Penn State has been the hottest team in college hockey in 2025, including a 12-1-0 record in its last 13 games. The Nittany Lions have clawed their way back into the NCAA tournament picture entering their final regular season series against Minnesota this weekend.
Playoff Picture
The 16 NCAA tournament bids are awarded to the 6 conference tournament champions and the 10 highest-ranked non-champions. Based on the Pairwise rankings entering this weekend and the probability matrix, the tournament picture looks like this:
NOTE: Predicted conference tournament champions in italics
Locks (4): Boston College, Michigan State, Minnesota, Maine
Safe (6): Western Michigan, Providence, Boston University, Connecticut, Ohio State, Denver
Bubble In (3): Michigan, UMass, UMass-Lowell
Automatic Bids (3): Quinnipiac, Minnesota State, Holy Cross
Bubble Out (2): Penn State, Arizona State
A few things to note here:
- Of the teams outside the projected field, only Penn State and Arizona State have a realistic chance of earning an at-large bid.