Penn State Men’s Hockey: Nittany Lions to Host Maine

Penn State men’s hockey will host the University of Maine at Pegula Ice Arena this fall on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Penn State has yet to announce the home series but Maine released its complete out of conference schedule earlier on Tuesday. Penn State is expected to announce out of conference opponents soon, although the Big Ten schedule is slated to be released later in the summer.

The Nittany Lions have never taken on Black Bears – in the wild or on the ice – although the programs briefly had a link with 2020-21 graduate transfer forward Tim Doherty making the move from Maine to State College for his final collegiate season. Additionally the scheduling of the game in late December is a slight departure from previous seasons that had seen the Nittany Lions take up to a month off as a product of out of conference, Big Ten and academic scheduling. In 2019-20, the Nittany Lions did not play a single contest from December 15th until January 3rd, a scheduling pattern that has generally held true over the years.

On the ice Maine is looking to rebound from a choppy 2020 season in which the Black Bears went 3-11-2 during a COVID-19 impacted season. In 2019-20, much like the Nittany Lions, Maine had a much more successful campaign going 18-11-5. The Black Bears finished fourth in the Hockey East Conference at the conclusion of the season by the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the Hockey East Tournament.

As for the Nittany Lions, they took are looking to bounce back from an up-and-down 2020 season that ended with a 10-12 record after starting the season 0-5. A lengthy COVID-19 related pause in play all but halted the Nittany Lions’ growing momentum in the middle portion of the season.

Penn State has yet to announce any additional out of conference games for the upcoming season aside from an October 30th meeting with North Dakota in Nashville, Tenn. That meeting is a single-game out of conference clash that was previously rescheduled after originally being slated for last year prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately for Penn State fans, that meeting with North Dakota – the No. 2 rated team in the final 2020 PairWise rankings – will take place the same day as Penn State football’s clash against Ohio State in Columbus.

Penn State is expected to play the upcoming sports calendar in front of full capacity crowds.