2026 Frozen Four

[Hockeybuckeye]

Well tickets went on sale today and it's general admission seating and isn't that rather odd?
I was in an ICU during the last FF there so was it general admission then as well?

 

[robertearle]

Well tickets went on sale today and it's general admission seating and isn't that rather odd?
I was in an ICU during the last FF there so was it general admission then as well?

The last time, 2022, the internet says the crowds were 1600 for the semis and 2000 for the final. In a building that holds 6000. So the only way GA may become a problem is if Penn State makes the final four (which is a decent possibility.)

 

[Timothy A]

If UW makes it into it FF, too far of a drive for me. Plus after the St. Louis debacle, I doubt I'll ever go to another. Never say never, but if they lose I just can't go into the garage or basement and putz around while my frustrations and sadness burn off.

 

[PSUfan]

Well tickets went on sale today and it's general admission seating and isn't that rather odd?
I was in an ICU during the last FF there so was it general admission then as well?

It was assigned seating in 2022 so I was very surprised it was general admission for 2026. As noted, attendance was not great in 2022 (and they had one side of the arena roped off as they do for PSU women's games) but I am hoping for better attendance in 2026.

Link to buy tickets: https://am.ticketmaster.com/pennstate/buy/26wff

 

[ARM]

... after the St. Louis debacle, I doubt I'll ever go to another. ... if they lose I just can't go into the garage or basement and putz around while my frustrations and sadness burn off.

If you truly want to experience the sport, then you have to do it. I know that you've historically enjoyed the games where the red menace beats the crap out of Little Sisters of the Poor or whatever confection MJ has decided to offer up to the fan base as "competition". And I understand the feeling of watching your team play like utter garbage in a semi on a Friday night in Boston when your flight home isn't until Monday (although I think driving home from Duluth after even a regular-season loss was worse). Even with all that, the feeling of watching your team win a title is worth the risk that you'll suffer through a nightmare instead.

For the good of the sport, let's hope PSU makes it. Who was the most-recent program to make its first FF? I think it was Northeastern, but I haven't been invested enough in the 2020s to say for sure.

 

[Timothy A]

Even with all that, the feeling of watching your team win a title is worth the risk that you'll suffer through a nightmare instead.

IDK....It's in Duluth in 2027. Maybe UW won't even make it to that one with this dominant Sr. class departing.

I don't think I want PSU to make it. I'm not a fan of frozen 4 teams getting a home ice advantage.

 

[Windchill22]

I'm all for home team's making it - What an awesome story hosting team winning it all in front of their fans! Wisco Men '06 for example.

 

[Timothy A]

I'm all for home team's making it - What an awesome story hosting team winning it all in front of their fans! Wisco Men '06 for example.

What !?!?! Winning it all instead UW? EGADS!

 

[BowWowWow]

Who was the most-recent program to make its first FF? I think it was Northeastern, but I haven't been invested enough in the 2020s to say for sure.

Yale in fact was the most recent program to make it to the FF for the first time in 2022, and before that it was Northeastern in 2021. In the past three seasons, all the teams have been before.

Yes, I think that it is worth the trip, for neutral fans too!

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Yale in fact was the most recent program to make it to the FF for the first time in 2022, and before that it was Northeastern in 2021. In the past three seasons, all the teams have been before.

Yes, I think that it is worth the trip, for neutral fans too!

I'm going. Even if I don't work it.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I'm puzzled how fans here think Penn State could win it all? Now I'm not disrespecting Penn State, only stating what I see as the reality of their situation. They play in a weak conference and are good enough to dominate it but not good enough to get out of the basement if they were in the WCHA. They're the best in their conference every year and get the auto seed for the NCAA tournament but have neve advanced beyond the first round. Their AD seems complacent with that level of success so where's the push to elevate the program to be a genuine contender? If the current coach and his staff with all Penn State has to offer can't get their team to the FF then maybe it's time to go in a different direction?
BTW, just to show I'm not biased I feel Ohio State's men's program is at the same juncture.

 

[robertearle]

I'm puzzled how fans here think Penn State could win it all? Now I'm not disrespecting Penn State, only stating what I see as the reality of their situation. They play in a weak conference and are good enough to dominate it but not good enough to get out of the basement if they were in the WCHA. They're the best in their conference every year and get the auto seed for the NCAA tournament but have neve advanced beyond the first round. Their AD seems complacent with that level of success so where's the push to elevate the program to be a genuine contender? If the current coach and her staff with all Penn State has to offer can't get their team to the FF then maybe it's time to go in a different direction?
BTW, just to show I'm not biased I feel Ohio State's men's program is at the same juncture.

The discussion of "hosting team winning" is WAY more abstract than how you're reading it. Nobody is saying "Penn State is going to win".

 

[Lindsay]

I'm puzzled how fans here think Penn State could win it all? Now I'm not disrespecting Penn State, only stating what I see as the reality of their situation. They play in a weak conference and are good enough to dominate it but not good enough to get out of the basement if they were in the WCHA. They're the best in their conference every year and get the auto seed for the NCAA tournament but have neve advanced beyond the first round. Their AD seems complacent with that level of success so where's the push to elevate the program to be a genuine contender? If the current coach and her staff with all Penn State has to offer can't get their team to the FF then maybe it's time to go in a different direction?
BTW, just to show I'm not biased I feel Ohio State's men's program is at the same juncture.

I don’t think they would be in the basement of the wcha. Current coach is a man. Club hoppers hurt the current trajectory. Janecke’s a real one!

 

[BuckyB]

I don’t think they would be in the basement of the wcha. Current coach is a man. Club hoppers hurt the current trajectory. Janecke’s a real one!

Janecke… another falsely anointed one.
Plays in a crap conference against crap teams and yet is not putting up truly eye popping numbers.
She’s good… but for her coach to call her a “Generational” player ??? Please.

 

[Lindsay]

Janecke… another falsely anointed one.
Plays in a crap conference against crap teams and yet is not putting up truly eye popping numbers.
She’s good… but for her coach to call her a “Generational” player ??? Please.

You’d have to ask her coach what he meant by that. I wouldn’t call her generational in the pool of USA players. But for her impact on her college program, and how lucky a coach is to get a player with that impact on a program who stays for 4 years, all while talent bleeds out around them via the transfer portal, I’d call her generational.

She had a nice play last night working in the corner, 2 Canadians on her and she got the puck to Knight who scored.

 

[BuckyB]

You’d have to ask her coach what he meant by that. I wouldn’t call her generational in the pool of USA players. But for her impact on her college program, and how lucky a coach is to get a player with that impact on a program who stays for 4 years, all while talent bleeds out around them via the transfer portal, I’d call her generational.

She had a nice play last night working in the corner, 2 Canadians on her and she got the puck to Knight who scored.

Again… an impact player at that program in that crap conference…
Sure

 

[ZedLeppellin]

Janecke… another falsely anointed one.
Plays in a crap conference against crap teams and yet is not putting up truly eye popping numbers.
She’s good… but for her coach to call her a “Generational” player ??? Please.

Think about it: Tessa Janecke is the only Olympic-level player on her team. She's not surrounded by other players who are at that level, at a program already at or near the top, enjoying a loaded roster. If she wants to win games and elevate the Penn State program, she knows that won't happen by worrying about getting "eye popping numbers" for herself. She doesn't get to play that game. Instead, to win games, she's had to make everyone around her be a better player, too, and she's done that. Take Janecke away and put the best player from Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Ohio State on the Penn State roster, and their numbers wouldn't be eye popping, either. At a program level, she is very much a generational player, and that's probably how Jeff Kampersal meant that.

Janecke has said that she chose Penn State over Wisconsin or Minnesota because she wanted to make a program better than when she got there. That's been her motivation - not gaudy numbers. She's played her game exactly the way she's needed to play it to make the program better, and she's done it with no other Olympic-level players skating alongside her.

 

[BuckyB]

Think about it: Tessa Janecke is the only Olympic-level player on her team. She's not surrounded by other players who are at that level, at a program already at or near the top, enjoying a loaded roster. If she wants to win games and elevate the Penn State program, she knows that won't happen by worrying about getting "eye popping numbers" for herself. She doesn't get to play that game. Instead, to win games, she's had to make everyone around her be a better player, too, and she's done that. Take Janecke away and put the best player from Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Ohio State on the Penn State roster, and their numbers wouldn't be eye popping, either. At a program level, she is very much a generational player, and that's probably how Jeff Kampersal meant that.

Janecke has said that she chose Penn State over Wisconsin or Minnesota because she wanted to make a program better than when she got there. That's been her motivation - not gaudy numbers. She's played her game exactly the way she's needed to play it to make the program better, and she's done it with no other Olympic-level players skating alongside her.

Thank you Mrs. Janecke

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Again… an impact player at that program in that crap conference…
Sure

Remember when Jincy Dunne first commited to Ohio State? Everyone kept asking her why would you, a top prospect, go to a school which hasn't proven anything, when you could go to a MN or WI?

Looking back at that now, seems Jincy had the last laugh.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Thank you Mrs. Janecke

Now you're just being an ass.