While the season is still young, the Nittany Lions’ hot start hasn’t gone unnoticed as Penn State cracked the USCHO.com rankings for the first time this season, coming in at No. 20.
The Nittany Lions received 69 points from the 50-voter panel to earn the program’s third ever ranking.
Penn State sits at 7-2-3 on the year currently early in its fourth season of Division I hockey. The Nittany Lions have received votes in the USCHO.com poll all year but had yet to crack into the poll officially. Penn State’s current five-game unbeaten streak helped vault the team to a program-best start over the opening 12 games of the year. Penn State opened a successful 2014-15 campaign with a 7-4-3 mark.
The Nittany Lions have returned home from a long weekend series in Alaska, defeating UAA 5-2 on Friday and tying 1-1 Saturday evening. Against the current USCHO.com Top 20, Penn State is 1-2-1 after splitting with No. 18 Notre Dame and tying and losing to No. 14 St. Lawrence.
Perhaps most importantly Penn State sits No. 18 in the Pairwise rankings, the college hockey equivalent of the now defunct BCS system in college football. While the Pairwise poll technically is not the defining selection criteria for the postseason the Pairwise is used to select the final 10 teams in a 16 team postseason once all automatic bids are accounted for.
The Nittany Lions return to action on Sunday afternoon at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, home of the Flyers, to face Vermont in the fourth annual Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff. Opening faceoff is slated for 1 p.m.
PSU’s All-Time USCHO.com Rankings
Dec. 15, 2015: No. 20
Feb. 9, 2015: No. 19
Nov. 23, 2015: No. 20
