Ten Forgotten Stories of the Transition

Penn State's transition from ACHA to NCAA is nearly complete by every conceivable measure, as the public opening of Pegula Ice Arena and the inaugural season for the Big Ten, the last significant milestones, are just about one month away. With that in mind, here's a look back at ten obscure stories (plus two honorable mentions) that may have slipped from the memories of most observers over the three years - yes, it's been that long - since the university announced its intent to sponsor varsity hockey and thanks to the massive donation of Terry and Kim Pegula.

The nature of the stories, of course, is that they are easy to forget - and that includes by me. If you think I've missed something more deserving than what's listed here, let me know in the comments!

Honorable Mention: PIA Groundbreaking

While Pegula Ice Arena's groundbreaking event on April 20, 2012 - notable for Terry Pegula's announcement that he had upped his donation from $88 million to $102 million - hardly qualifies as a "forgotten story," one quirk of the proceedings does. The two men's players made available to the media that day to talk about the arena were goaltender Matt Madrazo and forward Justin Kirchhevel, neither of whom lasted on PSU's NCAA roster until its opening.

Honorable Mention: Pennsylvania Puck

On October 1, 2011 and following a healthy buildup, Pennsylvania Puck (papuck.com) officially launched with the promise of delivering the best coverage available of Keystone State hockey. Although it tended to be a bit too focused on the AHL's Hershey Bears, it came through for the most part with an interesting mix of behind-the-scenes features, how-to videos, first-person blogging and more conventional reporting (arguably its most notable Penn State-related article concerned then-broadcaster Steve Penstone).

Rather suddenly and after only five months, the site shut down, citing traffic and ad revenue that did not meet expectations. PA Puck still maintained Twitter and Facebook accounts that shared hockey news from around the commonwealth after discontinuing its site content, but on Monday announced that those would be stopped as well.

10. Reed Linaker

Given the way his story suddenly re-emerged in June, it's possible that Linaker doesn't qualify as "forgotten" right now, although he will certainly re-enter that territory in time. The skinny: Linaker committed in May 2011 and, as that made him the first pledge for the 2012-2013 season, he became the first pure NCAA player and first scholarship player in Penn State hockey history.

However, before his freshman season began, the Albertan abruptly disappeared from the PSU roster, and although he attended games in a suit, he never played in one. As it turned out, Linaker was not cleared to play by the university's medical staff due to a heart issue (Linaker, for his part, disputes the assessment) and was not allowed to join the team. He eventually left school and will sit out the 2013-2014 season while continuing to explore other college options both north and south of the Canadian border.

9. The Blowout at RMU

Contrary to popular belief, the Penn State women did not play Robert Morris for the first time on November 10, 2012 at the Ice Pavilion. The meeting in question actually took place the previous year, on September 23, 2011, at RMU's 84 Lumber Arena as an exhibition opener to the final Lady Icers season. Although PSU's team included future NCAAers Kate Christoffersen, Tess Weaver, Katie Murphy, Madison Smiddy, Lindsay Reihl and Cara Mendelson (Taylor Gross and Jess Desorcie didn't arrive until mid-season), the hosts scored early and often in a 12-0 shellacking.

The Colonials' goal scorers included players like Rebecca Vint, Thea Imbrogno and Jamie Joslin who would star against the Nittany Lions' NCAA entry the following year, while Murphy and current Women's Ice Hockey Club president Allie Rothman led the Lady Icers with two shots apiece. RMU went on to win the College Hockey America playoff title, so it's not like they were a terrible team.

8. The CCHA "Invitation"

In a bit of a bizarre maneuver - particularly since Penn State had not yet announced its intent to elevate hockey to varsity status - current Michigan State coach Tom Anastos, then the commissioner of the CCHA, told the Detroit News in August of 2010 that he'd love to have the school in his league. "They are a very attractive choice - very attractive," Anastos said. "They're in a different market than we're in, more and more U.S. players are on college rosters, and there's tremendous growth of the sport in Pennsylvania."

The quote actually hurt PSU in the public's estimation. One year earlier, the CCHA had rejected an application from struggling independent/cause célèbre Alabama-Huntsville, and in tandem, the two events led many to speculate that the 11-team league was "saving a seat" for PSU, to UAH's detriment. The CCHA met its demise after last season when the later-formed Big Ten took away Michigan, MSU and Ohio State (as well as Penn State) and other schools followed in jumping ship. Anastos, in all likelihood, saw that outcome in his crystal ball a couple years ahead and, without regard to UAH's application, was doing what he could to preserve his conference.

7. Tim Carr

Like Linaker, Carr was a first - along with Jake Friedman, he was the initial Penn State commit following the Pegula donation. Unlike Linaker though, Carr actually played at PSU, suiting up in three games as an Icers freshman in 2011-2012 and going 2-1-0 with a 2.00 goals against average, a 0.919 save percentage and a shutout of Rutgers. The product of Pine Bush, NY had enjoyed a great campaign with the EJHL's New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs the season before, earning a good chunk of minutes in a tandem with current Boston College netminder Brian Billett. As a result, many (guilty) pegged him as a significant contributor to the inaugural Nittany Lions, but he quickly fell behind Matt Madrazo and P.J. Musico in the Penn State crease and never recovered.

Over winter break and just before the Icers' outdoor game against Neumann at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, Carr transferred to NCAA Division III Western New England University. In a season and a half with the Golden Bears, he has compiled a 7-8-1 record, a 2.94 goals against average and a 0.919 save percentage.

6. Name The Student Section

Prior to and throughout most of the 2012-2013 season, there was a push from the fine folks in the athletic department to develop a name for Penn State's hockey student section. In addition to the standard social media solicitations, there were suggestion boxes set up at the Ice Pavilion during games. Given that we haven't heard a thing about it in roughly nine months, it's probably fair to consider the effort abandoned. And I'm fine with that. After all, PSU's well-regarded football student section doesn't have a name. The lesser-regarded basketball student section does have a name, one that does little other than draw out snarky hoops loyalists when an "ill-informed" journalist dares to use "Nittany Nation" in any sort of general context. To paraphrase noted vampire hunter Abraham Lincoln, better to remain nameless and be thought a fool than to come up with a really terrible name - The A-Team at Michigan State, for example - and remove all doubt.

5. The Shoot Twice Founders Club

The what? Yeah, pretty much. One early rendering of Pegula Ice Arena (below) included a large banner for the mythical association fronting the upper level. However, as I'm sure all of you know by now, the "shoot twice" end is, in actuality, home to the student section and not the Founders Club - and it looks nothing like what is depicted. Although the rendering quickly became dated, it remained a favorite among bloggers and media well past its sell-by date, possibly due to its showing a packed bowl with a game on the ice (something that was generally not the case with other, more accurate versions). The Founders Club was still receiving circulation as recently as January, even with the actual arena over halfway complete.

4. PegulaVille

In July 2012, then-junior John Romano initiated a movement for a student hockey campout, similar to the well-known Paternoville Nittanyville for football games. There was a Twitter account, which quickly gained a couple hundred followers. There was a Facebook page. There was some publicity, including a pretty cynical Three Stars entry on this blog and a much more positive turn in the Collegian that included quotes from Connor Varley. Then, shortly after the Nittany Lions' inaugural jersey unveiling event that September, it went poof faster than Keyser Soze and hasn't been heard from since.

3. Mark Johnson

The last, frantic days of the search for Penn State's first NCAA men's coach in April of 2011 were truly a spectacle, one that gained national interest as the college hockey world waited to hear which of finalists Guy Gadowsky, Scott Sandelin and Mark Johnson would get the nod.

The choice, obviously, ended up being Gadowsky, but Wisconsin athletic director and noted windbag Barry Alvarez stirred up controversy when he claimed days later that Johnson had received an offer from PSU and turned it down to remain the women's coach at UW, his alma mater. Was Gadowsky a Plan B, or even a Plan C (Sandelin and Minnesota-Duluth, his employer both then and now, remained silent on the issue)? Not so fast. A couple weeks after Alvarez's comments, Johnson went on the record to dispute his boss' claim of an offer and even said that he was relieved at not having to face a difficult choice.

2. The 2011-2012 Co-Coach Plan

When Gadowsky was hired, he did not directly replace then-Icers coach Scott Balboni. In fact, the two were listed as co-head coaches for 33 extremely awkward days. The idea, initially, was for Balboni to remain as the game-day, ground-level coach, allowing Gadowsky and his staff additional time to recruit while also evaluating players and implementing systems. Fortunately, sanity eventually won out: Gadowsky expressed a desire to take on the whole ball of wax, and Balboni obliged by resigning.

1. Jessi Hilton

While Penn State has had a couple of traditional major junior defections already in the forms of Thomas Welsh and Conor Garland, Jessi Hilton was sort of the backwards version of that. In early July 2011, and at the same time as Kenny Brooks, Hilton committed to PSU.

He was with the AJHL's Sherwood Park Crusaders at the time, but had previously played 12 regular season games with the WHL's Calgary Hitmen during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons, which not surprisingly presented issues. Quietly, Hilton disappeared from the Nittany Lions' commit list just one week later, when the NCAA wouldn't grant his appeal concerning those "professional" games - even if the appeal was granted, he still would have had to sit out a full season plus 12 games. Fortunately, the Hilton story has a happy ending, as he wound up at the University of British Columbia (the CIS is okay with major junior participation and UBC, by the way, is where former PSU women's player Katie Zinn transferred) and scored 10 points in 22 games as a freshman last year.

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.

A Marked Man

The popular Mark Johnson rumor received a little bit of extra juice early Wednesday morning with this dispatch from the Wisconsin State Journal's Andy Baggot:

University of Wisconsin women's hockey coach Mark Johnson has already built one dynasty. Will he consider the opportunity to try his hand at another?

Penn State officials have received permission from UW athletic director Barry Alvarez to speak with Johnson about becoming the first coach of their NCAA Division I men's program.

Johnson said he's aware of Penn State's interest, but he's had no contact with any of its representatives.

"I'll deal with what we've got to deal with here in the next couple weeks and see what happens," he said after practice Tuesday.

The "no contact" part meshes with what Joe Battista has said repeatedly: that they won't disrupt teams in season. In case you're wondering, the women's NCAA championship game is March 20th, and it's pretty fair to say that Wisconsin, 32-2-2 and No. 1 in both the USCHO poll and the PairWise, stands a decent shot of playing that long.

Feel free to read the rest of the story, although it's just a combination of stuff we already knew (Battista visited Madison last month, Penn State is starting a program - it's true!, Barry Alvarez is bullish on Big Ten hockey) and Johnson biographical information. It does, however, reinforce George Gwozdecky's candidacy (although without substantiation) deep in the article.

Denver coach George Gwozdecky, a UW alum who played with Johnson when the latter was a freshman, is expected to be a candidate for both [the Penn State and Michigan State] jobs.

Some suddenly-relevant-again reading material:

Head Coach Candidate: Mark Johnson
Head Coach Candidate: George Gwozdecky

Head Coach Candidate: Mark Johnson

Fifth 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, Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley.

Where do you start with Mark Johnson? Do you go where most go - his status as one of the legends of amateur hockey in the United States, thanks largely to his two goals against the Soviets in 1980? Do you talk about his lineage, as the son of the legendary "Badger Bob" Johnson? Or do you go straight to the nuts and bolts of what's rather quickly become a great coaching career of his own? Why decide when you have a well-produced video with syrupy music in the background encapsulating all three things at your disposal?

Following an honor-studded career playing for his father at Wisconsin (national champion, two-time All-American) and the Miracle on Ice, Johnson played for the Penguins, Whalers, Blues and Devils, then finished off his playing career in Italy in 1992. He was a better NHL player than people may remember, scoring at least 50 points in five of his 10 full seasons, including a high of 87 with Hartford in 1983-1984, a season that earned him a trip to the 1984 All-Star Game. Johnson also wore the C just beneath his Pucky the Whale patch from 1983-1985.

After quick stints coaching at the high school level and with the Madison Monsters of the old Colonial Hockey League in 1995-1996, he moved on to his alma mater, as an assistant for the Badger men under Jeff Sauer, the man who succeeded his father and a legend in his own right. Wisconsin was an up-and-down program during Johnson's six-year run as an assistant - the highs of two WCHA championships (one regular season, one tournament) and two NCAA tournament appearances were balanced with three losing seasons. When Sauer retired following the 2001-2002 season, Johnson was passed over for the head job in favor of former Wisconsin teammate Mike Eaves.

Perhaps taking to heart that famous Herb Brooks line "great moments are born from great opportunities," Johnson accepted a head coaching job with the fledgling Wisconsin women's program rather that leave Madison. The record since then is staggering: national championships in 2006, 2007 and 2009. A 210-39-22 record going into this season. A three-time AHCA Coach of the Year winner. Two Patty Kazmaier (the women's Hobey Baker) winners. A 100 percent GSR according to the latest data. Never more than nine losses when he's coached a full season. That qualification is required because he left the Badgers in 2009-2010 to coach the US women's national team to a silver medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Predictably, the program struggled without Johnson last year, but looks to be back on track this year.

The catch: would the iconic figure in Wisconsin sports actually leave to (presumably) coach against his alma mater at Penn State? If Johnson's words in this 2007 article is any indication, it might not be an easy sell.

“There have been other opportunities, a few in the college ranks and a couple with the NHL. As I like stability with my team, I like stability for my family, as well. My dad did that with our family. He didn’t get involved with the NHL or moving to that next position until everybody was out of the house.”

Johnson's youngest child is 13, so if he sticks to his father's rule, that pretty much takes him out of the running. Still, the rumors persist.

"I heard the deal was done a few weeks ago. The guy that sold East Resources to Shell wrote a check for somewhere near $100M. 6,300 seat arena. The coach will be hired a year in advance of play starting. Mark Johnson is an early candidate. Indiana will also allegedly start a D1 program and the Big 10 will be a hockey conference with content for the Big 10 network."

Or, if you prefer, there's this one, although I have yet to figure out how Johnson's name was a part of that rumor, it seems shoehorned in there by the author. Plus, the guy I believe to be his "anonymous" source says he's not the guy:

Penn State D1 Hockey Coach short list does not include Mark Johnson.

Oh, ok. Nothing to see here. Whether he would come or not, whether he's even under consideration or not, there's little doubt that Johnson is an exciting candidate that would bring instant credibility to our program.