Inaugural Three Rivers Classic Awaits

What: NCAA Men at the Three Rivers Classic College Hockey Tournament

Where: CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA

When: Friday, December 28 at 4:30 p.m. (Penn State vs. Robert Morris) and 7:30 p.m. (Miami vs. Ohio State); Saturday, December 29 at 4:30 p.m. (consolation game) and 7:30 p.m. (championship game).

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Penn State has had it easy in starting NCAA Division I hockey.

Name recognition, huge university, established history of athletic success and people who follow that success, built-in major-conference affiliation... oh, and that nine-figure donation and the brand-new arena that came with it.

Then there's Robert Morris, which started up for the 2004-2005 season.

Back in the Icers days, we had to go with parentheticals when discussing Robert Morris (PA), as unrelated Robert Morris (IL) also has ACHA D1 hockey. Few were likely to notice if you got it backwards. RMU is the sort of school that inspires lines like "how good that Robert Morris fella is if he beat the Nits all by himself" from PSU outlets following the Colonials' 3-2 win at the Ice Pavilion two weeks ago, largely because nobody knows what else to say about them. Maybe some of you know them as a conference rival of the women's program. Or maybe you're only aware of them because their basketball games against Fairleigh Dickinson get a couple seconds of fame during every eighth cycle of the ESPN ticker (although the Colonials did take Villanova to overtime as a 15 seed in the 2010 NCAA Tournament).

They did not get a nine-figure donation to start an NCAA program. Instead, they purchased an existing off-campus rink in preparation for the move, now called 84 Lumber Arena. It's a 1,200-seat rink that looks like a lot of 1,200 seat rinks all over the country.

In other words, they've had to build a program the hard way: slowly, and by winning repeatedly until people have the program's identity down. There have been high-profile, respect-earning upsets, like a January 7, 2007 stunning of second-ranked Notre Dame, an October 12, 2007 victory over No. 8 Boston University, a sweep of top-ranked Miami on January 8 and 10, 2010 and wins over Ohio State on October 15, 2010 as well as this year in a win-tie home-and-home with the Buckeyes on December 7th and 8th (file those latter two opponents away for Saturday). There has also been a concerted effort to get on the big stage of Pittsburgh's NHL arena and in front of large numbers of locals whenever possible, most notably through the Pittsburgh College Hockey Showcase - sort of a forerunner to this weekend's event, which included a mess of an Icers-ACHA RMU (PA) exhibition in 2010 - and a game with RIT that drew 6,957 in the build-up to the 2011 Winter Classic.

Beyond the highly-specialized origins of the two universities (Pittsburgh School of Accountancy, meet Farmers' High School), that's sort of where the two newest NCAA DI programs intersect. Both have an interest in developing western Pennsylvania's college hockey presence because in the long run, it benefits both programs.

RMU coach Derek Schooley has done an outstanding job removing his schools anonymity.

Say hello to the Three Rivers Classic. And, hopefully, get to know it pretty well, because the idea is for it to become an annual staple, featuring Penn State and Robert Morris each time around (Boston College and Bowling Green have already been booked as the other half of the next year's iteration).

I've sort of poor-mouthed RMU (7-4-2, 4-3-1 AHA) a little, but make no mistake, they're a quality team with a quality coach (in fact, I openly endorsed Derek Schooley for the PSU job). The Nittany Lions, as mentioned, saw that firsthand two weeks ago, when goaltender Eric Levine made 38 saves in the Colonials' victory. Defenseman Tyler Hinds scored the third-period winner, but would have been one of the game's stars even without that distinction.

"He's been a warrior the last three games against Ohio State and Penn State," Schooley said. "He's won every one of his battles, he's competed, he's jumped up into the offense and he's been tremendous blocking shots."

"Tyler Hinds has taken his game to another level. I can't say enough about how well he's been playing."

Levine, Hinds, and the rest of RMU's defensive corps are third in Atlantic Hockey (21st nationally) in allowing 2.46 goals per game. Levine carries DI's fourth best save percentage, 0.942. Offensively, seniors Zach Hervato (six goals, 12 points) and Adam Brace (five goals, 12 points) pace a balanced effort.

Miami and Ohio State, of course, are the other two teams in the tournament and will face off in Friday's nightcap. Penn State will then take on whichever of the two teams matches the Nittany Lions' result during the tournament's second day.

Even though Miami (11-3-4, 8-3-3 CCHA) is the fifth-ranked team in the country, tied for first in the CCHA and has been to the last seven NCAA tournaments, it's probably safe to say that most Penn Staters want to see Ohio State (7-6-5, 6-3-3 CCHA) on Saturday in what would be PSU's first matchup with a future Big Ten opponent. And actually, there is some good news on that front, provided the Nittany Lions are able to get revenge on RMU.

Austin Czarnik is Miami's top scorer among players presently in the Western Hemisphere.

The RedHawks will be without a pair of standout freshmen - forwards Riley Barber and Sean Kuraly - for the tournament, as both are with Team USA for the IIHF World U20 Championships in Ufa, Russia. Barber, Miami's leading scorer this year with eight goals and 14 assists (he's the only freshman in the country with more points per game than David Glen), is a product of the U.S. National Team Development Program, and was a sixth-round pick of the Washington Capitals in June. Kuraly, selected in the fifth round by the San Jose Sharks in 2011, has scored three times this year.

That's not to say that MU is completely devoid of talent. The RedHawks, former doormats that have become one of the nation's elite programs in the last decade under Enrico Blasi, remain a young - 11 freshmen, six seniors - and very talented team including three NHL draftees (forwards Curtis McKenzie, Blake Coleman and Jimmy Mullin) and Austin Czarnik, who missed out on the draft but is the RedHawks' top remaining scorer and has represented the U.S. internationally on several occasions, including with last year's WJC team. Another forward, Marc Hagel, transferred to Oxford from Princeton, where he played for Guy Gadowsky from 2008-2011 (Hagel's brother Kyle also played at Princeton). If you haven't figured it out, Miami forwards tend to come in waves, not lines, so while the losses of Barber and Kuraly will sting, they are unlikely to cripple.

Blasi is also noted for his goalie rotations, and this season has been no different, with freshmen Ryan McKay and Jay Williams splitting the starts (other than during a stretch where McKay was injured earlier this year). McKay has the better numbers of the two, with a ridiculous 0.58 goals against average and a 0.979 save percentage but Williams, a former goalie partner of 2013 signee Eamon McAdam on the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks, isn't exactly terrible either. In fact, Miami has gone 11 consecutive games without allowing more than two goals.

The Buckeyes, actually, are also down personnel thanks to the World Junior Championships - specifically, head coach Mark Osiecki, an assistant on Phil Housley's Team USA staff. Associate head coach Steve Rohlik will assume bench boss duties.

Need to know how to spell "Brady Hjelle?" Look at the top of the NCAA's goaltending stats.

Head coach or not, OSU is one of the nation's best defensive teams, holding opponents to 1.94 goals per game, the NCAA's sixth-best mark. Senior Brady Hjelle, who transferred from Minnesota-Duluth just before their 2010-2011 national championship season (whoops) backs that effort with a 1.46 goals against average and a 0.951 save percentage, good for third and second in the nation, respectively. If something happens to Hjelle, the backup is star recruit Collin Olson, an NTDP product.

Protecting the goaltenders are a pair of gigantic defensemen, including freshman Craig Dalrymple - 6'5", 212 pounds - who leads the team's blueliners with five points and the team as a whole with a +9 rating. Sophomore Justin DaSilva - 6'6", 225 pounds - is even bigger and leads the Buckeyes with 33 blocked shots. Those who figure out how to deal with their reach and physicality still have to deal with Devils draft pick Curtis Gedig, who is more compact at 6'3", 200 pounds.

A pair of Ottawa Senators draftees, Ryan Dzingel and Max McCormick, lead OSU's offense with six goals each. Dzingel, who recently had an eight-game scoring streak snapped against Miami, is a native of Wheaton, IL. McCormick had no such issue against the RedHawks, scoring in a 3-1 loss to MU two weeks ago. The teams tied 1-1 in the first game of the series played in Columbus.

Beyond the fact that Miami-Ohio State, Penn State-Robert Morris and Robert Morris-Ohio State games have already taken place this season, stout defense and goaltending is the obvious recurring theme. Penn State's success and/or failure in Pittsburgh will likely be determined by the ability of a thin defense group and goalies Matt Skoff (who, remember, once signed a National Letter of Intent with Ohio State) and P.J. Musico to play at that level - as well as the ability of the offense to take what it's given in a way not seen in that game against the Colonials on the 15th.

Pegula Power

This post, by Matt Walfrand, originally appeared on Takeover The Game. They don't need me to shill for them and certainly didn't ask for it, but TTG comes with the TYT seal of approval for their fresh and interesting takes, mostly on basketball, soccer and hockey - check them out, and make sure you follow Matt on Twitter (@LeopoldsIpod) to talk Sabres and MAC basketball, and to experience all kinds of Michael Jackson-related hilariousness.

And yeah, it doesn't hurt that it's essentially the me show. Maybe when I'm more used to this and have less of an ego, I won't do things like this, but I'm not.

Since Pegula has taken over the team, the Sabres have been on a roll, except for last night’s clunker against Pittsburgh. But we are not going be talking about Pegula and the Sabres today, but more about Pegula and Penn State hockey with the help of Kyle Rossi from the Thank You Terry blog.

How did Terry get involved with Penn State hockey?

When you first asked me about doing this, even before I knew the questions, I had planned on dropping this story, because it’s actually a great illustration of Terry’s love for hockey. I think most people probably assume that Joe Battista (former coach of the club team, now an associate AD basically in charge of the hockey teams and the arena), who’s made Penn State hockey’s elevation his lifelong quest, saw some guy get a few billion dollars from Shell and started calling him for a handout. Not at all the case.

Terry, of course, is a PSU alumnus (class of 1973) and his son Michael had actually attended some PSU hockey camps in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the fall of 2005, and pretty much out of the blue from what I can tell, Terry approached Battista and asked him why, with everything Penn State has going for it - name brand university in the northeast, devoted following, successful club program - no NCAA program existed. They met for dinner shortly after and Battista explained to him that NCAA programs are expensive - especially in our case, as the Bryce Jordan Center, the basketball arena, was built without ice-making capabilities, so an entirely new facility would be needed. Not only that, but we’d need a women’s program too for Title IX purposes. Terry said that he might be able to help and that he’d talk to Tim Curley (athletic director) to get the ball rolling. Battista had to stifle laughter. Trust me, as someone who’s had to answer that “why are you just club” question a few times myself to outsiders and who never thought anything like this would ever happen, it gets old pretty quickly.

So anyway, Battista goes home, Googles him, and finds out he’s loaded, even back then. They kept in touch despite some setbacks like the 2008 market crash. Battista quit coaching after the 2005-2006 season to move into a fundraising position at the university, which hardly seems like a coincidence now, and Terry’s windfall with Shell in early 2010 put the process into overdrive. But that’s something that will always stick with me - Terry contacted us, basically asking to give money. He may not have known that $88 million would be the ultimate number, but he had to know that it would be well into the eight-figure range, because even I knew that. The common thought was closer to about $50 million, so to go almost double that without even blinking says a lot about Terry as well.

All Buffalo Sabres fans are dying to know, is he a hands on guy or does he stay in the shadows?

Terry’s been pretty hands-on through the early stages of the process, but at the same time, not in an overbearing way. I know that he, Battista, the Pegula Ice Arena architects and construction team have been meeting pretty frequently as that project continues to move forward, and Battista referenced Terry and Kim’s vision for the place in [a recent] article. In fact, back in late November when Ken Campbell [from The Hockey News] was reporting that Terry had signed an agreement to purchase the Sabres, Battista dismissed it saying something like “he was sitting right next to me in a meeting when he was supposed to have been signing that agreement.”

But at the same time, I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen his name mentioned on the hockey operations side of things, which right now more or less boils down to the coaching search. My impression is that everyone’s on the same page with what we want in a coach, and I’m sure Terry will have to sign off on the hire ($88 million buys you that right). But for the most part, it seems like he’s let Battista and his committee do their thing on that front, which seems to mirror the deference he’s given Darcy [Regier] and Lindy [Ruff] on your side of things, at least so far.

How is the program coming along?

Funny that you ask [that], because we just had developments on [the coaching and recruiting fronts].

First off, Andy Baggot from the Wisconsin State Journal reported that PSU has asked Wisconsin permission to speak with Mark Johnson. This is really the first “actual” news that has leaked out on the coaching search, although Johnson’s been a popular rumor subject since about 12 seconds after our press conference back on September 17th. He’s got the pedigree obviously, name recognition even to non-hockey fans, and he’s had a ridiculous amount of success with the Badger women, so it makes sense on a lot of levels. He’s a splash that would draw interest, he wins, and he can recruit without even opening his mouth. Other guys who have been kicked around (without any substantiation) are Denver’s George Gwozdecky, who’s in the middle of a contract dispute, and Minnesota’s Don Lucia if he gets fired after this season. I like both of those guys too. They’ve both won national championships, and both have experience building up new and/or struggling programs, Gwoz at Miami and Lucia at Colorado College. Derek Schooley at Robert Morris is a personal favorite - he’s charismatic, knows the recruiting area, and he started their program a few years back and has done a good job getting them up to speed. He's probably a longshot, but who really knows what they're thinking? All we really know is that Mark Johnson is somewhere on the list.

Battista has said repeatedly that he doesn’t want to disrupt anyone’s season, so the earliest a hire will be made is after the Frozen Four in late April or May. If an NHL assistant deep in the playoffs makes the short list, it could go longer obviously.

Recruiting-wise, news broke of our first two verbal commitments recruited specifically with the NCAA program in mind on Tuesday. Their names are Jake Friedman (a center) and Tim Carr (a goalie), and both are currently in the Tier III Easter Junior Hockey League, whose playoffs are just underway. I did a post that more or less contains everything I know about them - trust me, this ain’t like doing intel on Brad Boyes, that afternoon made me wish I blogged about the Sabres instead. I’m new to college hockey recruiting since there’s really nothing to follow at the club level, and I can already tell that trying to get decent info on recruits is going to be my least favorite thing ever.

Anyway, both Friedman and Carr will play for the club team in 2011-2012, which they can apparently do without losing a year of NCAA eligibility, and then will at least be considered as available players for the NCAA team when we get started in 2012-2013. We’re planning on only having about five scholarship players that first year, but I’m sure they’ll be considered for two of them, depending on who else might be coming and what we might have to promise to get them.

Questions like “why would anyone commit without knowing the coach,” “are these guys worthy of playing for the NCAA program” and “even if they are, won’t the coach want his own guys playing” are being debated as we speak. As to the second one, Carr shares time almost 50-50 with a guy committed to Boston College on his EJHL team and was being recruited by schools like Clarkson, Union and Northeastern (not exactly BC, Michigan and North Dakota, but still). I don’t know who else recruited Friedman, but he’s a top player in a league that’s not the best source for NCAA players but is certainly a viable one. They probably aren’t future Hobey Baker finalists, but they probably could be solid depth in most programs and stars in a new one.

Another thing that often gets debated is whether any of the current club players will be involved with or are capable of playing on the NCAA team. I don't think anyone, even the people on the inside, really knows that yet, but there a couple guys who are certainly candidates, most notably (in my amateur opinion) George Saad, who will be an academic senior in 2012-2013. You might know his brother Brandon, who is currently with the Saginaw Spirit and is a projected first-rounder in the entry draft coming up. In general, we have a pretty solid group of underclassman right now and I'm sure at least a couple can make the jump.

Would like to thank Kyle Rossi for your time and all of you should check out Thank You Terry for updates on Penn State hockey and college hockey in general. It’s a good read.

Rumor Roundup

A few things of some note happened in the world of Penn State hockey over the weekend (other than the games with Robert Morris, of course) while I was out of town and without non-phone internet access.

"Pegula Arena"

According to a story broken by StateCollege.com on Friday:

The new ice arena planned at Penn State University Park may be named Pegula Arena.

University trustees are scheduled to vote Jan. 21 on whether to adopt that name for the facility, a meeting agenda shows.

So I guess that's the likely name. Now we all have to get to work on figuring out how to say it quickly without saying "Pegularena" (just one of many reasons "Center" is superior).

Big Ten Hockey

A blog called The College Hockey HighHorse reports that:

NCAA winter meetings have been going on all week and are winding up today. Talks have been ongoing all week concerning the possible formation of a Big Ten Hockey League. Schools participating in the talks are the Big Ten School and WCHA schools, that much has been written about in stories like this from SB Nation.

Our source who is in the winter meetings says that the Big Ten Hockey Conference will start in 2014.

Another total non-shocker, but just more smoke coming from what most of us who follow college hockey view as an (unfortunate?) inevitability.

Derek Schooley

Just to be clear, this isn't a rumor, it's more of a mancrush than anything else. I profiled Schooley in my Head Coach Candidate series last week, then in a work of tremendous synergy between myself and legitimate media types, Steve Penstone interviewed him during the first intermission of Friday's game with his school's ACHA team.

Schooley discussed some of the hurdles facing Penn State's NCAA program.

Well, it's a challenge. You have to have a lot of patience and you have to do a lot of work. When I first got to Robert Morris, I had a desk. I didn't even have a computer or a phone. I imagine they might have a little bit more at Penn State's hockey offices to start, but you know, you're going to have to go out on the road. You're going to have to get hockey players, and you're going to have to have some patience with them. And you have to set the culture of what you want to have as your hockey program. You're going to have a whole bunch of new players, you're going to have a whole bunch of new guys, they're going to be wide-eyed to the college game, you're not going to have anybody to show them the way, but it's going to be one of those things where you take them from a big ball of clay and mold them into what you want to do and how you want them to play.

And that's the exciting thing to see right now after seven years in our program, to see where it's come and see where we started. You have to set the tone and set how you want the hockey program to go. It's a challenge, but it's an exciting one, it's a fun one, it's a great ride, and I'm sure the fans and people of State College will really get behind the hockey program, and it's going to be fun to watch, that's for sure, especially with the Big Ten Conference potentially coming together, however that's going to work out. It's going to be a neat ride because there's going to be big-time schools coming in to play Penn State, that's for sure.

After some comments about Big Ten hockey and the growth of hockey in western Pennsylvania - which are worth watching, as is the whole interview, hence my embedding the video and not just transcribing - Penstone, to his credit, dropped the tough question on him. So what say you, Mr. Schooley, wanna coach Penn State?

I'm very happy where I'm at, you know, I'm focused on my hockey team right now, and doing the best job we possibly can. Obviously, the Penn State job is going to be a very attractive job to whoever takes it and whoever applies for it and I think it's going to be a good thing for college hockey and I'll avoid your question. But, like I said, I'm very happy where I'm at, I like our hockey team and I like our direction. But it's going to be a very attractive job for a lot of people.

Well, what did you expect?

Head Coach Candidate: Derek Schooley

Fourth in a series taking uninformed, uneducated guesses at the candidates to become the first head coach of Penn State's NCAA men's team. Previously: Current Icers coach Scott Balboni, Denver coach George Gwozdecky, Pittsburgh Penguins assistant Tony Granato.

When I look for coaches for this series, I tend to keep an eye open for ones with experience starting up a program, or in the case of a guy like George Gwozdecky, kick-starting a sort-of-new program that had yet to taste success. Current Robert Morris head man Derek Schooley is certainly one who fits that category.

One way he doesn't fit in with many of the coaches I've looked at: he's more of an up-and-coming type than an already-accomplished type. There's a chance of him putting in more than a decade at PSU. He has an infectious enthusiasm for what he does. The guy even tweets, and is about 20 times more engaging than most coaches who do so. To that point, here's a couple of his beauties from last week, when RMU was prepping for North Dakota (here and here).

Preparing for the long trip to Grand Forks..HUGE challenge this weekend against No Dak Fighting...whatever they are called now

will usa hold on for bronze? Hopefully the 2 No Dak players will play a ton & be too tired to play this weekend

The first one, of course, alludes to UND's well-documented nickname situation, the second is a reference to the two Fighting Sioux (still the name for now) on Team USA at the 2011 World Junior Championships.

Also, and just in the last week-plus, he's given movie reviews (Inception and MacGruber), admitted that Jersey Shore is a guilty pleasure of his, wondered if he and his son made the final cut of HBO's 24/7 series covering the Winter Classic and suggested that his team only deserved to lose 5-1 in a game they lost 8-0.

I don't bring that up just because it cracks me up (although it does), but because it demonstrates an important personality trait. I know who George Gwozdecky is, you know who George Gwozdecky is, but does the average might-go-to-a-game-might-not fan in Boalsburg know who he is? Is a "name" in college hockey a "name" in the mainstream? Probably not. I think the personality of the coach (along with, you know, whether the guy is a good coach), is vital towards building interest in the crucial first few years. I don't think anyone who's seen Joe Battista, his magnetic personality, and its impact on the Icers can really disagree with me there.

Quick bio time. After a great run playing at Western Michigan ended in 1994, Schooley had a brief minor league career (including the 1996 Colonial Hockey League championship). He then broke into coaching with one-season stops as an assistant with the NAHL's Chicago Freeze and Cornell, before hooking up with his former junior coach Frank Serratore at Air Force, where he served as an assistant for five years, from 1998 through 2003.

While at Air Force, Schooley coached a defensive unit that broke the school record for goals against average in two of his last four seasons. The team’s goals against average of 2.91 in 2000-01 broke the record of 3.18 set a year earlier. Along with leading the defense at Air Force, Schooley assisted with nationwide recruiting efforts.

The goals against records are impressive, as is the nationwide recruiting of players able to hang academically at a service academy. No doubt the brass at Robert Morris agreed when they made a guy with no head coaching experience the first coach of the new program in August, 2003. Schooley spent a year recruiting the team that took the ice in 2004-2005, a pattern being followed at Penn State.

The progression since then might not be readily obvious, but it's there. Improved records in each of the first four seasons to a peak of 15-15-4 in 2007-2008. After what appeared to be a step back and plateau for the next two seasons, the program is breaking back through this season with a 12-7-2 record so far, and a steady presence in the others receiving votes section of the national polls.

One possible explanation for the rough spot from 2008-2010 is the dissolution of Robert Morris' original conference, College Hockey America, and the resulting impact on recruiting. It could have spelled disaster for the young program, which had already watched conference mates Findlay and Wayne State fall by the wayside. Schooley, however, kept the ship steady and helped get the Colonials into Atlantic Hockey in early 2009, where they are now playing their first season. Shortly after admission into Atlantic Hockey, Schooley had this to say.

We were focusing all our efforts on being in Atlantic Hockey. If not, we'd have had to go back to the drawing board. And what that included, I had no idea.

That's the nice thing about this — I don't have to worry. Until you get the answer, obviously you're concerned, because you want to see your program be in the best scenario you can be. I was extremely happy once we got the word. Seeing our president, our AD and support of the community at the press conference, everyone is ecstatic.

Even if the records haven't always reflected it, Schooley has proven able to get the Colonials playing at a high level. Notable along the way:

• January 7, 2007 - One season after losing to the Icers, Robert Morris beats No. 2 Notre Dame 4-2. Notre Dame advanced to the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed that season, and was a year away from a run to the NCAA championship game.
• October 12, 2007 - The Colonials score a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Boston University en route to winning the Nye Frontier Classic in Anchorage, AK. BU was ranked No. 8 at the time and featured many of the players who would help the Terriers to the 2009 national championship.
• January 8-10, 2010 - Beginning with a win in the College Hockey Showcase, a sweep over No. 1 Miami helps the program to a 4-4-1 record against top ten teams since the beginning of the 2010 calendar year.

Pretty impressive for a new program from a small conference playing with fewer scholarships than most. Impressive enough to be entrusted with the $88 million dollar investment? That remains to be seen. But whether he ends up at Penn State or not, it should be fun to track the trajectory of his career and his program.