Gavin McKenna and the Penn State Nittany Lions begin their quest for a national championship on Friday night as they open the NCAA D1 men’s tournament with a meeting against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.
Watch Penn State battle Minnesota Duluth in the Round of 16 LIVE Friday at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on TSN2, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.
McKenna, who recently retained his spot atop TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button’s March draft rankings, will get his first taste of the NCAA men’s D1 tournament on Friday.
After getting off to a slow start to his Big 10 career, McKenna found his groove in the second half of the season following his time with Team Canada at the World Juniors.
In Penn State’s final 18 games, the former Medicine Hat Tigers star more than doubled his goal total from the first half of the season and averaged just under two points per contest, finishing his freshman campaign with 15 goals and 51 points.
The Whitehorse, Yn. native won the Big 10 scoring title and took home conference player of the year honours, before being named as one of 10 candidates for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the top player in college hockey.
“He couldn’t have had the second half without the first half,” Button said of McKenna’s first season in college hockey. “The first half was the on-ice adjustment, the growing, the challenges of so many different things in the college game.
“Being a student-athlete, his off-ice and during-the-week training, the challenges of playing against bigger, stronger players. He had never had that. He wasn’t looking for an easy path. He was looking for the best development path.”
McKenna’s strong second half has gone a long way to cementing his place as the favourite for the No. 1 selection in this year’s NHL Entry Draft, but before that day comes he will look to lead Penn State to their second Frozen Four appearance in school history.
The Nittany Lions have qualified for the national tournament three times over the past four years, but have made the Frozen Four just once coming last season, where they were bounced by Boston University in the semifinals.
Minnesota Duluth makes their first appearance in the Division 1 playoffs since 2022 as they look to get back to the program’s glory days in which they won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
The Bulldogs are led by Detroit Red Wings prospect Max Plante, who was named as a Hobey Baker candidate alongside McKenna this year.
The winner of Friday’s game will move onto the Regional Final, where they will face either the top-seeded Michigan Wolverines or the No. 20 Bentley Falcons.
