Okay, so everybody loves to say that Penn State is a football school. For the most part, that’s correct, but it’s quickly becoming a hockey school as well. With the program off to the best start in its short history, Students and Alumni are flocking to see head coach Guy Gadowsky’s Nittany Lion’s take on regional opponents before conference play begins later this Fall. Currently 5-0-0 to start the 2018-19 campaign, Penn State hopes to continue its previous success of making the NCAA hockey tournament and winning the Big Ten Conference tournament. With the stacked roster it has this year, it’s a real possibility and could be thought of being a disappointing season if they don’t do just that.
Let’s go over so background. After nearly 100 years of being a club team without scholarships, in 2012 the Nittany Lion hockey team joined D-1 NCAA level. This switch was predominantly due to millionaire and Penn State alum Terry Pegula, owner of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, providing over $100,000,000 to build a state-of-the-art arena to house both a men’s and women’s hockey program here in Happy Valley. Little did he or the former Athletic Director Tim Curley know just how fast the men’s program would develop and become a success.
Image courtesy of Penn State Athletics
Just 3 years after rising the D-1 status, in 2015 the team had a winning record and was showing promise as a nationally ranked team, unexpectedly winning the Big Ten Hockey tournament and earning a birth in the NCAA Hockey tournament. Students began to fill Pegula Arena (named after the gracious donor who jump-started the program). The Roar Zone, as the student section was named, has become one of the best in college hockey, making the home games for the Nittany Lions seem almost as powerful and fun as home football games. Having been to multiple games now, I can say the atmosphere is amazing. Pegula arena is a beautiful venue as well.
As I said, this year the program has started undefeated after 5 games and seems stronger than ever before. Goaltender Peyton Jones, along with several NHL-level prospects such as Brandon Biro, Nate Sucese, and Evan Barrett are proving to be forces to be reckoned with. The team is averaging over 3 goals per game and Jones has a .963 save percentage to this point. The skilled roster is capable of doing great things this year, hopefully bringing home another Big Ten Title and maybe making to the NCAA final four or even the National Championship. Yes, this team is that good this year.
This weekend, Penn State takes on Arizona of the PAC-12 conference which will be the Nittany Lions first real test this season. The first game of the weekend series is tonight at Pegula! If your bored and want to try something new or love hockey as much as me, you should definitely buy a ticket (they aren’t very expensive, maybe $15-20). Come and cheer as loud as you can while the football team is in Ann Arbor this Saturday. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
I love Penn State Hockey! I love stating by the glass and doing all the cheers, especially, the cheers that involve making fun of the opposing team’s goalie. I toured the arena before the Princeton Game and learned about the history of the dominant club team years and all the donors that contributed to the construction of the Pegula Arena. It is beautiful and built for longevity. I noticed that Cole Hults is also an NHL prospect for the LA Kings.
Can’t agree more with this. While I love Penn State football, I’m beginning to think that hockey might be my favorite sport here. The environment is certainly much more personal, so you can really make the opposing team feel bad about themselves when they mess up. Likewise, I feel like each person’s support is much more important as it is obviously a much smaller place than Beaver. It helps that they are really good obviously… maybe I’ll see you at games. Season Tickets for hockey was definitely the move. I could definitely see us making a national championship run this year seeing as how we’ve manhandled the last few teams to come into the Peg too.