Penn State Hockey Faces Tough Regional Bracket in NCAA Tournament

The third-seeded Penn State men’s hockey team has a date set with No. 2 seed Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Penn State earned its second straight NCAA Tournament bid and third in the past four years.

The Nittany Lions will play the Bulldogs at MVP Arena in Albany, New York, in a single-elimination game March 27. The programs will meet for the first time. Faceoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.

Penn State’s region is quite dicey, as it includes No. 1 overall seed Michigan and AHA champion Bentley. According to the NPI rankings, Albany features the No. 1, No. 8, No. 9 and No. 23 teams in the country. The regional winner advances to the Frozen Four, which Penn State made for the first time last season.

Minnesota-Duluth is coming off a 4-3 double-overtime loss in the NCHC championship to Denver, the fifth-best team in the country, according to NPI. The Bulldogs (23-14-1) are best known for the Plante brothers (Max and Zam). Max is fifth in the country in points with 49, while Zam is 11th with 46.

Penn State (21-13-2) ended its Big Ten Tournament run with a 5-2 loss to Michigan, which defeated Ohio State 7-3 on Saturday to claim its 13th conference championship. The Nittany Lions beat Minnesota in the quarterfinals.

Penn State Nittany Lions forward JJ Wiebusch passes the puck during a Big Ten ice hockey game against Michigan State. — Penn State Nittany Lions forward JJ Wiebusch passes the puck during a Big Ten ice hockey game against Michigan State in Beaver Stadium. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Penn State enters the NCAA Tournament with minimal momentum, quite the opposite of last year’s team that made its first Frozen Four. The Nittany Lions are 3-7-2 in their last 12 games, with no wins over ranked opponents.

Penn State center Reese Laubach said after a recent blowout loss to then-No. 11 Wisconsin that the team was “starting to check out.” It was a stark comment from a leader of a team with championship hopes.

“I don't need to say it, but the skill on this team now is light years ahead of the team last year we had, and you guys saw what we did with the team last year, right?” Laubach said after Penn State’s loss to Wisconsin on March 5. “We were one game, one goal really, from playing in the national championship game. So we know we can do it, and we know what it takes. It's just that little bit of hunger to do what the team needs you to do. Start playing for the team, not ourselves.”

The Nittany Lions followed Laubach’s blunt postgame comments with a 1-2 record in their next three games and were outscored 12-10. Both losses came against ranked opponents. Their lone win was against an 11-win Minnesota team that fired its head coach after being eliminated.

However, Penn State has dealt with a plethora of injuries since January and received a much-needed two-week break after its loss to Michigan on March 14. Star center Charlie Cerrato returned for the final three games of the season, which gave a big boost to the Nittany Lions forward group.

Penn State was one of four Big Ten teams to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Michigan Michigan State and Wisconsin all earned a bid. That’s the same number of Big Ten teams that qualified in 2025 (Penn State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State).

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