telling people for 30 years now, there’s good hockey players in this area. Now they’re starting to listen,” the elder Dowd said. “When I grew up, maybe there were 10 rinks [in New Jersey] or something like that.”

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Following a 17-year NHL career, which included winning the Stanley Cup in 1994-95 with the Devils (Dowd scored the game-winning goal in Game 2 of the Finals), and that’s changed now. New Jersey has grown into a hockey hotbed, and Dowd’s New Jersey-raised sons are living proof.

“He’s a resource for so many people in New Jersey,” Jimmy Dowd said. “Me and my little brother help him run [hockey] clinics, and just to see how much people look up to him, and even look up to me and my brother now with what we’re doing, it’s really special.”

This season, the younger Dowd has helped lead Penn State to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018. He’ll take the lessons he learned from his father into the Nittany Lions’ hunt for their first-ever Frozen Four appearance.

Dowd Jr. and his brother Anthony, who is set to play at Arizona State next season, were both coached by their dad throughout youth hockey.

“[My sons] never left New Jersey [to play hockey]. It’s just in my blood,” Dowd said. “I wouldn’t have traded those years for anything. For no money in the world.”

Jimmy Dowd, who grew up in Point Pleasant Brach, was around 7 when his father played for the Flyers, and he has fond memories growing up around NHL rinks.

“We would always go to the games, and I’d play mini-sticks with [Danny Brière’s] kids [Kimmo Timonen’s] kids,” Dowd said. “We would go in the locker room after with them, and hang out in there, and just observe. I was so young, so it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, like this is the craziest thing ever.’ Just seeing all these guys and what they do.”

The younger Dowd took a different route from his father with regard to his position. Jim Dowd was a center known for his face-off proficiency — he won 51.1% of his draws for his career. Jimmy Dowd, on the other hand, is a defenseman.

He came into it by accident. He started out at center, but his peewee team had a short bench one game, so Dowd moved his son to the blue line to fill in. The younger Dowd took to the new position immediately — even recording a hat trick — and decided to stick with it.

“I just loved seeing the game from the back end, seeing the game develop in front of me and being able to skate with the puck and have all that open ice, and then be creative from the blue line,” Dowd said. “I just fell in love with defense, and I love stopping guys. And then I also love just getting in the rush and joining the offense.”

Dowd still is an offensive threat from the blue line, as his 17 points this year are tied for the most among Penn State defensemen.

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Penn State, seeded second in the Allentown regional, will first have to get past No. 3 seed Michigan Tech at 5 p.m. on Friday (ESPNU/ESPN+). The winner of that matchup will move on to face the Michigan-Colgate winner, with a berth in the Frozen Four, which will be held April 6-8 in Tampa, Fla., on the line.

This weekend may be the first appearance for Penn State in the NCAA Tournament in five years, but Dowd Jr. already has championship experience he can lean on. Before playing for the Nittany Lions, he spent two seasons in the USHL with the Chicago Steel and went to the Clark Cup Finals in 2019.

Oh, and if he has any questions he can always ask his father, who in addition to being one of the most accomplished college hockey players of all time, won an NCAA championship in 1988 with Lake Superior State.

But Dowd probably won’t need much advice, because he already knows what his father will say. It’s the same thing he’s been saying for his son’s entire hockey career, from peewee to now the national stage — to have fun.

“Every level, it’s all the same,” Jimmy Dowd said. “It’s all hockey. It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life, and he always just reminds me, just work as hard as you can, and have fun. Those are the two most important things. And if you do that all the time, things usually work out.”