Midwest Regional at Allentown, Pa.

No. 2 seed Denver (22-9-8) vs. No. 3 Penn State (18-14-5)

5 p.m. Saturday

TV: ESPN3

Series: Denver leads, 1-0, a 6-3 victory in an NCAA regional final last season.

Denver update

The Pioneers captured the NCHC Frozen Face-off title for the first time since 2014, becoming the only team to win it a second time in the process with a 4-1 win against St. Cloud State, which is the top seed in the West Regional. Senior goaltender Tanner Jaillet allowed just two goals in wins vs. SCSU and Minnesota Duluth in the semifinals. Two other encouraging items of note: the Pioneers played lock-down defense for the most part against two highly skilled teams, and they’re starting to get scoring from up and down their lineup. Three of their goals Saturday came from freshmen and a fourth from Dylan Gambrell, while Friday’s tallies in a 3-1 win came from leading scorer Henrik Borgström, Colin Staub and defenseman Adam Plant.

Penn State update

The Nittany Lions have as much to do with Minnesota not making the Tournament as anyone, sweeping the Gophers during the final weekend of Big Ten play, then doing it again in a quarterfinal season. Notre Dame, the East Region’s top seed, then edged PSU, 3-2, in a Big Ten semifinal last weekend. Penn State has nine players with 20 or more points, led by junior forward Andrew Sturtz (40), while sophomore Dennis Smirnov has a team-high 15 goals, and Sturtz and sophomore Nate Sucese have 14 apiece. Sophomore Peyton Jones plays the majority of the games in net.

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