Photo by Kathy Reed
By Joshua Yoder

STATE COLLEGE – Well, the Nittany Lions are officially out of the NCAA college hockey tournament after being defeated by Boston University by the final score of 3-1 Thursday night.

The Lone goal of the game was scored by Nicholas Degraves with Ben Schoen getting the assist. Goalie Arsenii Sergeev had 30 saves.

But honestly, I want to talk about how far this program has come.

Penn State did not become an official team until the 2012-2013 season. Prior to this, the Nittany Lions were a club team called the Icers and were a part of the American College Hockey Association.

Fun fact, Penn State hockey technically started during the 1909-1910 season although they would only play a couple of games. But then in 1938 Penn State played its first full season and did so until 1944. They also played during the 1946-1947 season before the sport was dropped due to limited facilities.

Hockey did not make its return to Penn State until the Icers joined the ACHA in 1971. From 1971 all the way to 2012, the Icers have won seven ACHA National championships, were runners-up nine times, appeared in 29 ACHA postseason tournaments (including 10 consecutive championship games), won nine conference playoff titles and recorded eight conference regular season championships.

The hockey team became official during the 2012-2013 season and have been building ever since. From then on Penn State has had three players (Casey Bailey, Brandon Biro, Brett Murray) to have reached the NHL level.

The Nittany Lions also have a Big Ten Conference tournament championship in 2017, a Big Ten Conference regular season title in 2020. Have made the NCAA tournament four times, including their first ever Frozen Four appearance this past season.

It truly is incredible to see how far this program has come since the days of the Icers.  In fact, the Women’s program has also made some big straits since the late 90s as the Lady Icers.

The now Lady Lions have won three Conference regular season championships, they have also won the last three Conference tournament championships and have also made the NCAA tournament this past three seasons as well.

So it is fair to say that things may be looking up for hockey here at Penn State.

Congrats to both Penn State hockey programs.

Until Next Time!