W: Penn State 4 at Vermont 2

Box score // Penn State recap // Vermont recap
Victory Bell Rings recap // Vermont highlights // Vermont photos

Building on an extremely strong showing in a season-opening 3-3 tie with Vermont on Friday night, Penn State (1-0-1) took the next step on Saturday afternoon with a 4-2 victory over the Catamounts (0-1-1) at UVM's Gutterson Field House.

To tell the truth, there wasn't much to set the win apart from the tie (other than the scoreline, of course) as many of the game's themes were reruns from the front half of the series. But just to review...

Theme 1: Resilience

Vermont scored five goals on Penn State this weekend. After four of them, the Nittany Lions scored next. And those answers came after just 2:11, 0:27, 4:58 and 0:06, with the latter two on Saturday. After Gina Repaci's bouncer through traffic from center point put UVM ahead just under seven minutes into the contest, Kelly Seward answered with a bar-down bomb from just inside the line at the 11:49 mark. Laura Bowman, however, decided that wasn't good enough. Twelve seconds after Seward tied it up, she broke the tie by finishing a faceoff win and Hannah Hoenshell's rush-and-pass at the back post.

In the middle period, UVM received a second goal from a blueliner 3:48 in when Dayna Colang stepped around Shannon Yoxheimer up high before burying to re-knot the contest at two. But Hoenshell - who played arguably the best game of her career - had a lighting-fast reply when she dangled down low off of the draw and tucked the puck past Roxanne Douville.

Bottom line: PSU has always been a tough team, but they now have the skill to make it count on the scoreboard.

Theme 2: Secondary scoring

It was clear on Friday that the newly-assembled unit of Amy Petersen, Bowman and Hoenshell would provide a viable second scoring line this season. However, it didn't show up in the stats immediately, as usual suspects Shannon Yoxheimer and Taylor Gross were the offensive stars. In the rematch, however, the goals came from the less-familiar sources. Hoenshell had one, plus two assists to first-star-of-the-game Bowman. After the Texan countered Colang to put the Lions back ahead, the Minnesotan once again went back post from a centering feed to supply some breathing room with 2:38 left in the second period.

Bottom line: Penn State received seven goals over the weekend, the most of any NCAA series against a major-conference team, and now present exponentially more matchup problems for opponents.

Theme 3: Goaltending

Josh Brandwene may have raised a couple eyebrows by starting Celine Whitlinger after Nicole Paniccia's stellar outing Friday, but the sophomore more than answered the bell with 37 often-spectacular saves and her second career win.

Although Penn State held a two-goal lead into the third period, it certainly wasn't an easy close-out. The Catamounts launched 16 shots on Whitlinger in the 20 minutes, including one near the halfway mark that bounced through the crease and ended up with just about every blue-clad player on the ice laying on top of it. A video review followed, but after a lengthy delay it was determined that the puck never fully traversed the goalline.

Bottom line: Start Paniccia, start Whitlinger... either way, they're both outstanding.

Theme 4: Player development

Some of the unsung heroes in the win were players who are both well-known to Penn Staters but also much better than a year ago. The defensive tandem of Jordin Pardoski and Sarah Wilkie is developing into a legitimate shutdown pair, and both were instrumental to PSU's lead protection efforts. Lindsay Reihl and Paige Jahnke also had great games on defense. Jenna Welch and her linemates made the tough plays, while Emily Laurenzi was all over the ice at times.

Bottom line: As fantastic as the freshman were in their first two college games this weekend, the bulk of this team is still in the sophomore class - and they've shown unreal growth from year one to year two.

Up next, this dangerous-looking pride of Nittany Lions travels to Hamden, CT for a two-game set at Quinnipiac. They'll make their long-awaited Pegula Ice Arena debut the following weekend against Union.

Here's the live blog from a fantastic couple hours at the Gut:

 

Three Stars: September 9-15

The women's team was all smiles after moving into Pegula Ice Arena

3. Hockey Welcomes Five to 2013-14 Roster
(gogriffs.com)

As first reported here (yes, I closed my eyes and smelled myself as I was typing that), former Icers and Ice Lions defenseman Brandon Russo has transferred to Canisius, where he'll play for the Golden Griffins' NCAA team. He's now officially added to their roster.

ACHA to the show? Yeah, it's been done.

2. 2013-14 Men's Hockey Yearbook
(issuu.com)

The men's team's 2013-2014 yearbook is now online, complete with the usual trappings and the continued neglect of Icers history.

Alabama-Huntsville treats their club titles with the appropriate level of respect. The yearbook for the Lindenwood women contains all-time results for the ACHA years, ACHA records and even a full page highlighting their four national championship teams. Yearbooks for NCAA DI programs that have spent time in DII or DIII manage to highlight history from those eras.

Penn State had the most successful program in ACHA history, one that is directly responsible for Joe Battista, Terry Pegula and everything happening right now. There's no excuse.

1. The Move Into a New Home Signals New Era
(gopsusports.com)

It's old news by now, but easily the most enjoyable thing from last week - sorry student ticket line - was observing the excitement of the Penn State's hockey players as they moved into Pegula Ice Arena for the first time.

Best of the Rest

Former UConn Huskies Taylor Gross, Nicole Paniccia and Jenna Welch

@D1WomensHockey
(Twitter)

The ex-CONNS! Hahahaha get it?

Steve Hass, the guy behind that Twitter account, had a good week on PhotoShop, also dropping in TPeg Claus in recognition of the "Christmas" celebrated by the women's team last Monday and addressed in the first star (the men's team too I suppose, although they weren't knocking out Christmas carols ahead of their move-in).

@PennStateMHKY
(Twitter)

Big Ten media day is Thursday morning in St. Paul, MN, and most conference schools have named those in their respective delegations.

Penn State: Head coach Guy Gadowsky, Tommy Olczyk, David Glen
Michigan: Head coach Red Berenson, Mac Bennett
Michigan State: Head coach Tom Anastos, Greg Wolfe, Jake Hildebrand
Ohio State: Head coach Steve Rohlik, Curtis Gedig

I haven't seen announcements from Minnesota or Wisconsin yet. Of course, the Gophers can pretty much bring the whole damn team, should they choose.

A Very Special Move-In Day at Pegula Ice Arena
(statecollege.com)

Think Joe Battista had a good perspective on the move to PIA? Yeah, probably.

@AndyJohnsonB5Q
(Twitter)

It sounds like we're (finally) about to get the long-awaited Big Ten television schedule.

Since media day is coming up on Thursday, the guess here is that it will be revealed then to give pop to Big Ten hockey's first installment of what, generally, are pretty bland events stacked with "we're excited for the season" quotes and those preseason coaches polls that everyone talks about for two days before forgetting them.

Worth a quick mention: the CHA is entering the final year of a streaming deal signed in 2011 with America One, so the arrangement for the women will be identical to last season.

Penn State Hockey Roundup – One Month to Go
(Victory Bell Rings)

I've said this before, but I'm really glad people like Mary Clarke and IcersGuy (at Black Shoe Diaries) exist, because they both excel where I fall short: at taking a step back, a deep breath and a look around. Here's a solid ICYMI from Clarke to reset things.

A Manning Texts Mauti, Bacon Talks Origins of Book
(statecollege.com)

John Bacon's new book Fourth And Long, which looks at several college football programs during the 2012 season including obviously-newsworthy Penn State, has been a discussion machine of late with the pigskin crowd.

On Thursday, Bacon spoke at PSU and revealed that Josh Brandwene actually played a small, but vital, role in delivering full access to Bill O'Brien's program:

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"The scene was Friday, April 20," Bacon said. "I was at a lunch for the ground of the new ice rink being broken. Bill was there and I let him know that I was coming. This wasn't an ambush at all. He was there and he knew I was coming.

"There was an empty seat at his table and Josh Brandwene, the current coach for Penn State women's hockey is sitting at the table. I had known Josh from over twenty years ago when we were both coaching at a Penn State hockey camp at the old rink. And he sees me and goes "Bakes!" and I think "Thank God." Before I know it I'm spending 15-20 minutes with Bill O'Brien just kind of introducing myself.

"Later on that day I walk across the street and he asks if I want to hop on the bus to take a ride to the stadium for the walk through before the night before the spring game. And I said 'Yes.' and I was there and then went to the spring game on Saturday and that's how the whole thing started. Rather informal actually."

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Official Online Auctions
(gopsusports.com)

Piece of history alert: With the varsity teams both receiving new jerseys this season, the old ones have started to make their way to auction, with a blue 2 (Rich O'Brien) and a white 13 (Kenny Brooks) posted right now.

Can Casey Bailey snipe his way to Hobey Baker contention?

The Big Ten's Top 5 Preseason Hobey Baker Candidates
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Sophomore forward Casey Bailey wasn't in Nate Wells' top five Big Ten candidates for the Hobey Baker Award, but he did score an honorable mention along with seven others. Top 13 in the league? That's not terrible - have you looked at the talent in the league lately?

Women's Hockey Names 2013-14 Captains
(lindenwoodlions.com)

Alyssa West will be Lindenwood's captain this year, while Kendra Broad and Chelsea Witwicke will serve as alternates. Witwicke is a native of Roseville, MN and was a high school teammate of PSU's Paige Jahnke, while West came up in the Little Caesars and Victory Honda programs and is therefore pretty familiar to most of the PSU Michigan Mafia (Shannon Yoxheimer, Birdie Shaw, Katie Murphy, Madison Smiddy and Jordin Pardoski).

Michigan Loses Recruit Bryson Cianfrone to OHL
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Oooooh sorry about your luck Michigan!

In all seriousness though, losing Bryson Cianfrone to major junior isn't a crippling loss for the Wolverines. Cianfrone's Ann Arbor entry had already been postponed from this year until next year and he didn't exactly set the USHL on fire in 2012-2013 (as a teammate of Nittany Lions freshman David Goodwin and commit Alec Marsh in Cedar Rapids).

"Outside the Crease" with LVC forward Klayton Garman
(Stack The Pads)

Lebanon Valley College has always been an interesting program to me, for reasons including the fact that they keep the fires burning at old Hersheypark Arena and their status as sort of an anti-Penn State that fell off a cliff in NCAA Division III before resetting as a successful ACHA team.

Anyway... here's PennLive blogger Derek Meluzio's Q-and-A with LVC forward and York, PA product Klayton Garman.

Women's Ice Hockey Club seniors Carly Szyszko, Katie Vaughan and Allie Rothman

@raVAUGHANous
(Twitter)

This is how I want to remember the Ice Pavilion: some of my favorite hockey players under yellow-orange lighting... and a pretty legit photobomb from the Zam driver.

Women's Jersey Countdown: #22 Jenna Welch

Senior - Forward - 5'8" - Austin, TX

After transferring from Connecticut, Jenna Welch stepped on to a Penn State roster including 17 freshmen in 2012-13 and immediately established herself as a team leader - she was voted into the alternate captain's role and also shared the team's unsung hero award last season. A lot of the latter honor had to do with the fact that Welch executes a lot of the little things needed to win games, for example, her 34 blocked shots that were the second most among Nittany Lion forwards. She can also be counted on to stick up for her teammates and restore order when things get chippy, something RIT learned particularly well during a hot-blooded road series in February. By the end of the season, Welch centered Jill Holdcroft and Micayla Catanzariti on what had to be the toughest forward line in college hockey, until Holdcroft broke her wrist in PSU's regular season finale at Robert Morris.

Career Statistics (2010-12 with Connecticut):
Season	GP	G	A	Pts.	PIM	PP	SH	GW	GT
2010-11	35	1	4	5	14	0	0	0	0
2011-12	32	2	0	2	6	0	0	1	0
2012-13	35	4	3	7	30	0	0	0	0
NCAA Career	102	7	7	14	50	0	0	1	0

Three Stars: May 6-12

3. Sewickley coach named director at Pegula Ice Arena
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Some nice coverage of Ryan Patrick, the former Icer who was named the Pegula Ice Arena's hockey director a couple weeks ago, focusing largely on his brief tenure under some adverse circumstances as Sewickley Academy. But it still fit in this quote:

“There is a lot of excitement in the area,” Patrick said. “It should be like in Pittsburgh with the ‘Sidney Tsunami.' There was a spike in playing when Sidney Crosby came to Pittsburgh. That is what we are hoping for here with the new arena.”

Population limitations (especially relative to Pittsburgh, the other half of the comparison) will always have something to say about Central PA's production of players, but there's absolutely no reason that Jill Holdcroft has to stand alone as a great locally-produced player.

2. First B1G Season for PSU Hockey
(WTAJ)

It's nothing of any great substance, but here's some coverage of Guy Gadowsky's Coaches Caravan stop in DuBois Thursday morning. That was one of his two appearances, and I'd like to think I did an adequate job on the second, in Pittsburgh that evening. So there you go.

I'm just glad that I'm not one of the PSU football writers who had to cover Bill O'Brien saying the exact same thing 12 times over. That had to be brutal.

1. Jenna Welch Highlights - Penn State Hockey
Nicole Paniccia Highlights - Penn State Hockey
(YouTube)

There's no rule that says a first star has to be something of immediate concern. Random highlight videos of Jenna Welch and Nicole Paniccia that popped on the radar last week are certainly worthy, as they involve two of my favorite players. I just wish the Welch one had that elbow she laid on Erin Zach at RIT back in February. Frustration penalty or not, it was bad ass.

Best of the Rest

Penn State-Vermont to battle for second straight year
(flyers.com)

Why is the Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff being promoted by everyone except the two schools involved? Who knows. But Comcast and the Philadelphia Flyers would like you to know that tickets are on sale now.

Notably, puck drop for the October 26th game has been moved up two hours to 5:00 p.m., meaning that it will no longer overlap with the Penn State at Ohio State football game at 8:00 that night.

Your State’s Highest Paid Employee Likely an NCAA Coach
(Onward State)

Congratulations to New Hampshire's Dick Umile on being the only college hockey coach to double as his state's highest-paid employee. Get that paper. Since you're not getting the hardware, might as well.

Success With Hyperlinking: Brass Monkey Style
(Black Shoe Diaries)

Breaking my "newsworthy" requirement here, since this pissed me off...

PSU Hockey's conference schedule has been released. A brief internet search shows that three teams PSU plays (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan) were all ranked at the end of last season. Oh, and their last home game is against Ohio State. I don't even like hockey and I'm getting excited.

Know why people from the outside crack on Penn State's potential as a hockey school? It's because PSU blogs with 20 times (at least) more readership than TYT act like this towards the sport. Bill DiFilippo: still a joke, if you need him.

Big Ten Schools Announce Prime Time Football Games to Appear on BTN
(bigten.org)

BTN will air just one primetime football game this coming year - Wisconsin at Illinois on October 19th - after the beginning of hockey season. One has to think that bodes well for the possibility of at least some non-conference Big Ten hockey on the network (the league schedule doesn't begin until the last regular season weekend for football, another move likely made with BTN in mind).

Ice Man Cometh... to Pittsburgh and Boston

Guest Speaker - Joe Battista
(pittsburghsmeal.org)

@psuboston
(Twitter)

Joe Battista is making the off-season rounds, doing that thing he does where he talks and people are inspired. One stop will be in Pittsburgh on May 30th at the Allegheny HYP club (free for Pittsburgh Smeal Business Club members, $15 for non-members). On June 29th, he'll speak for the Boston chapter of the alumni association, although further details haven't been announced yet.

Gophers schedule for first year of Big Ten hockey
(Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

As you may have guessed, the Big Ten schedule release last week unloaded on my inbox. Most were just the usual fluff (in other words, people painfully trying to write out a schedule in sentences) but this one quoted Minnesota coach Don Lucia, who suggested some possible 6:30 start times for PSU:

"The reality is on Friday, there could be some 8 p.m. starts. There is talk of some doubleheaders on Friday, with 6:30 Eastern [5:30 Central] and 8 p.m. Central. You have four Big Ten teams in the East and two in the West, so it would be us or Wisconsin doing an 8 p.m. start on a Friday night. That’s fine. That’s not as big a deal for our fans because it’s Friday night. I don’t think we’ll run into that on Saturdays. Who’s to say ever, but the indications I hear is that … it’s not as big of a priority for a television date."

Startup League NAIH Closing Doors, CIHA to Form
(achatalk.com)

The NAIH, which launched with some promise (and was hailed as a possible competitor to the ACHA by a certain blog) back in 2011, is kaput after two seasons. Western Washington University will go down in history as the association's only Founders Cup champion after defeating Le Moyne College 2-1 in overtime back in March (the NAIH didn't hold a championship tournament in 2011-2012). Perhaps the most memorable thing about the NAIH was its ridiculous lack of professionalism, manifested in its numerous trolling posts on ACHA forum Hockey 101 as well as by the time they were hilariously smacked down by Kelly Pegula on Twitter:

Mourn not though, for the NAIH has apparently merged with something called the USCHA (the United States College Hockey Alliance, I assume, not the Upper St. Clair Hockey Association) to form the Collegiate Ice Hockey Association. The CIHA is already off to a very NAIH-like start, as two players have apparently been crushed to death by a falling logo.

Tom Anastos' vision, ingenuity clear
(Lansing State Journal)

You know who I like? Tom Anastos. Here's an intriguing look at part of his plan to turn Michigan State around by targeting younger, more elite players. Penn State hasn't really gone down that road too much (MSU has three committed 1998 birth years along with one from 1997, and PSU's youngest commit is late 1996er A.J. Greer) but it will be interesting to see if and how things evolve for the Nittany Lions over the next couple years.

Committee hears coaches’ ideas on regionals, NCAA selection, but consensus lacking
(USCHO)

Speaking of Anastos, he's quoted in this article about the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings at the beginning of the month. Long story short, nobody agrees on how the NCAA Tournament should look in light of the brutal attendance at the regional sites this year (and most years), but many seem to agree on the idea of rewarding teams in the NCAA selection process for non-conference road wins, something that was previously done from 2003 to 2007.

The AHCA discussions are always interesting and can inform policy changes, but the rubber doesn't really meet the road on these types of things until the NCAA committee meetings in June.

NAHL announces 2012-13 season awards
(nahl.com)

The first-year Johnstown Tomahawks, with an ownership group including Penn State football legends Shane Conlan and Jack Ham, were named the NAHL's organization of the year.

Johnstown is a hockey town, and the fans proved it once again by welcoming the NAHL’s Johnstown Tomahawks with enthusiasm as the team revitalized a community with a rich hockey tradition. The Tomahawks finished fifth in the NAHL in total and average attendance, which included 11 home games with 3,000 fans or more. That’s an impressive stat for a first-year team in a market that had never witnessed NAHL action. The team also made the playoffs in their first season in Johnstown and had three players make NCAA Division I commitments.

USHL's Chicago Steel draft paralyzed hockey player Jack Jablonski
(SB Nation)

Your feel-good story of the week: in the late stages of the USHL Draft on Tuesday (one that had already seen PSU commit Greer and Tommy Olczyk's brother Nick selected), the Chicago Steel selected Jack Jablonski out of Benilde-St. Margaret's School in Minnesota.

Jablonski, of course, was paralyzed during a BSM game back in December 2011, and his subsequent rehabilitation has captivated much of the hockey world. He's unlikely to ever walk, let alone skate, again, but he's still going to be a hockey player for a very classy USHL team.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl training in .... Lancaster County?
(Broad Street Hockey)

Three months before Jablonski's injury, the plane crash that killed all of KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was the dominant tragedy in the hockey headlines. Lokomotiv withdrew from the KHL for the rest of that 2011-2012 season and instead played in the VHL, a lower league, after pulling together an entirely new roster. They returned to the KHL this past season, going 34-18-0 and qualifying for the playoffs. Now, they're training in Manheim, PA of all places. Pretty cool.

W: Penn State 0 at RIT 1

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // RITathletics.com recap

It's a cliche, but 1-0 losses are among the most frustrating because in hockey, there's such a fine line between goal and no goal. A bounce here, an inch there... the what-if game always fails of course, because surely, RIT (15-15-5, 7-8-5 CHA) would like to add a couple hypothetical goals to their total as well. So it might be disingenuous to suggest the Nittany Lions (7-25-2, 1-17-2 CHA) deserved a better fate in game one of their first-round best-of-three CHA playoff series, but still, the possibility was on the table for all 60 minutes of a contest that saw the narrowest shot differential (35-16) of any of the five between PSU and RIT this season.

There certainly were a handful of chances to spoil RIT goaltender Ali Binnington's shutout, with perhaps the best being among the last - a late third-period power play shot by Paige Jahnke that worked through a perfect Birdie Shaw screen but was somehow stopped by the Tigers' sophomore netminder. On the other end, Nicole Paniccia was nearly Binnington's equal with 34 saves and just one fateful goal allowed, by Marissa Maugeri on a beautiful back-door setup from Erin Zach 9:22 into the first period.

Penn State is now down to one remaining chance to extend its season, Saturday afternoon's game two. Win, and the series rubber match is on Sunday. Lose, and a longer-than-desired offseason officially commences.

Here's the RIT recap, followed by the live blog.

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The RIT women’s hockey team (15-15-5) used a first period goal from sophomore forward Marissa Maugeri (Ajax, Ontario/Durham West Lightning) and 16 saves from sophomore goaltender Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs) to shut out six-seed Penn State University (7-25-2) 1-0 in game one of the best of three College Hockey America First Round Series from Ritter Arena on Friday afternoon. It was RIT’s first playoff win as a Division I program.

Maugeri tallied her ninth goal of the season at the 9:22 mark of the opening period, as she streaked into the Penn State zone and took a perfect feed from Erin Zach (Elmira, Ontario/Cambridge Fury), diving to redirect a shot past Paniccia. Emilee Bulleid (Waterdown, Ontario/Stoney Creek Sabres) also assisted on the goal.

From there, RIT continued to press, but Paniccia kept everything out, stopping 35-of-36 shots in a losing cause. Binnington made 16 saves to record her sixth shutout of the season and improve to 10-9-4. Her best save came with 6:45 left in the final period, as Paige Jahnke fired a shot through a screen on a power-play that Binnington turned aside.

RIT’s defense did a brilliant job keeping Penn State to the outside, as the Nittany Lions failed to generate much in the way of quality throughout. The Tigers out-shot Penn State 35-16 and both teams were 0-for-2 with the man-advantage.

RIT had a few other great chances to go up 2-0, but Paniccia made a handful of big saves. Kourtney Kuncihika had Paniccia beat off a clean face-off win, but her shot went off the right post and back under the pad of the Penn State goaltender.

RIT continued to press in the second period, but could not solve Paniccia, despite the healthy 16-6 edge in shots in the frame and a 29-11 edge over two periods of play.

In the final period, RIT had a handful of great chances, but were unable to get good shots off, or had them blocked. The RIT defense killed off two Penn State power-plays.

RIT Head Scott McDonald was happy with his team’s effort in their first Division I playoff game.

“I thought that was a solid playoff game,” said McDonald, who picked up his 150th win behind the bench for the Tigers. “It was very low scoring, and tight defensively. They had an odd strategy of hanging a player in the neutral zone, but once we adjusted to it, I thought we controlled play very well in their end and did a great job of limiting their offensive chances.”

McDonald is now 150-37-22 in seven seasons at RIT.

Since McDonald took over in 2006, RIT is now 12-6 in the postseason, including an 12-3 mark at Ritter Arena. The Tigers are 10-1 at home in the postseason since the 2009-10 season, including a 5-0 mark last year en route to winning the 2012 NCAA Division III National Championship.

Today’s game was the fifth meetings between the two schools this season. RIT holds a 4-0-1 edge thus far. On Oct. 25, RIT rolled to a 4-1 win over the Nittany Lions. The next night, despite firing 63 shots on goal, RIT needed a late goal from Hiller to salvage a 2-2 tie. Paniccia made 61 saves in that contest for Penn State. Just two weekends ago, RIT rolled to 3-1 and 4-0 victories over the Nittany Lions at Ritter Arena. On Feb. 15, Ariane Yokoyama (Van Nuys, CA/LA Selects) dished out three assists to reach the 100-career point total for the Tigers. The next night, RIT exploded for three second period goals, and Laura Chamberlain (Norco, CA/LA Selects) stopped 20 shots to record her 12th career shutout.

The Tigers and Nittany Lions will play game two of the CHA First Round Series at 2 p.m. If RIT wins, they advance to face No. 2 seed Syracuse in the CHA Semifinal next weekend at Mercyhurst. If Penn State wins, they will force a decisive game three, which will be played on Sunday at Ritter Arena, beginning at 2 p.m.

W: Penn State 1 at RIT 3

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // RITathletics.com recap

Despite a 3-1 loss to RIT (13-13-5, 6-6-5 CHA) that clinched sixth place in the CHA for the Nittany Lion women (7-21-2, 1-14-2 CHA), there continue to be a lot of encouraging signs of growth. Most obviously, this is no longer a team that needs its goalie to make 60 saves to put a cosmetically good final score on the board. It's a group capable of competing on close to even terms with a team that will probably have home ice in the first round of the league tournament, at least for 40 minutes, and just isn't making those one or two plays that often flip the result one way or another.

To the mindful observer, and although PSU ran out of steam in the third period, there's a huge difference between this game, and the 4-1 loss that opened the series with the Tigers at the Ice Pavilion back in October. We're now at the point where something like a well-executed, but unconverted power play midway through the second just after RIT went up 2-0 is making a difference in these games. On the flip side, Penn State surrendered on two of its first three penalty kills, thanks largely to Kristina Moss, the Tigers' lethal weapon on point, who set up a juicy rebound with one bomb, then scored with another. This is no longer about simply keeping it close, it's about regretting missed chances and the fact that the opponent cashed theirs in.

Most importantly in the short term, head coach Josh Brandwene might be starting to look crazy - like a fox - when he speaks of peaking for the CHA tournament, where anything can happen. I'll admit it: back at media day, when I first heard that line, I rolled my eyes a little. I'm certainly not doing that now, because his team has the look of one capable of taking down any of the possible first-round opponents with a play here or there.

Here's the RIT recap, followed by the live blog:

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Jordin Pardoski's power play bomb set up Penn State's goal

Senior Ariane Yokoyama (Van Nuys, CA/LA Selects) dished out three assists, becoming the 12th player in the history of the RIT women’s hockey program to reach 100 career points, as the Tigers (13-13-5, 6-6-5 CHA) defeated visiting Penn State (7-21-2, 1-14-2) 3-1 in front of 792 fans at Ritter Arena on Friday night.

Yokoyama assisted on all three goals, one in each period to reach the historic milestone. She becomes the fourth active Tiger to reach the milestone. Yokoyama now has 13 goals and 87 assists in 114 career games. Her 87 assists are second all-time at the university.

Kim Schlattman (Stratford, Ontario/Cambridge Fury) scored two goals, while Kristina Moss (Webster, NY/Buffalo Bisons) had a goal and an assist. Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects) also dished out a pair of assists in the win. Goaltender Laura Chamberlain (Norco, CA/LA Selects) made 21 shots to earn her fourth win of the season, making a handful of good saves.

Taylor Gross spoiled Chamberlain's shutout bid, scoring a power-play goal with 3:41 left in regulation. Nicole Paniccia made 42 saves for the Nittany Lions.

RIT out-shot Penn State, 45-22, including 19-5 in the final period. The Tigers were 2-for-4 with the man-advantage, while Penn State was 1-for-5.

RIT Head Coach Scott McDonald was happy with his team effort and the atmosphere at Ritter Arena tonight.

"I was excited with our team's effort seen in the game tonight," said McDonald. "We played well in all facets of the game. Our fans were great tonight and it was exciting to see all of the stuffed Tigers get launched onto the ice after our first goal."

The Tigers scored the lone goal in the opening period, out-shooting Penn State, 13-9.

At the 7:03 mark of the first period, Schlattman buried a rebound in the slot after a shot from Moss was blocked for her 12th goal of the season. On the power-play, RIT worked the puck back to the point, where Yokoyama and Moss crossed with Yokoyama feeding Moss for the one-timer. Moss’ shot was blocked with the carom coming to Schlattman who was patrolling the slot. Schlattman fired a high shot over the blocker of Paniccia.

Right after, hundreds of stuffed Tigers came pouring on to the ice as RIT Greek Life sponsored the first Tiger Toss. The Tigers were picked up by the players and workers and will be donated to Strong Memorial Hospital.

Chamberlain had to come up with two big saves in the final two minutes of the period. First, she robbed Gross on a 2-on-1 in close, sticking her left pad out to keep RIT in the lead. Next, she robbed Hannah Hoenshell in close after a RIT defensive break down.

RIT increased its lead to 2-0 after 40 minutes of play.

The Tigers upped their lead to 2-0 at the 6:22 mark of the second period, as Moss fired a rocket of a slap shot past Paniccia for her second goal of the season. Kunichika won the face-off back to Moss, who played catch at the point with Yokoyama. Yokoyama placed a perfect pass to Moss, who from the right circle, blasted the one timer in on the power-play.

Chamberlain continued her strong play later in the period, making a big save on Shannon Yoxheimer through traffic.

Schlattman put the game away with her second goal of the game and 13th of the season with 13:11 left in regulation, as Kuncihika stole a puck from a Penn State defender behind the net and put a pass out in front that deflected off Yokoyama's stick right to Schlattman, who put a low shot from in close past Paniccia.

Gross spoiled Chamberlain's shutout with 3:41 left on the power-play as a shot from Yoxheimer deflected off the stick of Gross in front, off the glove of Chamberlain and in for her fifth goal of the year.

Penn State-Lindenwood Photo Gallery

Photos from Friday afternoon's Penn State-Lindenwood women's game. All are by and courtesy of Steven Hass. Click for full size.

Junior goaltender Nicole Paniccia

Freshman forward Emily Laurenzi, PSU's lone goal scorer.

Junior forward Jenna Welch

Freshman forward Hannah Hoenshell

Sophomore forward Jess Desorcie

Laurenzi

Freshman defender Paige Jahnke protects Paniccia

Freshman defender Jeanette Bateman

Senior (sort of) defender Lindsay Reihl

Junior forward Taylor Gross

Reihl and Desorcie sandwich Lindenwood's Alyssa West

W: Penn State 0 at Syracuse 1

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // SUathletics.com recap

SUathletics.com photos

The progress, while not always evident in the won-lost record, is there.

Consider the first meeting between Penn State (7-15-1, 1-9-1 CHA) and Syracuse (13-11-1, 7-3-1 CHA) this season. In PSU's first-ever NCAA home game on October 13th, the Orange jumped out of the gate with 28 first-period shots en route to a 4-0 win. SU's top six forwards, including Shiann Darkangelo, Holly Carrie-Mattimoe and Nicole Ferrara, skated almost unfettered through the Penn State zone, and it was only due to a heroic goaltending effort by Nicole Paniccia that the score wasn't much, much worse.

No, the Nittany Lions still have not scored against Syracuse this season. And, considering the shooting and territorial discrepancies in the game Friday night, it's slightly disingenuous to suggest that PSU "nearly turned the upset" against the Orange, as the GoPSUSports.com recap said, even with the 1-0 score. But, given how this latest affair played out, it is accurate to say that they are closer to doing so than they were in October. Under Josh Brandwene's "get better every day" mantra, that's good enough for now.

Kendra Rasmussen takes a draw against SU's Margot Scharfe

The obvious standout in the game was once again Paniccia, who was her usual spectacular self with 45 saves. She was only beaten once, by Nicole Renault's first career goal at the 6:49 mark of the first period. Renault, on the play, took a pass from Melissa Piacentini just inside the blue line, carried down the middle, and veered to the right just in front of Paniccia before firing home.

Penn State certainly had chances of their own. Jill Holdcroft was once again feisty and disruptive, creating havoc deep in the Syracuse zone, while Shannon Yoxheimer - who had an outstanding third period - Micayla Catanzariti and Hannah Hoenshell also had notable close calls. With 44 seconds remaining in the game, Brandwene used his timeout to get Paniccia to the bench, and consecutive faceoff wins led to attempts on net by Yoxheimer and Jordin Pardoski, but the former was blocked and the latter missed, allowing the Orange to run out the clock.

Speaking of blocked shots, junior Jenna Welch was once again Paniccia's best friend, stepping in front of several SU attempts, notably in the third period.

While Saturday's rematch at 2:00 p.m. is the obvious target for redemption, it might also be appropriate to take a look ahead to the CHA playoffs during the first weekend in March. Although current second-place Syracuse is three points clear of Robert Morris, it's still entirely possible that Penn State will head back to Tennity Ice Pavilion for the 3-6 first round matchup. At the rate the Nittany Lions improved from October to January, is anyone betting against PSU for that hypothetical matchup with the Orange in five weeks?

Here's the live blog from a tough, yet encouraging, loss:

Penn State-Chatham Photo Gallery II

Photos from Saturday night's Penn State-Chatham women's game. All are by and courtesy of Steven Hass. Click for full size.

Sophomore forward Tess Weaver

Freshman forward Katie Zinn

Senior defender Lindsay Reihl

Freshman forward Emily Laurenzi

Freshman defender Paige Jahnke

Freshman forward Kendra Rasmussen

Freshman defender Stephanie Walkom

Sophomore forward Cara Mendelson

Sophomore forward Katie Murphy

Senior forward Kate Christoffersen

Murphy

Junior forward Jenna Welch (left).

1/5 Postgame: Brandwene, Welch, Zinn

Comments from head coach Josh Brandwene, junior forward Jenna Welch (on the left in the video) and freshman forward Katie Zinn following the Nittany Lions' 4-0 win over Chatham Saturday night.

W: Penn State 4 vs. Chatham (NCAA DIII) 0

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // Chatham.edu recap

New lineup, same result.

Josh Brandwene made massive changes to his team for Saturday's rematch with NCAA Division III Chatham - in the end, every player on the roster saw ice over the weekend - but the Nittany Lions (7-12-1, 1-8-1 CHA) rolled once again, this time by a deceptively close 4-0 score.

Considering Penn State's entire top line of Shannon Yoxheimer, Jess Desorcie and Taylor Gross, as well as lethal Hannah Hoenshell, got the night off, a duplicate of Friday's 10-0 romp would probably be asking too much. Still, other than the goal count, the gaudy stats remained in place against a Cougars team that only had 13 players available. PSU rifled 71 shots on Chatham goalie Kaitlynn Smith and allowed only 16 against Celine Whitlinger and Brooke Meyer (who closed out the final 7:26 of the game). Of those 16 CU shots, only four came from beneath the dots. Emily Laurenzi's 12-3 record in the faceoff circle led the way to a 30-11 advantage on a team level.

It was Laurenzi's line, which included Jenna Welch and Katie Zinn, that accounted for three of the four goals. Zinn opened things up 5:07 into the game by slipping a wrister through from the left wing circle. A Cougar defense that blocked 32 shots and Smith - despite issues controlling the puck all game long - kept Penn State at bay until late in the second period, when Madison Smiddy's point bomb on net was dropped by Smith, allowing Welch to push it home. PSU finally cracked things open in the final period when a turnover deep in the Chatham zone allowed Zinn and Welch in behind everyone, with the Canadian feeding the Texan for her second of the night. Jill Holdcroft closed things out 58 seconds after Welch's second with a putback of her own rebound.

The Nittany Lions will now hit the road for the next four games (closing out a stretch of ten away games in 12 bridging the semester break) beginning with games against the ECAC's Union Dutchwomen in Schenectady, NY next Friday and Saturday.

Penn State-Chatham Photo Gallery

Photos from Friday night's Penn State-Chatham women's game. All are by and courtesy of Steven Hass. Click for full size.

Darby Kern made a great play to set up Kendra Rasmussen in the first period.

Shannon Yoxheimer's shots, appropriately, often leave a vapor trail.

Captain Taylor Gross in her customary net-front position.

Yoxheimer got her typical two goals and 10 shots in early.

Jenna Welch was fantastic on both of PSU's PKs and added a late goal.

As usual, scrappy Micayla Catanzariti was in the middle of the action.

Jordin Pardoski (4) celebrated her birthday by scoring.

Sophomore Tess Weaver scored her first NCAA goal late in the first period.

Hannah Hoenshell dangled her way to a brace.

Local kid Jill Holdcroft scored 21 seconds into the second period.

Brooke Meyer made six third-period saves to close out the shutout.

Birdie Shaw is tough, as CU's Maike Blakely learned the hard way.