Following back-to-back home series in Happy Valley, No. 15 Penn State will travel to Yost Ice Arena to play the Michigan Wolverines Thursday night before traveling to New York City for the conclusion of the series at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.
This will not be the Nittany Lions' first time competing under New York's bright lights, though. The Blue and White, similarly enough, faced off against Michigan in Madison Square Garden during the 2015-2016 season and fell by a 6-3 score.
"I think with New York City – Madison Square Garden, it doesn't get much better than that," said junior goaltender Peyton Jones, who has previously played in MSG. "It's a fun arena to play in, so I think for us it's just another opportunity to come out and play our game and get a win."
"Madison Square Garden is one of the most famous arenas in the world, so obviously it's awesome we get to play there," added graduate student Ludvig Larsson, who never got the chance to play in a professional arena during his four years at Merrimack.
Head coach Guy Gadowsky talked about the fond memories he had from the program's first trip to New York for the Big Ten's annual B1G Super Saturday three years ago.
"I remember walking around the arena prior to the game and seeing it was full of blue and white everywhere on the streets, and in the arena, we saw the same thing. I'm always incredibly impressed by Penn Staters everywhere we go and New York is certainly no exception."
Despite all the hype leading up to the program's third trip to the Big Apple, Penn State must first take care of business in Ann Arbor in game one of the series.
"We're not talking at all about MSG or even the logistics," said Gadowsky, who emphasized to his team the importance of not getting ahead of themselves. "We're talking about the opportunity Thursday night (in Yost Arena). Period."
Another challenge faced by the Blue and White in this upcoming week is the change in their travel and logistical schedule. In what is very unusual in the college hockey schedule, the team will leave State College Wednesday afternoon as opposed to Thursday afternoon as they lace up their skates Thursday night and after travel to New York City, they have a full day of rest on Friday before a 7:00 p.m. puck drop on Saturday.
When asked if the change in schedule for this week's series stood as a challenge or hindrance, Jones simply shook it off.
"A lot of guys played Juniors and I know when I played in Lincoln, Nebraska we would bus 18 hours to the Eastern Conference and play a game and get on a bus and bus eight hours to play a game the next night," Jones said. "(Tough travel schedules) is a part of life and it's a part of the game."
Guy echoed this message, saying that despite all the logistic and practice changes, being able play in New York is well worth it.
"Instead of the usual day off, we're going to practice through it. Other than that, things remain mostly the same. The biggest adjustment is with Cam Davidson (the Assistant Director of Performance Enhancement) and how he staggers the workouts.
"Those (concerns) are minor compared to the opportunity to play at Madison Square Garden. It's a great honor and opportunity. It's pretty much business as usual."
This series will be the third and fourth meetings between the Nittany Lions and Wolverines this season after they split the first two games at Pegula back in November.
While the boys in blue won the series opener 6-4, Penn State took game two of the series by a score of 7-6 following three goals from sophomore forward Evan Barratt and three assists by senior defenseman Kevin Kerr.
Puck drop for game one of the series is at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday as the two teams will compete at Yost Ice Arena with Big Ten standing implications on the line.
