The Nittany Lions represented Pennsylvania State University and were coached by Guy Gadowsky, in his 8th season.

Playing most of their non-conference schedule at home, Penn State rose up the rankings with a hot start to the season.

The team cooled off when their conference schedule began and the Nittany Lions could not find any consistency for several months.

After a rocky start the Nittany Lions overcame Wisconsin in the quarterfinal round, then pulled off an upset over top-ranked Ohio State to set PSU against Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish gained three separate 1-goal leads and they were able to keep their final edge, holding Penn State off in the third period despite a barrage of shots from the Lions' nation-leading offense.