33 Seasons, 33 Games (Part II)

In order to bid a fond farewell to the Greenberg Ice Pavilion, the orange barn Penn State hockey called home from January 16, 1981 until February 16, 2013, here is the second half of a subjective opinion of the top 33 games in the building's history. The significance of the number 33, of course, is that the rink hosted 33 seasons of games. "33 Seasons, 33 Games (Part I)" covered numbers 17 through 33, while this one hits the top 16.

Unfortunately, due mostly to lack of documentation concerning Lady Icers and Ice Lions games, this list only includes contests from the Icers-to-NCAA men lineage, with sincerest apologies to all involved in the many fantastic Ice Pavilion games not involving the Icers or Nittany Lion men.

This post will also serve the secondary purpose of launching TYT into its offseason series of history-themed posts, dubbed "Breakout Past" during a period where I had to come up with a really lame title (preferably including a pun) for everything. Look for those each Thursday, starting next week.

16. Penn State 5, Towson 4 - January 22, 2005. In what would turn out to be the Icers' final championship of the Nittany Lion Invitational - a tournament created the season after the Ice Pavilion's opening - scrappy Towson played the Icers extremely tough until Brett Wilson's power play goal with 16 seconds left propelled PSU to victory. Wilson's heroics were only necessary because of three bad calls related to goals, including two apparent Icers scores that were waved off in the second period, the latter of which was a Teague Willits-Kelley effort that was ruled a goal by the referee on the play, setting off the horn... only to be overturned by a linesman 60 feet away. The brutal officiating included the other end of the ice, as the Tigers' Erik Dixon tied the game at 4-4 with 3:33 remaining despite the fact that the net behind goalie Paul Mammola was off the pegs for at least ten seconds prior to the puck's entry.

15. Penn State 4, Central Oklahoma 3 (OT) - October 15, 2010. Arguably, the 2009-2010 Icers were the best team of the Scott Balboni era, so when Jonathon Cannizzo scored late in the first overtime to eliminate PSU from championship contention by a 2-1 score in the 2010 ACHA quarterfinals after the Icers led 1-0 until just 89 seconds remained in regulation, it was quite a blow. While a regular-season win in the following campaign wasn't a full measure of revenge, it was still quite satisfying, especially after the Bronchos' Donald Geary forced overtime 23 seconds away from a Penn State win, perhaps inspiring a couple of "here we go again" eyerolls within the Greenberg throng. George Saad ensured that any similarities to the previous heartbreak ended there by making a fantastic play in overtime to take the puck off of the boards, work to the front, and score. In what - at best - is a footnote to history, the Icers' second home game following the NCAA elevation announcement was a primary motivator of the creation of this blog.

George Saad (center) celebrates his OT winner against UCO

14. Buffalo State 5, Penn State 4 - March 14, 1992. Two weeks after PSU failed to win the first-ever ACHA national championship on home ice (see number 8), the ICHL regular season champions - who went 14-1-1 in league play, the best record in ICHL history - were stunned by Buffalo State in the conference tournament opener. Chris Kruger, Bob Kowalski and Regis Marrale all scored in the third period for the Bengals, who survived a controversial finish to their win. Dave Murphy sniped in the last minute to cut the BSC lead to 5-4, then appeared to tie the game with one second remaining, a goal negated by a ruling that the Bengals had intentionally dislodged the net beforehand. The Icers were awarded a penalty shot, but ICHL MVP Andy McLaughlin was denied by goaltender Chris Economou, who would go on to win tournament MVP honors while leading his team to a championship game loss to Niagara College.

13. Penn State 3, Towson 1 - January 22, 2000. In one of the all-time great performances by a visiting goaltender at the Ice Pavilion, Towson's Derek Rabold stopped 52 of the 54 Icers shots he faced to win NLIT MVP honors, despite his team's loss in the championship game. Prior to Loren Remetta's empty-netter, heavily-favored PSU (which scored 12 on 84 shots against Rutgers the day before) only cracked Rabold twice - once with Jamie Weston's slap shot, and on the winner, a spectacular end-to-end play that saw Weston feed Neal Price at center to catch the Tigers in a line change. Price motored down the left side, then connected with Joe McArdle, who one-timed it home from the right circle.

12. Penn State 4, Hobart 3 - November 29, 1995. While games against NCAA Division III teams later became close to a 50-50 proposition, they were something a little south of that 18 years ago. That fact, combined with a 6-5 overtime win by the Statesmen during the 1994-1995 season, made this triumph noteworthy, even if it didn't directly count for ACHA positioning. The Icers faced second-period deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 before goals by Brian Rolli, Steve Hajek and Don Coyne over a 4:30 stretch late in the period put PSU ahead for good, including insurance against Hobart's extra-attacker answer with time winding down. "The loss to them last year left a bitter taste in our mouths," goaltender Jeff Crispino said, "so this win means a lot."

11. Penn State 6, Kent State 5 (OT) - February 17, 1984. Throughout the 1980s, Kent State - which sponsored an NCAA Division I program from 1986 until 1994 - was one of the Icers' toughest regular opponents. In 1983-1984, despite PSU's eventually winning the national club championship, the Golden Flashes won three of the four games between the two, and nearly took the fourth. Penn State trailed 5-3 late in regulation, but Art McQuillan scored on a backhander with 3:51 remaining to trim the deficit to 5-4, and Brad Rush tied the game roughly two minutes later off of Lynn Sipe's setup. Greg Powers then deflected a Glenn Cawood shot past Adam Brinker for the OT winner. "We've been in overtime before," Powers said, "and me, Art [McQuillan] and Clark [Dexter] go full force in overtime. We were pressing and getting our shots - you could tell it was gonna come. I told everyone on the bench, 'You don't have to warm up, because we're going to score.'"

10. Iowa State 5, Penn State 3 - January 23, 1999. In a preview of the infamous 1999 ACHA national championship game won by "vacated," the Icers and Cyclones met in the NLIT championship game, and the teams ranked first and second in the ACHA for the entire 1998-1999 season put on a show worthy of the pollsters' esteem. After Darren Anderson (one of the stars of "vacated's" title run, as it would turn out) gave ISU a 2-0 advantage on a 3-on-0 rush, Penn State answered three times to gain the lead in the third period: Jason Zivkovic on the power play, Rob Shaner's rebound putback and C.J. Patrick's slapper. The Cyclones, however, had their own rally against a shaky John Sixt with John Strama and Brian Paolello putting ISU back ahead, and Jeff Smith added an empty-netter.

Jamie Hettema scored in the first game at the Ice Pavilion

9. Penn State 6, Upsala 5 - January 16, 1981. A contest generally only remembered for the Ice Pavilion's opening and for the crowd of 1,450 that stood as the building's record for its first nine years was also a fantastic game in and of itself. Matt Glass became the first of many Icers to fill the net beneath Section E, but he was answered by the Vikings with just 45 seconds left in the opening period. Glass' second, along with tallies by Glenn DeStefano, Rush and Jamie Hettema gave PSU a seemingly-safe 5-2 lead late into the third period, before Upsala managed to score three times in the last 120 seconds of the game. DeStefano, however, also scored late and goaltender Jim Pollock shut the door just in time for the Icers to escape with a win that wasn't finalized until 1:00 a.m.

8. Iowa State 5, Michigan-Dearborn 3 - February 29, 1992. The only non-Penn State game on the list qualifies due to its heavy significance as the first championship game in ACHA history, and still the only national title won by the man, long-time ISU coach Al Murdoch, who ended up with his name on the trophy given to the ACHA's last team standing. The Icers were denied home-ice glory that year by Dearborn, as the Wolves bombed PSU 8-5 to earn their way into the final. Incidentally, the captain of that 1991-1992 Iowa State team was Bill Ward, who is now the girls hockey coach at National Sports Academy, the alma mater of current PSU women's team forward Emily Laurenzi.

7. Niagara College 6, Penn State 5 (2OT) - March 12, 1988. In an ICHL semifinal matchup, Knights goaltender Jim Darling made 40 saves - eventually winning tournament MVP honors and leading the Welland, ON-based school to the championship - in beating the Icers. Penn State held a 5-2 lead at one point, but were unable to avoid ICHL elimination at the hands of Niagara for the third season in a row (including another 6-5 double-overtimer two years prior to this game). Payback would be sweet, and it would come the next season when PSU beat the favored Knights 5-3 on the way to the title (see number 3).

6. Penn State 4, Canton 3 (OT) - January 14, 1984. The SUNY school, then known as the Northmen, took an early 1-0 lead on a Mike Jones clapper 1:55 in, and were on the verge of running a flat PSU team out of the rink but for a series of shots ringing off posts and missing gaping nets. Even with puck luck seemingly on their side, Penn State still faced a 3-1 deficit entering the third period, but a Powers putback of a Sipe rebound, following a Jim Yablecki goal, brought the Icers back to even midway through the frame. Yablecki then won the game, and the championship of the third NLIT, 2:35 into overtime with a wrister off left wing. The goal almost never happened, as PSU survived a near-miss by Canton just six seconds into extra time: "The guy came breaking in on a 3-on-2," goaltender John Davis said. "He passed it right in front, and as he came by, he just took my skates right out from under me. They just shot it and I stopped it from the back of the net. The puck has to be completely over. I didn't think it was, it was close though."

Casey Bailey (18) scored PSU's first NCAA goal at the Ice Pavilion

5. American International 3, Penn State 2 (OT) - October 12, 2012. Without a doubt the only game that made the list based on the pre-game warmup, and the chills I (and undoubtedly others) got watching PSU get ready for an actual, honest-to-goodness NCAA Division I men's hockey game after decades of almosts and what-ifs. Nittany Lions hockey will see greater heights than an overtime loss to perennial doormat AIC, a result made possible by Ben Meisner's 61 saves and Jon Puskar's winner, but there will only be one first, and only one time experiencing the unique feelings it inspired.

4. Penn State 4, Oklahoma 3 (OT) - February 4, 2012. The Icers' aura of ACHA invincibility in the final season before making the NCAA jump had already been smashed by Delaware and Central Oklahoma by the time Oklahoma came to town late in the season, but after Shane Vordran capitalized twice on misplayed pucks by goaltender Matt Madrazo to give the Sooners a commanding 3-0 third-period edge, a palpable new height of concern among Penn Staters was reached. And promptly rendered moot by Justin Kirchhevel's two goals in the last five minutes of regulation sandwiching one by Taylor Holstrom. Saad was once again large in overtime, putting back a rebound of an Eric Steinour shot to cause the old barn to explode. "I've been here for a lot of great wins over the years," Joe Battista said. "This will go down as one of the greatest comebacks ever in this building." Third best, to be precise (the Icers never trailed in one of the top three games).

3. Penn State 8, Buffalo 6 - March 12, 1989. No less of an authority than Battista considers this game, for the ICHL tournament championship, the launching point for the success enjoyed by his program in the years that followed. The Icers, who had struggled in the conference since joining in 1985, took the unorthodox step of skipping the club national championships that season to focus on success in the ICHL playoffs after a fourth-place finish in the regular season standings (in those days, nationals preceded the ICHL tournament). The move paid off, although it certainly wasn't easy. Facing a 4-2 deficit entering the third period, PSU quickly tied the game, just as quickly fell behind by two once more at 6-4, then took advantage of a rare full two minutes of 3-on-3 hockey to once again pull even. John Ioia's rebound goal on a 2-on-1 with Lance Riddile at the 17:10 mark put the Icers ahead for good, with Brian Stevenson adding an empty-netter. Current women's head coach Josh Brandwene scored twice for Penn State on his way to the program's scoring record for defensemen.

1 and 2. Penn State 4, Ohio 3 (OT) and Penn State 4, Ohio 3 (OT) - October 29 and 30, 2004. I mean really... could it be anything else? Essentially, take circumstances similar to that UCO game in number 15, add in the fact that the previous season's national tournament loss was in the championship game (as opposed to the quarterfinals), the juice of the best rivalry the ACHA has ever seen and a sellout crowd wearing white t-shirts, then multiply it by two. Michael McMullen scored the winner in Friday's game by cutting to the middle off left wing and putting back his own rebound, a goal that completed a rally from a 2-0 deficit with 10:33 to play. Kevin Jaeger was the hero the next night when he finished a hat trick on a breakaway resulting from Mike Carrano's lob over the Bobcat defense.

Breakout Past: 1992 ACHA National Tournament

The logo for the 1992 ACHA National Tournament at the Ice Pavilion. The first seven ACHA tournaments used identical logo designs, swapping out only the host's logo and color scheme, as well as the year of course. Delaware began the current practice of unique logos for each season in 1999.

Non-varsity hockey through the first 20 years of the Icers' existence was characterized by rules inconsistencies, a scattered collection of volatile conferences and (for two seasons, anyway) competing national championship tournaments. That all changed on April 20, 1991 when the American Collegiate Hockey Association was established.

Of the fifteen individuals who had a hand in the ACHA's founding, none would subsequently impact the organization quite like Penn State's Joe Battista and Al Murdoch, the man in charge of Iowa State hockey for the last 42 years. Both would also play integral roles in the first-ever ACHA national championship tournament, which was held - for the only time - at the Ice Pavilion from February 26-29, 1992.

The tournament format was pretty simple. Eight teams were invited and divided into four-team pools of the 1st, 4th, 5th and 8th seeds on one side, and the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th seeds on the other. The tournament's first three days were a round robin within each pool. On day four, the pool winners played for the national championship, while the pool runners-up played for third place. Stacked up on the fourth-seeded Icers' side of the tournament: No. 1 Michigan-Dearborn, No. 5 Ohio and No. 8 Navy. No. 2 North Dakota State, No. 3. Iowa State, No. 6 Eastern Michigan and No. 7 Arizona made up the opposite pool.

On paper, PSU's first game, against Ohio, should have been close. On the ice, it wasn't. The Icers rolled up a 6-0 advantage (31-12 in shots) through two periods and cruised home to a 7-1 win that included a Chris Cervellero hat trick and two goals from Ross Cowan, Cervellero's teammate both at PSU and with the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers. Despite the fireworks, most credited the defense with the win.

"It was our best defensive effort all season, especially by the forwards," said senior co-captain [Mike] Messner.

"We're real pleased with the way we dominated the game," Battista said. "I don't think they ever had a chance."

The win was a significant body blow in what was already a burgeoning rivalry. Earlier in the season, OU beat PSU 5-4 in overtime to hand the Icers their first-ever opening-round loss in the Nittany Lion Invitational Tournament, the four-team showcase played at the Ice Pavilion from 1982 through 2006. The ACHA tournament win, though, gave Penn State an 8-7 lead in the all-time series with the Bobcats.

Junior forward Chris Cervellero, a Philadelphia native, scored five goals in the first ACHA National Tournament, including a hat trick against Ohio.

Navy, which lost 7-2 to Michigan-Dearborn in their opening game, presented a much sterner test for the Icers the next day.

The Midshipmen took a 2-1 first-period lead thanks to some PSU penalty trouble. Navy's Tim Fetsch tied the game at one on the power play, and the Middies' Steve Roberto gave his team the short-lived advantage during a 5-on-3 situation. Cowan stuffed home a rebound two minutes after Roberto scored, and the Icers responded with two more unanswered - from Cowan and senior sniper Andy McLaughlin - in the second to win 4-2.

"We didn't come out as emotionally charged as last night," senior defenseman Geoff Martha said. "We were a little drained. As the game wore on, we got a lot of shots on goal and stayed disciplined."

"I think we persevered," Battista said, "which I think is a good characteristic for a hockey team. I said all along this was going to be a tough battle for us."

While Martha argued that "it's good to have a close game" in a tournament situation, in hindsight the tight win over the tournament's lowest seed stands out more as a bad omen than anything. The Icers were bombed 8-5 by fellow 2-0 team Michigan-Dearborn in the final game of the group round robin to end their national championship quest.

PSU actually went up 2-0 early on goals from Cervellero and McLaughlin before the Wolves pumped through five consecutive to lead by three after 40 minutes. The Icers pulled within 6-5 at one point thanks to a pair of Dave Murphy goals and a slapper from defenseman Erik Lightner during a frantic third period that saw 19 PSU shots, but UMD snuffed out the comeback with two late goals.

Being forced into consolation territory gave the Icers an extremely tough draw: the North Dakota State Bison. While largely irrelevant today thanks to funding issues since the mid-1990s, NDSU was at one time the undisputed king of club hockey. They won the U.S. National Collegiate Club Hockey Championship tournament over Alabama-Huntsville in 1985 (UAH's last year of club hockey before elevating to NCAA Division II), and when that tournament dissolved, moved over to the National Invitational Tournament, winning in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1991, They would later add the 1993 and 1994 ACHA championships to arrive at a best-ever eight claimed club national championships, one ahead of PSU's final tally of seven.

But in one of the more underrated Icer victories ever, Penn State rode 35 Andy Dumas saves to a 5-1 thumping of NDSU. Facing a 1-0 deficit in the second period, Brad Russell and Murphy scored 19 seconds apart, followed by third-period markers from Cervellero, Cowan and McLaughlin (on an empty net) to blow the score open.

"The whole game we kept saying, 'Hey, let's win it for the seniors,' " Battista said. "They came in with a win in this building. They are going out of this building with a win."

"We just decided we didn't want to lose no matter what," Messner said. "Third place feels so much better than fourth."

Messner, Martha, McLaughlin, Dumas, and forward Rich Filar had the unique honor of playing their final Ice Pavilion games at nationals and were the quintet of seniors behind that motivation.

Ross Cowan (top left) was named to the 1992 all-tournament second team, while (clockwise from top right) Cervellero, Geoff Martha and Andy Dumas were honorable mentions.

Top-ranked Dearborn would ultimately get their comeuppance immediately following PSU's consolation win, as Iowa State bested the Wolves 5-3 for the championship. To this day the ACHA's first title is still the only one claimed by association founding father Murdoch, who would eventually have the trophy named in his honor. In 1999, Murdoch briefly possessed a second title, then was ingloriously forced to give "his" cup back four months after a 6-4 title game win over the Icers, when it was discovered that star Cyclone forward Darcy Anderson had played professionally (PSU women's coach Josh Brandwene, incidentally, was the ACHA's president at the time and handed down the order to vacate the 1999 championship).

As an interesting footnote, the 1992 ACHA national championship tournament games did not close Penn State's season. When the Icers were members of the International Collegiate Hockey League from 1984-1992, the conference's playoff took place after the national championships. Perhaps deflated from the failure to defend their home ice two weeks prior, ICHL regular season champ PSU was upset 5-4 by Buffalo State in the first round of the tournament.

Payday Memorabilia: 1992 ICHL Championship Banner

The ESCHL tournament gets underway tomorrow, but today, we're going back in Icers history to their conference home from 1984-1992. Of course, I'm speaking of the International Collegiate Hockey League (ICHL), also affectionately known as the "Iron League" after the league the Hanson Brothers supposedly came from in Slap Shot. You can probably deduce the intensity level of the games against teams like Buffalo, Buffalo State and Erie CC from this moniker. The "I" part of the conference's name, in actuality, came from Niagara College in Welland, ON and Conestoga College in Kitchener, ON.

Penn State plowed through this conference with a 14-1-1 record - the best ever in ICHL regular-season play - to earn the title in 1991-1992. The clincher took place against Erie on February 8th, a 6-1 decision that was satisfying on many levels.

[The Icers avenged] several disappointments in recent years. Penn State had lost last year's regular season title to Erie by a point. They had also lost, 7-6, in overtime to the Kats this season on Jan. 4. In that game, Coach Joe Battista was upset with several marginal calls that went Erie's way.

The tie in that record was against Niagara exactly one week after the loss to Erie, so that 2-1-1 record over two weekends was the closest thing to adversity Penn State faced during the regular season ICHL schedule. With the top seed in hand for the conference tournament, fifth-place Buffalo State (5-11-0) was the opponent, but things didn't go quite as well there.

The result was a 5-4 controversial loss for Penn State that ended its hopes of leaving the league with a championship. The team will be leaving the ICHL to join another league next season. Icer Coach Joe Battista also failed in his quest to become the first ICHL Coach of the Year to win a ICHL Championship in the same year.

Why "controversial?" The Icers trailed 5-4 in the waning seconds of the game, then...

Dave Murphy scored what appeared to be the game-tying goal with one second remaining. The ensuing celebration was stifled when the referee waved off the score, ruling that the net was dislodged before the shot went into the net.

After an seemingly endless debate involving referees, coaches and players, it was ruled that the net was intentionally knocked off by a Buffalo State defenseman. In the National Hockey League, such an infraction would result in a goal for the scoring team. But not in the college game.

"Knowing the rules, you have got to give the defenseman credit," Battista said. "He did what he had to do to win. I don't teach my players to win that way."

Penn State was thusly awarded the penalty shot.

And of course, why would it be controversial if the penalty shot was successful?

[Andy] McLaughlin took the puck at center ice, skated to his right. He reversed his direction, cut across mid-ice and attempted to juke the goalie with a backhand shot to the left side of the net. Economou never bit, and the puck died amidst his pads. The red light never flashed. No goal. The Bengals' celebration begun.

One unusual quirk of those days: this season-ending game took place after Penn State had already finished third at the first national championship tournament under the ACHA banner (incidentally, this was also the only time PSU hosted nationals). This odd timing led to situations like 1989, when the Icers skipped nationals to focus on the ICHL tournament - can you imagine that happening today? The tactic proved successful, as PSU won their only other ICHL title, this one of the tournament variety, on home ice against Buffalo 8-6 after twice overcoming two-goal deficits in front of a raucous, standing-room-only crowd.

So what of the actual banner? Well, there's a reason I waited until the end to talk about it. I assume they were given to members of the team or something. I have no idea though. A bunch of years later, someone found a box of them somewhere, and they sold them at a game. I bought one. It measures about 9.5" x 17.5" and is made of a felt-like material that may actually be felt for all I know about fabric. Riveting stuff there.