Penn State left winger Gavin McKenna, front left, carries the puck in front of Arizona State Bennett Schimek (23) during the second period of an NCAA college hockey game, Oct. 3, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. Associated Press file photo

UNIVERSITY PARK — On Sunday evening inside the Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex, the 10th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lion ice hockey team found out its postseason fate as it earned a fifth NCAA Tournament berth in the past 10 seasons and its second-straight and third in the past four years.

The Nittany Lions will travel to the Albany Regional this weekend in hopes of advancing to Las Vegas for the 2026 Frozen Four.

This marks the first time since their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in Cincinnati in 2017 that the Nittany Lions will compete outside of Allentown’s PPL Center as Penn State is not one of the four host institutions this year.

Penn State has competed in the Allentown Regional in each of its past three tournament trips in 2018, 2023 and 2025.

Penn State earned an at-large bid for this season’s tournament and are a No. 3 seed for the third time after serving as the No. 4 seed last season and the No. 2 seed in 2023.

The Nittany Lions will battle No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth in a No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup at 9 p.m. on Friday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

The earlier matchup in the regional is top-seeded Michigan vs. Bentley at 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU. The championship game will pit the two winners against each other on Sunday with the time and network to be determined.

This marks the first-ever meeting between the Nittany Lions and Bulldogs and is only the fifth time Penn State will face an opponent from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and the first since a 6-4 victory over North Dakota on Oct. 30, 2021, as part of the Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Nashville, Tennessee.

Penn State is just 1-3-0 all-time against the NCHC including an 0-2 mark in the NCAA Tournament with back-to-back losses to Denver in 2017 and 2018.