Ice Hockey: Men's
Men’s ice hockey schedule released
The Greenburg Ice Pavilion will be busy with Penn State men’s hockey games on Friday and Saturday nights once again. However, there will be one major difference.
The schedule for the NCAA Division-I Nittany Lions was released Tuesday as Penn State will play begin its first varsity season since 1947 on Oct. 12 at the Ice Pavilion against American International.
Penn State will make four trips to neutral sights in Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barre, and Rochester, NY in addition to the Pittsburgh College Hockey Invitational that was announced last week.
The Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, home of the American Hockey League’s Scranton Wilkes-Barre Penguins, to take on American International on Oct. 13.
The Blue Cross Arena in Rochester will welcome Penn State as they face off against the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Wells Fargo Center, home of the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers, will host Penn State and Vermont on Jan. 19.
Despite Penn State being an independent for the 2012-13 season, the Nittany Lions will face two fellow Big Ten schools. They will visit the Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing, Mich. for a two-game series on Jan. 26-27. The Lions will also travel to Madison to take on Wisconsin on Feb. 24-25 to end the season.
The schedule includes eight exhibition games at the Ice Pavilion. The Nittany Lions will play six exhibition games against ACHA opponents including archrival Ohio. The other two exhibitions will be against the United States Under-18 National Team on Jan. 11-12.
Penn State will also play four games against NCAA Division-III teams. The Nittany Lions will face Buffalo State twice and will have rematches against Neumann and Fredonia State. The Icers ACHA club team beat Fredonia State 5-4 at home last season while they were defeated 6-3 by Neumann outdoors at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as part of the 2012 Winter Classic.
Head coach Guy Gadowski said the schedule will be a challenge.
"This brings us one step closer to dropping the puck on Penn State's first NCAA Division I season," Gadowsky said. "We've been able to schedule some marquee matchups both home and on the road that will help provide a measuring stick for the program moving forward."
The full schedule can be found here.