For the third edition of this feature, I did what I said I was unlikely to do in the first edition: use something I bought on eBay. Sue me for turning four while this season was happening. Also, sue me for getting excited when something popped up searching "penn state hockey" other than the usual assortment of those awful Colosseum jerseys and a bunch of smashed The Game bar hats.
One of my favorite things about this schedule is the fact that one of the opponents doesn't exist anymore. And when I say that, I'm not just referring to the hockey team, but the entire school. Seriously. Upsala College, which notably also helped Penn State christen the Ice Pavilion three seasons prior, closed in 1995.
The other opponents provide an interesting mix as well. Notre Dame had dropped their NCAA Division I program after 1982-83 and spent a year as a non-varsity program before rejoining D-I in 1984-85. Kent State was a few seasons away from their own ill-fated D-I experiment. The Navy Crab Pot is one of the ACHA's great traditions. The rest of the schedule is a cross-section of the familiar (Ohio, Delaware, Arizona) and the not-so-familiar (Alabama, St. John's, Ramapo).
Notably the Icers, coached by Jon Shellington, captained by Art McQuillian and featuring all-time leading scorer Lynn Sipe, navigated this schedule with a 24-15-1 record (a TON of games for back then) and went on to win the program's first club national championship.
You know what's crazy to me? How little the schedule cards have changed in the last 27 years. Here's this year's:
Same font, same stylized "Hockey" with a puck for an O, same Fightin' Blue Hens and Bobcats. I just wish we still put road games on the schedules, something we haven't done since (I think) 1998-1999.
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