One of the newest teams in NCAA men's ice hockey is also one of the best. The Nittany Lions play out of the Pegula Ice Arena, which opened in 2013 and seats 6,014. The $88 million facility is named after Kim and Terry Pegula, the principal owners of the Buffalo Bills, the Buffalo Sabres and other professional sports teams, and whose donation helped in the team's move to the NCAA. The team is coached by Guy Gadowsky, who previously coached the Alaska Nanooks and Princeton Tigers before joining Penn State in 2011.

Penn State Nittany Lions Men's Ice Hockey History

While Penn State briefly fielded a men's ice hockey club in 1909-10 and in the 1940s, the modern-day team first took to the ice in 1971 as part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. The team, which was known as the Icers until 2012, dominated club hockey, winning eight ACHA regular-season championships from 1977 to 2010, and seven ACHA tournament championships, in 1984, 1990, 1998 and four straight from 2000 until 2003. With a tradition of excellence firmly established, the push began in 2010 to transition Penn State men's and women's ice hockey to Division I of the NCAA, leading to the construction of the Pegula Arena, and the hiring of Guy Gadowsky to turn the best team in club hockey into a formidable opponent at an even higher level.

The Nittany Lions became a charter member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference in 2013, along with Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio State, and with associate member Notre Dame joining the fold in 2017. The Nittany Lions picked up where they left off in club hockey, winning the Big Ten men's hockey tournament in Detroit in 2017, making two consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division I men's hockey tournament, in 2017 and 2018, and appearing in the Big Ten tournament final in 2019.