Campus Ice: Penn State walks into the Ice Breaker 194 points light

Penn State is the most interesting team in college hockey this weekend, and it has nothing to do with who's on the roster. It's about who isn't. I still think the Nittany Lions are a tournament team. I also think they lose Friday.

The number: 14.6. That's Gavin McKenna's average ice time through four games with Toronto, seventh among Maple Leafs forwards, per NHL data. He went three games without a point, then had a goal and an assist against Nashville on Tuesday. Four games is a tiny sample. It's also four more than he'll play in State College this year.

McKenna led the Big Ten with 51 points as a freshman. Add Aiden Fink, Charlie Cerrato, Matt DiMarsico and JJ Wiebusch, who's at Wisconsin now, and Penn State lost 66 goals and 194 points. The players who came back had 140 of last season's 384 points. In most barns, that's a rebuild.

Here's why I'm not selling. Josh Fleming set a program record with a .924 save percentage as a freshman. Jackson Smith scored 11 goals from the blue line, a school record for a defenseman. Justin Poirier arrives from Maine with 18 goals in 27 games.

Guy Gadowsky called the plan "scoring by committee." A committee with that goalie can win a lot of 3-2 games.

Weekend slate

1. No. 17 Penn State at No. 16 UConn, Friday, 7 p.m. ET. The Ice Breaker turns 30 this year and has never been played in Connecticut until now. UConn and Sacred Heart share hosting duties in two rinks that both opened in 2023. Bowling Green fills out the field, and the visitors swap buildings Saturday.

Penn State has never played in this event. It's 2-2-1 all-time against the Huskies and won the last one, 2-1, in the 2025 Allentown regional final. The matchup card has the rest. My call: UConn on Friday, Penn State over Sacred Heart on Saturday, and a split that says the committee works.

2. No. 7 Wisconsin at No. 19 Minnesota State, Friday and Saturday. Rivalry file: Mike Hastings coached the Mavericks from 2012 to 2023. He went 299-109-25 there, with six WCHA regular-season titles and two Frozen Fours. Now he brings last spring's national runner-up into his old building.

These two tied twice in Madison last October. Somebody wins one this time. I'll take Wisconsin on Friday and the Mavericks on Saturday, because a sweep of that program in that rink would surprise me.

3. No. 6 Quinnipiac at Maine, Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. ET. The Bobcats scored 16 goals last weekend, their second-most in a weekend since 2000. Seventeen different players had a point. Ethan Wyttenbach, last season's national scoring champion, had four of his own.

Alfond is a different test than two home games. Maine is 1-1, unranked, and playing without Poirier, the same Poirier now wearing blue and white. Quinnipiac wins Friday. Saturday is the one I'd watch.

4. No. 12 Michigan Tech at St. Cloud State, Friday and Saturday. Tech jumped seven spots after sweeping Minnesota for the first time since January 2005. Matthew Van Blaricom scored three times in the two games.

This is the trap: a road trip one week after the big one. A split would be a good weekend.

What the new poll did

Denver kept the top spot with 39 of 50 first-place votes. The Pioneers also own the longest unbeaten run in the country at 19 games, 15 of them straight wins.

Colorado College came in at No. 15 after sending UMass home 0-2. UMass fell from 10th to 18th. Minnesota fell from 14th to 20th. An 0-2 weekend in October is expensive, and I like that the voters charged full price.

NPI watch: Don't look yet. Nine teams are tied for first at 57.14, and one of them is Maryville, which just played its first Division I game. The math needs about a month before it means anything.

What matters now is banking wins outside your league. Those are the games that connect the conferences when the NPI sorts the bubble in March. Saturday's whole board is nonconference, so every one of them matters.

Around the rinks

Western Michigan opens its final season at Lawson Ice Arena tonight against Ferris State. The old barn opened in 1974 and gets 17 home dates for its farewell tour. Go if you can.

Brandon Naurato at Michigan and Jay Pandolfo at Boston University each won their 100th game as a head coach last weekend. Two blue-blood benches, same milestone, same week.

No. 3 Michigan State finally plays a game that counts, hosting Northern Michigan on Friday and Sunday. North Dakota and Bemidji State trade buildings, which gives Grand Forks a look at Tom Serratore in his last season.

Penn State's year won't be decided in Storrs. But by Saturday night we'll know if "committee" is a plan or a hope. I say plan.