Notre Dame is 4-3-0 and coming off a weekend split of Mercyhurst which followed an up-and-down 2-3-0 stretch to open the season including a 3-0 loss in its lone road game so far at RIT three weeks ago. Penn State has now begun conference play against each of the other six Big Ten teams at least once. This marks the first time in Big Ten Conference history that the Nittany Lions and Fighting Irish have opened Big Ten play against each other. Penn State is 3-1-0 all-time when beginning Big Ten play at home and 7-1-0 all-time in those complete series. The Nittany Lions are opening Big Ten play at home for the first time since the 2019-20 season when they swept Wisconsin on Halloween Weekend.
Penn State is 6-4-0 all-time in Big Ten openers with five of those six wins turning into series sweeps including last year at Wisconsin. Notre Dame is 8-4-2 all-time at Pegula Ice Arena with eight of those games being decided by one goal or less and five going into overtime.
This weekend marks the 32nd and 33rd meetings all time with Notre Dame leading the series 19-9-3 including a 10-4-1 mark over the last three seasons even though the teams evenly split the season series last year.