Penn State men’s hockey will debut its latest alternative uniforms this weekend as the Nittany Lions take on Notre Dame in a Big Ten series. The Nittany Lions are in a three-way tie with Ohio State and Michigan State for second place in the Big Ten.
Minnesota sits atop the conference with a 10-point lead in the standings. At 17-6-1 on the year, Penn State is currently No. 3 in the PairWise Rankings, a algorithmic rankings system that determines the 16-team field for the NCAA Tournament. If Penn State were to continue its run of solid play, ranked No. 6 in the latest USCHO.com poll, the Nittany Lions would play in the Allentown Regional of this year’s NCAA Tournament as the regional’s host school.
The Nittany Lions would then sit two wins from the program’s first-ever Frozen Four appearance, which is set to take place in Tampa Bay, Florida this season. Penn State has just 10 regular season games remaining. The Nittany Lions host Notre Dame this weekend before a four-game road trip to face Michigan and Ohio State in back-to-back weekends away from Pegula Ice Arena. Penn State will then return to State College to host Minnesota and Wisconsin to close out the year.
Depending on where Penn State finishes in the Big Ten standings, the Nittany Lions could find themselves hosting deep into the Big Ten Tournament prior to finding out their postseason seeding if they were to make the NCAA Tournament. In the meanwhile Penn State will look to continue its winning ways coming off an overtime loss and tie to Michigan State this past weekend in East Lansing.
