Even though tickets don’t go on sale until 6 p.m., you can find thousands of die-hard college… Even though tickets don’t go on sale until 6 p.m., you can find thousands of die-hard college and high school Pittsburgh Penguins fans lining up as early as 2 p.m. every time the team offers the coveted Student Rush tickets.

Under the Student Rush ticket program, college and high school students with valid student identification can purchase the best seat available for $20 per ticket. But this season, students are finding this deal a little more difficult to come by.

‘I can think back four years ago, it was never a problem for me as a student to show up 10 minutes before a Pens game and, for 20 bucks, I got the best seat in the house,’ said Pitt graduate Stephen DeFilippo.

But with the Penguins’ recent success, ticket sales skyrocketed, and the team has sold out 100 consecutive games heading into last night. Because of this, the number of tickets available to students for purchase slowly diminished.

‘Fans like myself, who were with the Pens even during the bad days, are now suffering,’ said DeFillippo, who hasn’t been to a Penguins game in four years.

According to Tom McMillan, the Penguins’ vice president of communications, the team expects ticket sales to increase each year as the team progresses.

‘Our success in selling season tickets and selling out games have naturally limited the number of tickets available to the Student Rush program this year,’ said McMillan.

The Penguins Student Rush program has been in existence since 1996 and was the first team in the NHL to institute a program like it to boost ticket sales. Back then, nearly 3,000 tickets were available to students for every home game.

But before this season started, the Penguins announced they would offer only four Student Rush program games spread throughout the 2008 season. The Penguins front office chose the four weekday games expected to carry the lowest attendance.

In 2006, the Penguins offered between 500 and 1,000 Student Rush tickets to every home game.

And a year later, the number of Student Rush tickets available dropped to about 200 for every home game.

The team’s appearance in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals caused fans to purchase season ticket packages at an even more feverish pace, and Rush tickets plummeted to an all-time low. This season, the Penguins are offering only 600 Student Rush tickets to each of the four games.

That equals 2,400 Student Rush tickets for the entire year, compared to the nearly 3,000 available for each game when the program began.

‘There is certainly a supply-and-demand element to the program from year to year,’ said McMillan. ‘It is not like several years ago, when we had several thousand seats of inventory every night.’

But students who are fortunate enough to get a ticket feel like they’re getting more than they’re paying for.

‘You can’t beat the deal for 20 bucks and get to sit in section C,’ said Pitt student Jason Schwartz, standing in line before a Jan. 20 game against the Carolina Hurricanes. ‘It’s like having an $85 off coupon, and you get to watch the best team in hockey.’

Schwartz waits in line for roughly four hours every time Student Rush tickets are available. But that is nothing new for him.

‘I have waited in line before for concerts, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii,’ he said. ‘I guess I got used to waiting in line, and it doesn’t bother me at all.’

The last chance for students to get a discounted ticket will be this month, which is two months after the previous Student Rush game was offered. Fans can wait in line before the Penguins host the Los Angeles Kings Friday at 7:30 p.m.

As the team plans to move into its new home in 2010, fans are left wondering what to expect from the Student Rush program.

They better start lining up now.