Three Stars: May 2-8

Zach Hyman can apparently walk through walls.

3. Sweetland lands at PSU
(Lions 247)

Based on the response to some of these pieces on the Lions 247 message boards, it seems like the crossover between our two readerships is a little like the crossover between India and Lichtenstein (I'm Lichtenstein if that wasn't obvious). But regardless, you need to be reading Andrew Dzurita's stuff on our recruits. For your convenience, I've now linked them on the TYT recruiting class page where available.

2. 2011 Women's Division 1 Awards
(ACHAHockey.org)

My sincerest apologies for missing on this one last month. Three Lady Icers - Sara Chroman, Carly Szyszko and Kirsten Evans - were given All-American honorable mention recognition by the ACHA. You may recall that Szyszko is not a goalie but played there anyway, while regular netminders Heather Rossi and Katie Vaughan were helping Team USA to a fourth-place finish at the World University Games in Turkey. Of course, more to the point of being an All-American honorable mention, she led the team in scoring with 16 points. Evans led PSU in goals with 10, while Chroman - who also received the Community Play Maker award - steadied a defense that was also thinned out by a WUG departure (Lindsay Reihl) and injuries.

1. Promising prospect has options, inside and outside hockey
(Toronto Star)

Zach Hyman was a fifth-round draft pick of the Florida Panthers last year. He's also a high-end student, and committed to play for Guy Gadowsky at Princeton to develop both athletically and academically...heeeey wait, Gadowsky coaches for us now! Turns out, Hyman also noticed that and has started looking at other schools.

Under normal circumstances, I'd have to think PSU would be near the top of his list. But to put it bluntly, he doesn't seem like the type of prospect who would be willing to hang out in the ACHA for a year. For a guy who can more or less name his college to do that, you have to really, really like Penn State and/or be really, really excited to help build something, and Hyman probably isn't in those category, since he'd essentially be following a coach. Here's the quote from the article that says all of that.

Where he’ll land is anyone’s guess, and visits to campuses from the states of Massachusetts to Minnesota are scheduled for the coming days. One of Hyman’s options, accompanying Gadowsky to Penn State, involves a leap of faith. Penn State, which recently received an $88 million donation to its nascent elite hockey program from alumnus Terry Pegula, owner of the Buffalo Sabres, won’t play in top-level Division 1 until 2012-13.

Looking at Heisenberg, Princeton has six commits who aren't entering until 2012 or 2013, in addition to seven others for this year. It's entirely possible that we might see those names again at some point.

Best of the Rest

Club sports at university deserve more recognition
(The Review)

Emily Nassi from the University of Delaware's student paper steps in with an column that takes a pro-club sports position. Don't forget where you came from, guys.

Kats Win NJCAA Hockey National Title
(ECC.edu)

Speaking of "where we came from," here's some really old (February-ish) news that I stumbled on while doing something else. Nice to see the Icers' former ICHL rivals doing well with their first-ever national title.