PHILADELPHIA, Pa – In five short years, the Penn State hockey program has gone from the new kids on the block to the kings of Big Ten hockey. Who would have thunk it. On Saturday afternoon, the Nittany Lions will begin their quest to become the kings of college hockey when they take on Union College in round one of the Frozen Four Tournament. The scary part in all this is that PSU just might have a shot at winning the men’s Division I title. 
The problem for the Lions is they are in the same bracket as the number one ranked team in the country, the Denver Pioneers but in college hockey there is no such thing as a given. Denver will have to get past Michigan Tech first before a matchup with PSU can even become a conversation piece.
Still, the very thought of Penn State in the Frozen Four is exciting. Their college football program is back to being one of the top programs in the nation once again but this is something so off the charts it is hard to get one’s head wrapped around the very image. Hockey has always been a major fixture of the sports landscape in Pennsylvania, especially at the minor league hockey level thanks in large part to one of the hockey’s oldest franchises, the Hershey Bears from the American Hockey League (AHL).
But in 1967 things really kicked into high gear in PA due to the arrival of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers into the NHL. Pittsburgh use to also have a minor league team called the Hornets going back to 1936 when the AHL use to be known as the International-American Hockey League. That same year Philadelphia had a team called the Ramblers.
At the AHL level the Bears are joined by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins who have been in the league since 1999-2000. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms use to play in Philadelphia before moving to Adirondack, and now reside in Allentown, Pa. The ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, use to be the home of the Johnstown Chiefs. Today the league has the Reading Royals.
Now it’s Happy Valley’s turn to shine. Starting today the NCAA Frozen Four Tournament will begin. The Nittany Lions could have the were-just-happy-to-be-here mentality, but you’d be wrong. At one time this season the Nittany Lions were also the number one ranked team in the country. No one should take them lightly.
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