West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium will host hockey for the first time, as PSU’s women’s team will host Robert Morris and the men will play the Spartans in a Jan. 31 double-header.
Penn State’s Beaver Stadium is no stranger to sellouts — or “White Outs,” for that matter — but while the second-ranked Nittany Lions football team kicks off its season Saturday by hosting Nevada, Happy Valley will turn into “Hockey Valley” for a weekend in January.
On Friday, Penn State announced that it will host a doubleheader of outdoor hockey games on Jan. 31 at the school’s legendary football stadium.
The men’s hockey program, which likely will enter the season ranked No. 1 in the country after the addition of freshman phenom Gavin McKenna, will host Michigan State and Flyers prospects Porter Martone and Shane Vansaghi. The women’s team will play Robert Morris on the same day. Additional information regarding tickets will be announced later this fall.
“This is a historic moment for Penn State Hockey, our fans and the entire Penn State community,” said athletic director Patrick Kraft in a news release.
“To bring the excitement of college hockey to Beaver Stadium is truly special. Having our men’s program face a premier Big Ten opponent in Michigan State and our women’s program face Robert Morris on this stage reflects the incredible growth and national profile of Penn State Hockey and provides an unforgettable experience for our student-athletes, alumni, and fans. We can’t wait to see Hockey Valley come alive in Beaver Stadium.”
» READ MORE: Does Penn State’s Frozen Four berth mean the hockey program has arrived?
The games will be the first hockey games held at Beaver Stadium, which can seat more than 106,000 people. The games could threaten the record for the biggest crowd for an outdoor hockey game in North America, too. That Guinness World Record belongs to Michigan’s “Big House,” which hosted 104,173 people for a 2010 game between the Wolverines and Spartans. (Michigan sold more than 113,000 tickets for the game, but the official number reflects the number of scanned tickets at the gate.)
Penn State, which began playing Division I hockey only in 2012-13, has long wanted to host an NHL game at the venue, but it was believed that the infrastructure could not support such an event. That consideration is no longer an obstacle with Beaver Stadium in the early phases of a $700 million revitalization. These games could signal the school’s renewed interest to the league.
“By making these renovations, Beaver Stadium would be one of the only multiuse entertainment facilities at this scale between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,” Kraft said last year. “The enhancements to Beaver Stadium will create significant new revenue and increase philanthropy opportunities that will allow us to reinvest funds into all of our student-athletes and allow athletics to continue to be self-supporting. …
“The opportunity to host nonfootball activities and large-scale events at Beaver Stadium will bring additional economic growth year-round,” Kraft said.
Keystone State rivals in the Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins seem like a natural fit for a potential future matchup at Beaver Stadium. The teams have locked horns twice in outdoor games before: in 2017 at what was then known as Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and in 2019 at Lincoln Financial Field.
When asked last year about future plans for an outdoor game at Beaver Stadium, Steve Mayer, president of NHL content and events, told ESPN that the league “would love to talk at some point about Penn State” as a potential host.
Before that, the collegians will break the ice at Beaver Stadium on Jan. 31. They will do so with a matchup between two of the country’s top teams in Penn State and Michigan State, not to mention the two most-heralded incoming freshmen in McKenna and Martone. Both players’ presence in college hockey comes after a landmark agreement between the NCAA and Canadian Hockey League that granted eligibility for players who played junior hockey north of the border.
» READ MORE: Penn State hockey coach Guy Gadowsky on landing top NHL prospect Gavin McKenna: ‘This is a huge thing’
After making the Frozen Four last season for the first time, Penn State’s men will enter this season with national title designs. In addition to the much-publicized arrival of McKenna, the consensus projected No. 1 overall pick in next June’s NHL draft, the Nittany Lions return All-American forward and Nashville Predators draft pick Aiden Fink.
That tandem will be joined by a loaded incoming class featuring NHL draftees Jackson Smith (Columbus), Luke Misa (Calgary), Nolan Collins (Penguins), and goalie Kevin Reidler (Ottawa), as well as Army transfer Mac Gadowsky. Like Fink, Gadowsky, the son of head coach Guy Gadowsky, was a top-10 finalist last season for the Hobey Baker Award given to the best player in college hockey.
“Our team and so many Penn Staters are extremely excited about this game in Beaver Stadium,” the elder Gadowsky in the release. “It has been consistently asked of me since I arrived at Penn State, and I want to send thanks to Coach [James] Franklin for sharing his home with us, as well as Dr. Pat Kraft, Vinnie James, and the entire Penn State Athletics Department for making it happen. We can’t wait to take the field!”
The women’s team is also coming off a banner year, as the Nittany Lions won a program-record 31 games and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Expectations remain high, as Tessa Janecke, a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award for the top women’s player, returns after setting the school’s career scoring mark with 153 points.
“We want to thank Dr. Kraft for continuing to expand the goalposts, or in this case, eliminate them, so we can have an outdoor game at Beaver Stadium,” said women’s coach Jeff Kampersal.
While the announcement represents huge news for alumni and Penn State fans around the state, the presence of Martone and Vansaghi in the visiting dressing room will pique Flyers fans’ interest most.
Martone, the No. 6 overall pick in June’s draft and the organization’s top prospect, likely is one and done with the Spartans and projects to be in the NHL in 2026-27. Vansaghi, a second-rounder this year, also ranks among the organization’s top-20 prospects and will be entering his sophomore season in East Lansing.
In addition to a spectacle, the game will serve as the closest trip for Flyers fans looking to get an up-close look at the team’s future. Exactly how up-close is relative, given that 100,000-plus are expected to attend.
» READ MORE: Flyers’ Porter Martone going to Michigan State could be the best outcome for all involved
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