Fair and Balanced

It's a slow news week. Classes at PSU are still out, meaning no Collegian. I have Google Alerts set up on a number of key Penn State hockey topics, which often lead to posts, or at least tweets, but all those have yielded lately are Buffalo fans throwing "TERRY PEGULA WILL SAVE US!!!!!11!!!" up on their own blogs or on message boards. I like the Sabres and hope Pegula does bring about scenes that have only to this point happened in Bruce Almighty, but that doesn't really help me here.

We have games this weekend. Pretty important ones, both in terms of the national picture and because it's an archrival. Luckily, said archrival and its newspaper is back at school. Thanks quarters system, for allowing us this update on Ohio's preparation.

After a three-week hockey hiatus that began Dec. 12, Ohio returned to practice yesterday to prepare for this weekend's two-game series against Penn State.

[Head Coach Dan] Morris said he expects the team to play just as well as it did before the break.

"Penn State is in the same boat we are; they haven't played or practiced in almost a month either," he said. "It's going to be about how quick you can get it back."

In addition to that piece, which also briefly touches on the Bobcats' last few games because they've been out of school since Thanksgiving (seriously), The Post offers this gem from its all-sports blog.

The Icers are coming off an 8-1 victory over Niagara on Dec. 10 and have won six of their past nine games dating back to early November.

However that streak pails in comparison to Ohio’s 10-game win streak and 15-game unbeaten streak that began against Penn State two and a half months ago.

PSU's schedule also "pails" in comparison to OU's since the last meeting, which includes four straight games against ACHA D2 as part of the 10-game win streak. Just sayin'. Can anyone even tell me the last time the Icers played a single game against D2? (UPDATE: Tweep @hey_pono, who does a great job with BSD's hockey coverage, gave me the answer that my shoddy research overlooked: 2007, Davenport.)

Our three losses in the nine games: Rhode Island and Delaware, two of the five best teams the ACHA has to offer (my opinion obviously, since URI currently sits at No. 7). But hey, they're no Kent State.

I'm ready for Friday. I can feel the Ohio hate "coarsing" through my veins. It's on.