Penn State Women’s Hockey Faces Uncertain NCAA Tournament Future Following 3-2 Loss to Syracuse

Penn State women’s hockey fell 3-2 to Syracuse on Friday afternoon in the CHA Tournament semifinals, setting up an uncertain weekend for the program coming off a historic regular season.

The Nittany Lions fell behind 3-0 after two periods, managing two goals in the third period but Penn State was unable to find the tying goal, losing for second-straight game to close out the year. The Nittany Lions had split the final regular season series of the year with a 3-2 overtime loss to Mercyhurst last weekend.

While Penn State finds itself at 16-3-2 following the conclusion of its season, an objectively weak CHA conference will now send at-least one team to the NCAA Tournament as a byproduct of the conference’s automatic bid given to its tournament winner. In turn Penn State will have to be selected to the eight team postseason field as an at-large bid.

The CHA hasn’t sent an at-large team to the NCAA Tournament since the conference received an automatic bid in 2014-15.

Nate Wells, respected bracketologist had Penn State in the tournament as the lowest seed prior to the Nittany Lions’ loss on Friday.

The selection committee will announce the tournament field on Sunday.