Penn State men’s hockey will be playing its first outdoor game in program history Jan. 3.
Not only is it outdoors, it will be in one of the most historic venues in North American sports: Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
Penn State set for its first-ever outdoor game with a New Year’s clash against Notre Dame at Wrigley Field as part of 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒛𝒆𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔: 𝑩𝒊𝒈 𝑻𝒆𝒏 𝑯𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 🏒⚾️🏟️#WeAre #HockeyValley
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— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) August 15, 2024
Penn State’s opponent will be Big Ten foe Notre Dame, meaning coach Guy Gadowsky’s squad will likely be going into a partisan crowd for the visitors.
This game will be one of four games in The Frozen Confines: Big Ten Hockey Series. Penn State-Notre Dame will be part of a Friday doubleheader which also features a rivalry game between Ohio State and Michigan. Women’s hockey will take center stage the next day, with Ohio State taking on Wisconsin. Then, Wisconsin’s men’s team will take on Michigan State.
Although Penn State playing in Wrigley Field will excite fans, some will wonder why Penn State isn’t playing hockey in Beaver Stadium, and if and when that will take place.
In an exclusive interview with Ben Jones of StatCollege.com in June 2023, AD Pat Kraft makes it clear that he’s in favor of outdoor hockey in Happy Valley.
“Oh, absolutely. I think it’d be amazing in Beaver Stadium,” Kraft said. “If the NHL called me today, I’d be like, Yep, let’s go. I think number one, it would be very cool. I think it’d be great for the NHL, I think it’d be great happy valley and for our fans. I think there’s ways to figure out how our teams could play out there, our hockey culture is really strong. But from a Penn State perspective, we’re all in. We’re still trying to get our arms around what all that entails, right? You’ve got to have all the amenities to do that and winterization will help but yeah, we we’d be very excited to do that with the NHL.”
Game times for Friday and Saturday are set for 4 and 7:30, with the order of games set to be announced later. All four games will be on the Big Ten Network. Wrigley Field will sell and issue all of the tickets, issuing them through the MLB Ballpark App.
