This weekend, Penn State men’s hockey will travel to take on Ohio State in Columbus, and it will serve as the Nittany Lions’ final series of the regular season.

With the Nittany Lions locked in as the No. 6 seed in the conference, they’ll remain on the road against either Minnesota or Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. Penn State will find out which of the two it’ll see by the time most of its students have returned home for spring break.

Penn State’s remaining stretch is quintessential Big Ten hockey. In this league, expecting the unexpected isn’t just wise. It’s malpractice not to.

All teams, despite differences in talent, are capable of beating each other and upsets aren’t uncommon. There are obvious gaps between No. 4 Wisconsin and unranked Ohio State, however, the Buckeyes swept the Badgers two weeks ago and split a series with No. 6 Michigan State in East Lansing last weekend.

Penn State previously swept Ohio State at Pegula Ice Arena last month, winning both games 4-3. The Buckeyes have just four conference wins, which is one less than the Nittany Lions’ five. Despite the last result, though, head coach Guy Gadowsky is preaching awareness ahead of the season finale.

“The thing about this league is anybody in this league has a chance to win the national championship,” Gadowsky said. “Every team is dangerous when they’ve got their cylinders firing, and [Ohio State] has been playing great hockey lately.”

“That’s the beauty of it,” defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr. said. “Ever since I was interested in coming here, it was getting to play in the best conference in college hockey against eight, nine, or 10 draft picks every night — it’s super fun.”

Gadowsky was adamant that he knows what his team needs to work on ahead of the series but opted not to share it. Although Penn State sticks to its own identity, preparing to face Stephen Halliday is crucial.

Halliday is Ohio State’s leading point-getter, with 10 goals and 22 assists for 32 points. His 10 goals are also tied with Scooter Brickey for the most on the team.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” forward Dylan Lugris said. “We don’t try to key in on one player. Anytime we play a team like [Ohio State], we try to keep it even-keeled and don’t try to single anybody out. Sticking to our game and playing the way we want to play is going to be key going into this weekend.”

The Nittany Lions typically like to take shot after shot on goal. That is entirely possible against Ohio State’s defense, which isn’t its strong suit.

Recently, these two teams have been trending in the opposite direction. Ohio State has been red-hot, an unexpected trend from this season. Meanwhile, Penn State has lost three out of its last four but took Wisconsin to the brink on Saturday.

“Any team can beat any team on any given night, and it’s super fun,” Dowd said.