It is ironic that the Northeast Division No. 2 Div. II Penn State Ice Lions will travel to a state where the average temperature is close to triple that of Pennsylvania right now to play a sport where ice is involved.

The Ice Lions are leaving for sunny California in two weeks after receiving their official bid to compete in the American Collegiate Hockey Association's National Tournament.

"Playing hockey in California during the winter, you can't beat that," Penn State goalie Brian Gratz said.

The ACHA handed out its invitiations this past week after the final voting was completed for each division. Officially, the league breaks its teams into the Northeast, Southeast, Central and West divisions, with the top four teams from each division making it to the tournament.

However, this was not the case with the Northeast and the West.

In the Northeast, the final rankings were No. 1 Stony Brook University, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Siena College, and No. 4 Westfield State. However, due to Westfield State's probationary status, the invitation was instead offered to No. 5 Central Connecticut State.

In the West, it doesn't pay to play in Utah, unless you play for Weber State. That is because of a rule in which the host school, in this case, the University of Southern California, gains an automatic bid. It just so happened that USC was ranked sixth. This caused No. 4 Utah State and No. 5 University of Utah to miss the National Tournament.

In the first part of the tournament, the teams are again reassigned to new pools according to the final rankings, in which each pool contains one seed from each division.

In the Ice Lions' case, they will play in Pool C with Central No. 1 University of Michigan, West No. 3 Weber State, and Southeast No. 4 Liberty University.

With two games remaining this weekend, the focus is somewhat shifting towards the tournament, in particular the game with the University of Michigan.

"Michigan will be the toughest game," defenseman Dave Jones said.

The Wolverines are considered one of the toughest teams in the league, considering that they came out with the No. 1 seed from the Central Division, a division that many consider the toughest. "We are an underdog in that pool," Penn State coach Mo Stroemel said. "The guys have to buckle down and put their minds to getting it done."

The Ice Lions will begin with Weber State first, followed by a game with Liberty, and then finish up with Michigan. The winners of each pool will move on to play in the knock-out phase of the tournament.

The winner of Pool C would play the winner of Pool A, which includes West No. 1 University of Colorado, Southeast No. 2 Indiana University, Central No. 3 Oakland University, and Northeast No. 4 Central Connecticut State.

The games will conclude on March 1, and the Ice Lions will return; that is, if they are willing to come back to the snow-covered "wonderland" known as State College.