Club Sandwich: October 8th

Taylor Vincent had a three-point evening in a blowout of Saint Joseph's on Friday

ACHA D2 Ice Lions

Following up their pair of blowout wins over ACHA Division 1 Indiana (PA) to open the season, the Ice Lions did something even worse to Saint Joseph's to open their Mid-Atlantic College Hockey schedule with a win at Pegula Ice Arena Friday night.

Ryan Urban got things started just 40 seconds from the opening faceoff, and the goals came even faster after that - by the 1:45 mark of the first period, it was 3-0 PSU thanks to Taylor Vincent and Abe Edson. Edson would complete a hat trick with goals in each of the final two periods while adding an assist to Peter Daley's 6-0 goal midway through the second, while Urban added a second goal and an assist on Spencer Svoboda's third-period power play snipe. Svoboda, in addition to that marker, added a couple of helpers during the stat-padding affair.

Chris Dinsmore's slapper from the dot boosted the Ice Lions to a 4-3 overtime win over MACH rival Temple the next day in Penn State's toughest test of the season to date. With the victory, PSU climbed to 4-0-0 overall and 2-0-0 in the MACH North Division.

Tim Acker gave the Ice Lions a 1-0 lead midway though the first period, but he was answered just 32 seconds later on a breakaway by the Owls' Steven Luongo. Temple went ahead in the second when Joseph Pisko slammed home Stephen Kennedy's rebound, but a holding call to TU moments later helped Urban re-knot the contest off of Acker's setup. Late in the second period, during a 4-on-4 stretch, Acker collected his third point and second goal to put Penn State back ahead into the third period. Once more though, the trailing team had a reply thanks to the Owls' Phil Vassilev with 6:23 remaining in regulation.

Grad student Ryan Fullerton, who previously played at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, turned in a sound effort between the pipes.

Next up, the Ice Lions will head to the ACHA Showcase in Kalamazoo, MI this weekend to take on power programs SIU-Edwardsville, Michigan State (the defending national champs) and Grand Valley State.

Tyler Lantz (19) and Larry Barretta (17) helped Berks to a weekend sweep

Around the Commonwealth

Note: Apologies for the fact that I've neglected the team at Penn State Harrisburg in these updates - despite my best efforts, I simply can't locate anything out there about them. If you have any information, or at least know where I can find it, let me know in the comments and I'll add them in.

ACHA D1 Berks (4-2-1, 1-0-0 ECHA)

October 4th: W 10-3 vs. Cortland State
October 5th: W 5-1 at Lehigh

The Blue Lions bounced back from a tough two losses in three (one coming in overtime) weekend to blow past both Cortland State and Lehigh. In the win over the Red Dragons, a tight 2-2 game early in the second period was blown open by consecutive goals from Chris Cashin, Tyler Lantz and Tommy Demusis - then followed by five more from Berks in the third period after Cortland had trimmed the score to 5-3 late in the second. Larry Barretta, who already has nine goals and 15 points this season, scored twice to help seal the follow-up in Bethlehem the next day.

ACHA D3 Altoona (3-1-0, 0-1-0 CHE)

October 5th: W 7-3 at George Mason
October 6th: W 6-2 at George Mason
October 7th: L at California (PA)

Following their riveting season-opening win over IUP at Galactic Ice, Toontown headed down to Virginia for a series with George Mason. In the opener, Jeff Nelson clicked for two goals and an assist, while Ben Kinch added a pair of helpers in addition to his own tally. Nick DeLaurentis had a pair of goals as well, with Adam Badorrek and Conlan Sodrosky scoring the others. Freshman goaltender John Travis got the win in his first career start. The rematch featured many of the usual suspects starring offensively: Kinch scored twice and Nelson and Sodrosky each got one, as did Steven Fedena and Luk Devorski.

Details concerning Altoona's Monday night loss at Cal weren't immediately available.

ACHA D3 Behrend (3-1-0, 1-0-0 CHE)

October 4th: W 7-5 at Washington & Jefferson (D1)
October 5th: W 8-0 at Washington & Jefferson (D1)

While few would confuse W&J with Oklahoma among D1 programs, Behrend was still very impressive in securing a pair of road wins against a team two divisions up. On Friday, PSUB took a game tied at three after 40 minutes and outgunned the Presidents in the third period to win 7-5. The next day, Sam Stroud's shutout was supported by a Justin Leonard hat trick as well as two goals from Jared Bagnato.

ACHA D3 Brandywine (4-0-0, 1-0-0 DVCHC)

October 4th: W 7-3 vs. Alvernia
October 5th: W 7-3 at Rowan

Perennial ACHA regional tournament participant Brandywine is off to another great start thanks, most recently, to a pair of 7-3 wins over the weekend. The first, against Alvernia, was the team's DVCHC opener and powered by four goals from senior and Archbishop Wood graduate Drew Haber as well as a goal and three assists from Billy Gregg.

Three Days in the ACHA

Kevin Backoefer and Behrend split their opening weekend by taking down Fredonia in OT at home

On Friday, I wrote about the flood of Penn State ACHA games over the weekend that signaled the beginning of the hockey season. So... how did that all turn out? Glad you asked.

As I'm sure you know by now, I attended four of the twelve contests below in person (the ones without words underneath the final score) so feel free to click through for separate posts on those.

Friday, September 27

Men's D3: Penn State Behrend 2 at RIT 8

A quick glance at that score says that the Tigers thrashed Behrend, although the game didn't reach blowout status until a wild third period that saw seven combined goals (it was 3-0 RIT after 40 minutes). Kevin Backoefer and Nathan Ropelewski scored for the Lions.

Men's D2: Penn State 6 at IUP (D1) 1

In the front end of a home-and-home series with the Crimson Hawks, the Ice Lions steadily grew their lead throughout the contest to win rather comfortably. Creek Lewis got his season off to a great start with a hat trick - all goals coming on the power play - and Peter Daley, Voight Demeester and Fredrik Linge matched him with three more.

Men's D1: Slippery Rock 1 at Penn State Berks 4

Berks is the one PSU team in this post that had games under its belt prior to this past weekend, as they split with that same IUP team that played the Ice Lions on September 20th and 21st. A strong second period against SRU helped the Blue Lions climb to 2-1-0 on the year.

Men's D3: Rutgers-Camden 2 at Penn State Brandywine 8

The perennially-strong team at Brandywine got off to a good start by dismantling Rutgers-Camden in a DVCHC contest at West Chester's mammoth Ice Line.

Women's D2: Liberty 0 at Penn State 6

Saturday, September 28

Men's D3: IUP (D2) 4 at Penn State Altoona 5 (Photos)

Men's D1: Slippery Rock 4 at Penn State Berks 3 (OT)

The Rock, much as IUP ultimately did, rallied for a split against Berks, thanks to J.T. Grahl finishing a hat trick in the extra period. The result was at least mildly controversial, as the Blue Lions had two goals disallowed in regulation.

Men's D3: Penn State Brandywine 3 at Shippensburg 2

At the venerable Hersheypark Arena and in another DVCHC league game, Brandywine overcame two Austin Rinck goals to take a tight game that was tied after both the first (0-0) and second (1-1) periods. Brandon Benn scored twice for PSUB, Billy Gregg had the third, and goalie Andrew Hieber stopped 46 of 48 shots.

Women's D2: Liberty 0 at Penn State 7 (at Altoona, PA)

Men's D3: Fredonia 3 at Penn State Behrend 4 (OT)

Behrend bounced back with a rousing overtime win in its home opener against College Hockey East foe Fredonia. Ropelewski was the hero - although without Hunter Cunningham's two goals and an assist, he never gets a chance at the winner.

Men's D2: IUP (D1) 2 at Penn State 8 (Photos)

Sunday, September 29

Men's D1: West Chester 5 at Penn State Berks 3

Uniquely among teams featured in this post, Berks had the always-tough task of a three game weekend. They may have paid for it against West Chester as PSUB jumped out to a 3-1 second-period lead thanks to goals from Thomas DeMusis, Theodore Marquardt and Josh Flamini (shorthanded). However the Golden Rams responded decisively with four unanswered, including three in the third period.

Nine up, three down. Not a bad weekend, Penn State hockey.

Jumping In With Both Feet

After the ACHA Division 1 team at Penn State Berks gave us a taste of real-life hockey action last weekend - a road split at Indiana (PA) - Penn State hockey largely hits its 2013-2014 stride beginning today. While neither NCAA team opens up until the women head to Vermont in a week, take a look at the schedule of games for all of the ACHA squads over the next three days:

Friday, September 27
Men's D3: Penn State Behrend at RIT, 7:30 p.m.
Men's D2: Penn State at IUP (D1), 7:35 p.m.
Men's D1: Slippery Rock at Penn State Berks, 7:45 p.m.
Men's D3: Rutgers-Camden at Penn State Brandywine, 9:15 p.m.
Women's D2: Liberty at Penn State, 10:15 p.m.

Saturday, September 28
Men's D3: IUP (D2) at Penn State Altoona, 3:50 p.m.
Men's D1: Slippery Rock at Penn State Berks, 4:00 p.m.
Men's D3: Penn State Brandywine at Shippensburg, 6:00 p.m.
Women's D2: Liberty at Penn State, 6:30 p.m. (at Altoona, PA)
Men's D3: Fredonia at Penn State Behrend, 7:30 p.m.
Men's D2: IUP (D1) at Penn State, 10:15 p.m.

Sunday, September 29
Men's D1: West Chester at Penn State Berks, 4:30 p.m.

Not bad, eh?

I encourage anyone able and looking for an activity this weekend to get out and support at least one of those teams. The WD2 Women's Ice Hockey Club and the D2 Ice Lions play at the Pegula Ice Arena Community Rink, of course. The WIHC's game Saturday is at Galactic Ice Rink in Altoona, which also happens to be home ice for Penn State Altoona. The Ice Lions' game at IUP tonight will take place in Indiana's S&T Bank Arena. Penn State Berks is based in the Body Zone Sports and Wellness Complex in Wyomissing, while Penn State Behrend calls the Mercyhurst Ice Center in Erie home. If you're in the Harrisburg-Hershey area, Shippensburg will host Penn State Brandywine at the historic Hersheypark Arena, while Brandywine's home game will be at Ice Line in West Chester.

For my part, I'm going to try something possibly crazy, but definitely unprecedented in a couple different ways.

A quartet of those games listed above are in the cards for TYT, which will tie the blog's weekend record for attendance at Penn State games originally set January 11th through 13th. The first game will be the Women's Ice Hockey Club's season opener against Liberty tonight, the first intercollegiate hockey game of any kind played in Pegula Ice Arena.

On Saturday, a never-before-attempted tripleheader is in order, beginning with a tough season opener for Altoona against IUP's Division 2 team. Immediately after that, the WIHC will play a rematch with Liberty on the same sheet of ice. The conclusion of that game should come quickly enough to grab a soft pretzel and a coffee for dinner and head back up I-99 to see the Ice Lions play their home opener, the first men's intercollegiate game in Pegula Ice Arena, against IUP's Division 1 team. Sometime in there, I hope to write posts about all of those games (this is all pretty meaningless to you without that, after all).

Should I survive, it will be a story for the grandkids. I've certainly watched and even attended three (or more) hockey games in a day before - any ACHA National Tournament is an obvious example - but never with the level of engagement that will be required tomorrow.

Here's a brief look at each of the games on the docket.

The WIHC has the highest of aspirations for the coming season

Women's D2: Penn State vs. Liberty

On paper, to put it bluntly, the Women's Ice Hockey Club should roll. Penn State is loaded up this year as seniors Carly Szyszko, Katie Vaughan and Allie Rothman are back for one more shot at a national championship after falling just short in last year's title game and in two previous seasons as ACHA D1 Lady Icers.

Although Mandy Mortach, the team's hard-nosed second-leading scorer in 2012-2013, will not return, nearly everyone else does. The list includes Smash Sisters Tara Soukup and Ashton Schaffer on defense, dynamic forward Devon Fisk and other key players like Mary Kate Tonetti, Elizabeth Denis, Nina Elia, Taylor Nyman, Jackie Saideh and Sarah Eisenhut, one of the best goalies in the nation, but with the misfortune of being stuck behind the highly-acclaimed Vaughan. A sound group of six new players will give PSU incredible depth as well, bolstering their status as a title favorite.

Liberty is on the other end of the spectrum. The Flames were 0-12-0 last season and scored just seven goals in those contests, and a pair of exhibition shutout losses to the Carolina Lightning U16AA squad two weeks ago gave little hope for improvement. Second-year head coach Sara Niemi will look to her goaltender, younger sister Leanne Niemi, to keep Liberty in range.

Altoona coach Tom Lantz hopes his team will have a late-game edge

Men's D3: Penn State Altoona vs. IUP (D2)

Altoona, as with all two-year commonwealth campus teams, is a unique coaching challenge because every player is either a freshman or (figuratively speaking) a senior. Tom Lantz doesn't have the luxury of multi-year rebuilds, and only sees limited gains from individual players along their respective development curves before needing to bring in an entirely new team.

The good news in that department, as Toontown attempts to bounce back from a disappointing 2012-2013, is that one of this year's "seniors" is explosive forward Conlan Sodrosky, and another is stalwart defenseman Brian Kruser, both of whom were recently named alternate captains. Although he slumped a bit late in his freshman season, Sodrosky showed that he produces points in bunches, as his 19 in 16 games included outings of five, three and three. The team made headlines in the offseason by acquiring the services of Penn State football legend Derrick Williams as a strength and conditioning coach, and it's hard to believe that Altoona's training with a former NFL player won't pay dividends in those tight third periods.

Indiana's D2 club will present an obvious challenge as a team in a higher division. Last year, the Crimson Hawks split a pair of games against members of Altoona's conference, College Hockey East, beating Saint Vincent College 4-1 and losing to Pitt-Johnstown by the same score. Ryan Dougherty, who scored 12 times in 14 games a year ago, will lead the IUP offense.

The Ice Lions are counting on Creek Lewis to score - often - from near the blue paint

Men's D2: Penn State vs. IUP (D1)

Second-time first-year Ice Lions head coach Ryan Behnken, although also playing an Indiana team one step up in division, has a set of problems a little bit different from Lantz. After a couple seasons of reaping residual benefits of the Icers' transition to NCAA status in the form of players like Mike Broccolo, Joe Zitarelli and Mac Winchester, those guys have now graduated. Second-team All-American defenseman Brandon Russo, another former Icer, didn't graduate - but he did transfer to Canisius to play for the Golden Griffins' NCAA Division I team. So in a sense, it could be said that 2013-2014 is the first year for whatever the "real" program will be going forward, as PSU attempts to follow up on a pair of dominant seasons ending with nationals bids.

That's not to say that the Ice Lions are barren. Far from it. Junior power forward Creek Lewis remains one of D2's best scorers, and he's complimented quite nicely by Taylor Vincent, an 18-goal man as a freshman last year. Ryan Urban, Franky Reluzco and Fredrik Linge are also names to watch up front, while senior standouts Chris Dinsmore and Max O'Malley will be expected to help a somewhat inexperienced blueline corps grow into the part as the season progresses. Teddy Steinhart is the presumptive starter in goal, although he'll be pushed hard by senior Martin Gudewicz and freshmen Michael DeGaetano and Matthew Erlichman.

Much like the Ice Lions, the Crimson Hawks (who, unlike most teams discussed here, have already started their season and carry a 1-1-0 record, as mentioned at the top of the post) face a few holes to fill. Top scorers Jeff Cupelli and Chase Keibler have departed, leaving Tyler Fitzgerald and Adam Kondraski under pressure to increase their production. Ryan Lord returns in goal, although he struggled a little bit in his first outing of the season, a 5-4 loss to Penn State Berks.

Three Stars: May 20-26

Jerry York and his program, which has won three of the last six national titles, may be visiting PIA

3. 2013 NHL Draft Rankings – War Room May Edition (Round 4: 90-120)
(The Hockey Writers)

It's not all that common to find people with the knowledge and guts to rank NHL Entry Draft prospects beyond the first round, so full marks to THW for taking on that task. They have Eamon McAdam listed 113th ahead of the June 30th event, and also quoted a certain Penn State hockey blog in discussing him.

Yeah, okay, they misspelled my last name and put this site's URL down as "ThankYouTerryBlogspot.ca," but hey, at least the link works.

McAdam will be in Toronto for the NHL Scouting Combine all this week as he attempts to maximize his draft position.

2. Special look inside PSU's new hockey arena
(WJAC)

The latest best look at the Pegula Ice Arena came from WJAC last week.

One quick news item buried in the moving pictures: all 18 men's scholarships are fully endowed, according to Joe Battista. Put that together with the arena being completely paid off, ticket sales proceeding well and Big Ten Network money (even if it isn't $2 million), and I'm pretty confident in my admittedly revised opinion of Penn State hockey's finances.

1. The Hottest Ticket in Town is Going Fast! Get Them While You Can!
(statecollege.com)

I'm not sure why StateCollege.com compromises itself as a news gathering and reporting entity to let Battista write what is essentially a weekly advertisement for Penn State hockey, but I'm glad that they do.

The non-conference schedule features a number of traditional college hockey powers that have recently played in the NCAA Frozen Four! While I can’t tell you dates or exact teams, I will whet your appetite and toss you a hint on a featured game that will take place in Pegula Ice Arena this season. Think recent National Championship team from New England that Penn Stater’s will surely pack the arena to see as we “jump in to the deep end of the pool” in just year two of our NCAA College Hockey timeline.

Wow, okay.

Just to get the less surprising part of that out of the way, "a number of traditional college hockey powers that have recently played in the NCAA Frozen Four" could probably be considered more fuel for the fire that is the UMass-Lowell rumor, as the RiverHawks made it to Pittsburgh back in April. Vermont (which made the Frozen Four in 2009), RIT (2010), Union (2012) and Three Rivers Classic participant Boston College (2010 and 2012) have also participated in the season's final weekend within the last five years. Toss in conference opponents Wisconsin (2010), Michigan (2011) and Minnesota (2012), and that's an impressive collection of eight different Frozen Four teams of the 18 different programs qualifying since 2009.

On top of that, we have a home "game" against a "recent national championship team from New England." Recent is subjective, of course, but since 2000, the only winners from New England are Boston College (2001, 2008, 2010, 2012), Boston University (2009) and Yale (2013). Right off the top, we can chop BU from the list, as the Terriers have released a schedule that does not include Penn State. It's probably not Yale either, as the Ivy League schools limit themselves to a 29-game schedule and according to USCHO's 2013-14 Schedule Thread, the Bulldogs have 31 games (two are exemptions) already in for the coming year - although it should be noted that the Bulldogs haven't officially published anything yet.

So... Boston College. The Eagles haven't released their schedule either, but The Boston College Hockey Blog has most of it pieced together. However, there are only 33 games on BCHB's list, one under the non-Ivy limit of 34. So given Battista's parameters and what we know of the other teams fitting them, I have to think that BC is it. Jerry York's program has been the class of college hockey over the last decade, and Penn State could play them twice in year two. Deep end, here we come.

Just to sweep up before leaving, Battista also mentioned that the PIA opener against Army on October 11th against Army will be nationally televised and that season ticket deposits now top 3,400.

PS. The scheduling mentioned in this entry adds up to 13 non-conference games which, when adding in the 20 Big Ten contests, still puts Penn State one under 34. So there may be a surprise yet to come.

Best of the Rest

PSU hockey arena beginning to look like hockey arena
(Broad Street Hockey)

I want to preface this by saying that, issues with Black Shoe Diaries' Bill DiFilippo aside, I'm a huge fan of the SB Nation network. I consider myself an avid reader of five of its blogs and a frequent-ish reader of at least three others, Broad Street Hockey included. Both BSD and BSH have been very good to this blog in the past. I really like Travis Hughes as well, and consider him among the most intelligent and level-headed hockey writers out there today. He's generally a PSU-friendly guy, as demonstrated by the fact that this post exists. All of that said... WTF guy?

Philadelphia will host the 2014 Frozen Four. Chances of Penn State making it are very, very slim with what's expected to be another weak out-of-conference schedule and a very tough in-conference slate.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, here's what we know about the out-of-conference schedule: one game against Army to open the PIA, the game against Vermont in Philly, a Three Rivers Classic including Boston College (although I have to think that PSU will open against Robert Morris again as the powers that be try to cultivate that rivalry, with BC and Bowling Green in the other first-day game), an away series against Air Force, a game at RMU, a home series against Union and one PIA game against RIT. The rumor mill includes three possible home games against Boston College and UMass-Lowell, as noted above.

Is that appreciably different than Wisconsin's non-league schedule? The Badgers will play (all two-game series, unless noted) Northern Michigan, at Boston College (1), at Boston University (1), Lake Superior State, at Miami, Colorado College, Alabama-Huntsville and the biggest joke in college hockey right now, known to some as Alaska-Anchorage.

What about Ohio State? They have (again, two-game series unless noted) Miami (1), at Miami (1), Bowling Green (1), at Bowling Green (1), Robert Morris (1), at Robert Morris (1), Minnesota-Duluth, Niagara, Canisius and Mercyhurst. I'm biased, but I happen to think PSU's slate is significantly better.

Long story short, Penn State scheduled well enough that there's really no rational justification for saying that the Nittany Lions have "another weak out-of-conference schedule."

Oh yeah... the link also includes a couple of pretty cool GIFs of the PIA progress from beginning to now (which were actually the centerpiece of the thing, until an throwaway comment at the end set me off).

URI: No interest in varsity hockey
(Rhode Island Public Radio)

Confirming what I sort of suspected all along but didn't want to say out loud, Rhode Island's reported efforts at varsity hockey are apparently not taking place on an official level.

URI officials have no interest in upgrading the current program from club status to a varsity sport in either men’s or women’s hockey, says URI sports information director Mike Lepray. "We’re not pursuing adding either men’s or women’s hockey to varsity status."

St. Anselm, your move.

St. Anselm hockey eyes Division I
(New Hampshire Union Leader)

If the last article didn't erase all doubt concerning the most likely elevation candidate, this one will, with Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America commissioner Bob DeGregorio even admitting that the Hawks are the clubhouse leaders.

Chambers & O'Brien Pairing Highlights 17th Annual CVC Golf Tournament, May 31
(gopsusports.com)

Guy Gadowsky and Josh Brandwene will both play in Penn State's Coaches vs. Cancer golf tournament on Friday. BUT WHO CARES OMG BILL O'BRIEN AND PAT CHAMBERS!!!

Yeah, I'm turning into "bitter hockey guy who resents that football and basketball get more attention," after swearing I wouldn't. If I ever start dropping "pointyball" and "bouncyball" (occasionally "squeakball") with regularity, you'll know that I'm all the way gone.

Stampede Name Head Coach to Lead the 2013-14 Campaign!
(The Junior Hockey News)

Now-former Ice Lions coach Matt Morrow won't be the only guy with Penn State ties coaching in the Tier III Junior A Western States Hockey League in 2013-2014. Gary Gill, who oversaw Penn State Berks' elevation to ACHA Division 1 in 2007-2008 after serving as an assistant in 2006-2007, is the new head coach of the Cheyenne Stampede. Gill departed Berks after just one season in charge, but thanks in part to his efforts the team saw immediate success at the D1 level, qualifying for the ACHA national championships in 2009.

Creek Lewis will look to move to 4-0 in his career against UMBC on December 8th

2013-14 Schedule
(umbcicehockey.com)

Speaking of the Ice Lions, we now know two of their games for the coming season, thanks to MACHA rival Maryland-Balitmore County putting out their schedule. The Retrievers will visit Pegula Ice Arena on Sunday, December 8th, with PSU hitting crab country on Saturday, February 1, 2014. Matchups between the two powers of ACHA Division 2's Southeast Region are always tremendous, so if you want to get out to see the Ice Lions, you could make a worse call than December 8th.

Other things revealed through the UMBC schedule: the MACHA playoffs will take place over the February 14-16, 2014 weekend, the ACHA's Southeast Regionals follow on the 22nd and 23rd, while the ACHA National Tournament (March 21-25, 2014) has been awarded to Marlborough, MA. Furthermore the MACHA, which lost East Carolina and Monmouth from its ranks after last season, appears as if it is dropping its divisional structure and operating as a single and stacked ten-team circuit (PSU, UMBC, Rider, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Rowan, St. Joseph's, Liberty, Delaware, Temple), with each team playing its nine opponents once at home and once on the road.

Brandywine Ice Hockey Honored at All Sports Banquet
(psubrandywineathletics.com)

PSU Brandywine's 25th annual all-sports banquet, which featured University Park athletic director Dave Joyner as a guest speaker, had some representation from the only commonwealth campus hockey team to qualify for ACHA Division 3 regionals last season: Drew Haber, Andrew Hieber, Francis Fourney and Joe Naselli were each recognized for their DVCHC all-conference selections.

@LetsPlay_Hockey
(Twitter)

Duluth East (MN) High School product Meirs Moore, a defenseman with the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers, committed to RPI last week after previously expressing interest in Penn State.

RIT's Ali Binnington: good at playing goalie, not an idiot

RIT women's hockey raises $5,939.86 to help "CURE Childhood Cancer"

Women's hockey goaltender Ali Binnington earns 2013 Co-SIDA/Capital One Academic All-Region honor
(ritathletics.com)

Congratulations to the Tigers, a CHA rival of the Nittany Lion women, on the nearly $6,000 generated by their Skate for the Cure event in February (the check was only recently presented to the target organization, which is why this is news now) as well as to goaltender Ali Binnington on becoming RIT's first academic all-region selection of their women's Division I era.

NCHC commissioner Scherr says link to European job ‘premature’
(USCHO)

Let's close this out by taking a second to laugh at the dustiest conference in the nation, which may end up needing to hire a second commissioner before its inaugural season.

Done? Okay, now back to figuring out whether "CBS Sports Network" is a real channel or something they made up.

Three Stars: April 15-21

3. Sara Evans to Headline Pegula Ice Arena Show
(Onward State)

I thought about writing a stand-alone post to mark the first non-hockey event scheduled for Pegula Ice Arena, but...

1. A family-themed skating show headlined by country star Sara Evans isn't really my thing, and I'd probably do a terrible job feigning interest. No offense intended if you're excited about it.
2. Penn State basketball bloggers don't write about concerts at the Bryce Jordan Center, unless one forces the team to practice in the IM Building on crooked hoops. To the best of my knowledge, Ms. Evans and the figure skaters won't go full Bon Jovi on us.
3. Onward State covered it just fine.

That said, it's nice to see the arena serve a broader purpose than hockey (cue audio of Joe Battista saying "it will be an asset not just for hockey, but for the entire community," which he says only marginally less often than "steep as code allows" in reference to the PIA's student section). Tickets for the show, called the Musselman's Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute, go on sale September 3rd. The event is on November 3rd at 5:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on NBC November 24th at 4:00 p.m.

2. Sabres' owner keeps hockey comments brief
(Buffalo Business First)

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Terry Pegula-financed HarborCenter complex in Buffalo is old news - it was covered in last week's Three Stars - but James Fink of Buffalo Business First hit a pertinent angle unexplored by others, and his article wasn't on the TYT radar until after the previous post was up, so...

A Penn State alumni [eef... "alumni" is plural... hate that one] and major underwriter of its hockey program — including financing the construction of the Pegula Arena in State College, Pegula said he’d love to see the team play a local college at the HarborCenter’s main 1,800-seat arena or in First Niagara Center in the future.

Canisius has been in negotiations to move into HarborCenter, but hopefully I'm not alone in apathy towards the idea of a Golden Griffins-Nittany Lions matchup in an 1,800-seater. If it's all the same to TPegs, what about Cornell at the First Niagara Center? Less local, sure, but also much more compelling.

1. Penn State Hockey: Pegula Ice Arena construction looking "very good"
(PennLive)

Penn State gave a media tour of the Pegula Ice Arena on Saturday morning before football's Blue-White Game, and TYT continued its run as the only PSU hockey-credentialed entity to never once have been invited inside the facility. While I believe I deserve better, I've come to the realization that, for whatever reason, Battista and company are bothered by my existence and that I'll most likely have to adjust to life without access going forward. If that involves traveling to more road games next year, since I've never once had an issue getting a credential from an opponent (provided, of course, that PSU doesn't sabotage my application, as was attempted for the Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff against Vermont back in January), so be it.

Anyway, as far as I've seen (as of Sunday night), the tour has only produced three puff pieces, and - based on the photos and video that were part of those - there were definitely more than three people present Saturday morning. So it's PSU's loss, I guess. I would have made it four puff pieces, and last I checked, a post to a small audience is better PR than no post to a large one.

I'm giving Greg Pickel of PennLive the "official" link, because his was the most comprehensive story, but be sure to check out the video StateCollege.com's Ben Jones took on the tour, as well as the third write-up, from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Scott Brown. Both Pickel's and Brown's articles have attached photo galleries, and Brown presents an additional item of note:

Battista said he has received season-ticket orders for 3,000 of the 5,000 seats that will be sold to the general public.

Nice.

Best of the Rest

Former Icer Josh Daley finished fourth on Wisconsin-Stevens Point in scoring

UW-Stevens Point men's hockey announces team awards
(uwsp.edu)

Someday, when I'm done being lazy, I'll do a full update on the December post covering the players who transferred away from Penn State after not making the jump from the Icers and Lady Icers to the NCAA men's and women's teams. For now, here's some news on one such player, Pittsburgh-native forward Josh Daley, who is now at NCAA Division III Wisconsin-Stevens Point after spending 2011-2012 with the Icers.

Daley got off to a slow start this year, thanks mostly to irregular appearances in the lineup, but came on strong over the second half of the season. He finished with eight goals and 19 points for a squad that went 15-11-1 overall, a run that culminated with his recently being named Most Improved Player at the Pointers' postseason banquet. Without a doubt, the marketing major will be considered a key part of UWSP's nucleus next year, as the team returns its top five scorers, top two defensemen and starting goaltender.

Force-Waterloo series offers glimpse into Big Ten's future
(The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead)

Perceptive Fargo Force writer Chris Murphy noted the several future Big Ten rivals participating in the USHL first-round playoff series between the Force and Waterloo Black Hawks - led 2-1 by Waterloo after a game three win Sunday afternoon - including Penn State entry Eamon McAdam. Others are Fargo's Gabe Guertler (Minnesota) and Dave Gust (Ohio State), as well as Waterloo's Justin Kloos (Minnesota), Taylor Cammarata (Minnesota) and Zach Stepan (Ohio State).

Cue Maxine Nightingale. We're right back we we started from.
(Deadly Nuts)

Undoubtedly, Gust and Stepan joined the rest of the hockey world in being shocked at Ohio State's firing of head coach Mark Osiecki last Monday. Osiecki, almost universally considered a rising star in the coaching world, seemed to have the perpetually-underachieving Buckeyes finally moving in the right direction, as noted by many over the last week, including Deadly Nuts. Some have speculated that Osiecki was let go so that OSU can hire newly-unemployed former Denver coach George Gwozdecky... but as someone who believes that coaching careers follow a rise-peak-decline curve not unlike the athletes they mentor, I'd honestly rather have Osiecki at this point. In what looks like a boring offseason on tap (compared to the last couple years anyway), the Buckeyes' coaching search will undoubtedly be one major story to watch.

For whatever it may be worth, the change in Columbus means that Guy Gadowsky will not be the newest coach in the Big Ten during the coming season.

Yep, that's a hockey house

Cal U hockey players facing drug charges
(Cal Times)

Brothers Jesse and Steven Powell, both hockey players at California (PA), were arrested last Tuesday and charged with dealing marijuana out of the hockey house at Cal (if you're not familiar with the term "hockey house," it's pretty much what you think, see above for reference). During a raid, police discovered roughly seven pounds of herb being delivered to the brothers - I believe that falls under the statutory definition of "shitload" - as well as two more pounds and $13,000 already on the premises. A preliminary hearing for the Powells will take place on Thursday.

In what could be viewed as a knee-jerk reaction, and likely because five other players lived with the Powells at the hockey house, the university responded to the arrests by suspending the operations of all three of the Vulcans' hockey teams including, as reported by CBSSports.com, the school's ACHA Division 2 women's team. Cal's women, the first-ever opponent for Penn State's ACHA D2 women back in October, spent much of the 2012-2013 season ranked first in the East Region and qualified for the ACHA National Tournament in Ashburn, VA last month. Similarly, Cal's top men's team, which plays in ACHA D3 and in the College Hockey East conference with the squads at PSU-Altoona and PSU-Behrend, finished the season as the Atlantic Region's number one team and also qualified for its ACHA championship playoffs, held in Springfield, MO March 12th through 16th.

Basically, we're talking about a quality hockey operation, and one that's never been implicated in any wrongdoing until now. Here's hoping that any investigations find that the issue was limited to the Powells - if they are, in fact, guilty of a crime, because this is America and they are innocent until proven otherwise - and that all three teams are reinstated in time for the coming season.

...but seriously, that's a lot of pot.

All-American Teams and All-Region Teams
(achahockey.org)

Congratulations to PSU-Brandywine defenseman Joe Naselli, who was named to the ACHA Division 3 All-Atlantic Region Third Team. Naselli, a senior from Media, PA, posted 13 goals and 32 points in 28 games this past season, helping Brandywine to a 19-9-0 record and a berth in the Atlantic Region tournament.

I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't follow up the previous story by mentioning that six different Cal players appear on the All-Atlantic Region teams, including goaltender Zach Stewart, who was also a first-team All-American. Additionally, Vulcans head coach Justin Berger was the Atlantic Region's coach of the year.

Penn State 2012-13 Women's Hockey banquet video
(Facebook)

If I had it to do all over again, I'd develop an aptitude for video production like Vince Chandler, who was nice enough to share the women's team's highlight video he put together for their postseason banquet.

@MarkHorgas
(Twitter)

Last Wednesday, PSU hockey insider Mark Horgas dropped the news that the Pegula Ice Arena will not, as was planned, include a stand-alone Tim Horton's location. A Subway, of all things, will now occupy the space previously set aside for the cyber cafe, although Tim Horton's coffee will still be served at concession stands.

As someone of the opinion that Tim Horton's, while good, is only held in such high esteem by the hockey world because it bears the name of a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, I'm going to drop a yawn on this development while saying that Dunkin has better food and Starbucks has better coffee. Come at me, bro.

Women's hockey announces its captains for the 2013-14 season; four players will serve in the leadership role
(ritatletics.com)

Forwards Celeste Brown and Lindsay Grigg will be the captains for CHA rival RIT next season, while defenders Melissa Bromley and Morgan Scoyne will don the A for the Tigers. The four take over for a triumvirate of graduating 2012-2013 captains: Kim Schlattman, Ariane Yokoyama and Tenecia Hiller.

Penn State, of course, returns all three of its letter-wearers in captain Taylor Gross and alternates (yes, alternates) Jenna Welch and Lindsay Reihl, so don't expect a similar announcement from the bowels of the Jordan Center anytime soon.

Plan to preserve Ice Zone fails
(Youngstown Vindicator)

And finally, a last-ditch effort to save the Ice Zone in Boardman, OH - a ridiculous scheme that attempted to sell 1,000 season tickets for the USHL's Youngstown Phantoms through families who use the rink - failed (try to contain your shock long enough to finish this post), and the facility will close for good between May 15th and early June.

The Ice Zone hosted the 2007 ACHA Division 1 National Tournament, which saw the Icers qualify for a record tenth straight championship game, only to be dismantled 5-1 by future ACHA hall-of-famer Will McMahon and Oakland. Earlier that season, the Ice Zone was the site of the 2006 ACHA Showcase, an event that also included Penn State. The Icers' final game of the showcase (following a loss to Oklahoma and a win over Minot State) was against a Weber State team featuring defenseman Aaron Dufford, the great grandson of former Nittany Lions varsity star John Dufford. With the elder Dufford in attendance, PSU topped the Wildcats 5-1.

Spring Commonwealth Campus Roundup

Former Ice Lion Ed Maras leads Behrend's team, which fell just short of the CHE playoffs

Here's an update on how each of Penn State's five Commonwealth Campus ACHA teams finished out their seasons. As this post is meant to pick up where the semester break update in December left off, the focus here will be on games played during January and February, but feel free to refer to the previous post for more information.

Berks (ACHA D1)

The team that now can claim the distinction of being the highest-level ACHA squad at any Penn State campus finished a rough season 8-20-2, including 2-6-0 in the spring semester. Berks' 3-9-1 ECHA record was good for seventh place in the conference, but not good enough for its six-team playoff.

 

Still, there's reason for optimism. While it's always tricky to project personnel with a Commonwealth Campus team, this season's Blue Lions only had two seniors and closed on a positive note, beating Drexel 2-1 on February 3rd and trouncing Scranton on Senior Day 9-1, a win that saw Josh Flamini, Tommy McDaniel and Sean Sowney all put up 2-2-4 scorelines. For a program that's seen the high of a nationals appearance in 2009 and the low of a 24-game losing streak to open 2010-2011, things at least seem to be trending in the right direction.

 

Right now, the bar in the ECHA is set by league champ Navy, which is headed to the ACHA championships this season. Two of the six second-half losses for PSUB came at the hands of the Midshipmen, 11-2 on January 19th and 7-2 on January 26th - but even a cursory look at the Blue Lions' results shows that they're competitive with just about everyone else, including a tough Lebanon Valley College team that finished second in the ECHA.

 

One notable story from Berks' season came on January 20th, when senior Sowney became the fourth player in program history (and the second at the ACHA D1 level) to join the 100-point club. The Delran, NJ native finished as the team's leading scorer with 44 points, but was followed closely by Larry Barretta (42) and Chris Cashin (35). Goaltender Mike Narrigan was blasted with 43.6 shots per 60 minutes but still held up well, considering, with a 4.92 goals against average and a 0.887 save percentage.

Altoona (ACHA D3)

Toontown posted a rousing 3-2 overtime win over Behrend to open the spring semester, a game that saw the Eriemen erase a 2-0 deficit (including a tying goal with 14 seconds left in regulation) before Brandon Herrman made a takeaway at his line and buried a sudden-death breakaway 1:54 into overtime.

Despite the good start, Altoona was unable to climb back into CHE playoff contention against an extremely tough schedule - three of the team's last five games were against Robert Morris and California (PA), who combined to go 21-3-0 in the league - and went 2-3-0 after the Behrend game to finish 7-11-1 overall and 3-9-0 in CHE.

The team was actually pretty close to making the playoffs after a 4-3 overtime win over St. Vincent (thanks to Ben Kinch's winner) on January 20th pulled Altoona within two points of the Polar Bearcats for the fifth and final spot. As things turned out, one more upset would have been enough, and it almost happened the day before the SVC game at home against Cal, when PSUA held a 4-2 lead halfway through before surrendering five consecutive and going on to lose 8-5. The Vulcans, by the way, went on to earn the top ranking in ACHA D3's Atlantic Region and an autobid to the national championships, so Altoona's challenging them certainly proves something.

In an end-of-the-season statement posted on the team's website, head coach Tom Lantz expressed disappointment and optimism at the same time:

Although the season did not quite turn out like we had planned, I saw significant improvement from the first half of the season to the second. I can honestly say I am extremely excited for next season as we have a strong group of freshmen returning who will be the core of PSU Altoona.

Speaking of next season, what should be a more experienced team already has its first two games posted - October 5th and 6th at George Mason.

Brandywine (ACHA D3)

Brandywine was the only one of the four ACHA D3 commonwealth campus teams to qualify for the ACHA regional tournaments, as they finished sixth in the Atlantic Region (as we've seen with D2, the top two teams in each of the four regions of D3 receive nationals autobids, while third through tenth play in regional tournaments for two additional bids from each region).

However, any national championship dreams ended abruptly and decisively with a 7-1 loss to SUNY-Maritime in Brandywine's first game at regionals. SUNY-Maritime, for what it's worth, won one of the two bids available from the tournament and will compete at nationals March 12th through 16th in Springfield, MO.

Despite that season-closing disappointment, PSUB enjoyed a very successful spring semester, going 6-3-0 after New Year's Day to finish 19-9-0 overall. Included in the six second-half wins were three against teams that qualified for regionals: Pitt-Johnstown, Alvernia and Farmingdale State, which, as the number two Atlantic team, received a nationals autobid. That last game, a 3-1 victory on January 25th, featured goals from Mike McGahey, Russell Lorring and Paul Albert, as well as two assists from defenseman Kyle Laughlin. The Alvernia win was by a 3-2 score in a gritty, penalty-filled affair the next day, with Joseph Naselli, Michael McGuire and Sean Buchanan scoring the Brandywine goals.

In a meat grinder-like Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference National Division (each of the division's five teams finished in the Atlantic Region's top 12), Brandywine went 4-4-0, good for third place.

Behrend (ACHA D3)

Like Altoona, Behrend had a light schedule over the second half of the season - just five games total, including the aforementioned overtime loss to PSUA to open the semester. And also like Altoona, Behrend didn't have enough in the tank to make the CHE playoffs, finishing 8-13-2 overall and 3-8-1 in the conference to miss out on the tournament by just one point to St. Vincent.

The best play in the what-if game (beyond the January 12th contest, of course) might be Behrend's season-closing 5-3 loss at Fredonia February 10th with the playoffs still on the table. The Blue Devils built a 3-0 second-period lead through a natural hat trick by Doug Clayton, then...

With a commanding 3-0 lead the Blue Devils were near getting out of the period when Penn State was able to get their first goal of the game, on a Robert Moll penalty with only a minute left. The Penn State goal was scored by Jared Bagnato.

The late goal in the second kept Penn State rolling and they took full momentum in the game with two early goals in the third to tie the game up at 3. The goals were scored buy Kenneth Gross and Kevin Backoefer. However, the Blue Devils would not give up as they began to turn the momentum with a few big saves from [Sean] Adymy and picking up their physical play. Tyler Hagan would get Fredonia back in front, at 9:33 with goal from right from the top of the crease. Brian Marrano would later give Fredonia and insurance goal with 4:59 left in the period and would also seal the 5-3 win for Fredonia.

Actually, that might be the only play for Ed Maras' troops in the what-if game, as the other three matches were a clutch win over St. Vincent on January 25th and blowout losses to Robert Morris and Cal. Notably, all five spring semester games were played away from Behrend's home Mercyhurst Ice Center.

Defenseman Robert Banks - who scored the goal that forced overtime at Altoona before turning it over to lead to the winner - finished tied for eighth in CHE goal scoring with eight goals, impressively coming in just seven of the team's 12 conference games. Bagnato (12 goals, 22 points in all games) and Backoefer (13 goals, 25 points in all games) also stood out statistically for Behrend.

Harrisburg (ACHA D3)

 

Harrisburg can claim something none of the other Commonwealth Campus teams have - they competed in the playoffs for their league, the Mason-Dixon Collegiate Hockey Association. Of course, it helps that the Frederick, MD tournament's format includes each of the five MDCHA teams, since the Capital College finished dead last with a 1-9-0 conference record.

Expectedly, it was a short run at MDCHAs, as Mount St. Mary's ended Harrisburg's season with a 4-1 result on February 8th - despite the fact that MSM was PSUH's only conference victim, via a 7-4 win on November 5th. In that earlier game, Ian Thomson scored twice and added a pair of assists. Ian McKenna and Alex Shuey also had two goals apiece, while Richard Hoffer scored the other goal and assisted on three.

The only two games with available results in the spring semester (prior to the MDCHA tournament) were an 8-3 loss to American on January 26th and a 5-3 loss to Johns Hopkins on February 2nd.

McKenna finished as the team's leading scorer (of games reported to the ACHA) with nine goals and three assists, while Brent Antolik was the helper king with six alongside his four goals.

Note: Data on Harrisburg's team is extremely hard to come by - the team has no website, and the sites for the MDCHA, the ACHA and opponents are often not updated or incomplete. Please accept my apologies for any inaccuracies and feel free to contact me with any corrections or additional information.

Fall Commonwealth Campus Roundup

Junior forwards Joshua Flamini (left) and Larry Barretta are vital to the Berks attack.

One of my great regrets in doing this blog is that I haven't given more attention to the deserving ACHA teams representing Penn State's commonwealth campuses. So, in an attempt to begin to rectify that situation, here's a rundown of where each stands at the semester break.

Berks (ACHA D1)

Just a few years ago Berks, called the Blue Lions, looked like an up-and-coming program. In 2008-2009, they rode the tried-and-true horrible conference autobid formula to nationals, creating the awkward situation of two chipmunks on the tournament bracket (the Icers being the other, of course).

Two seasons later, they bottomed out in spectacular fashion, losing 24 straight to open the season (one in a shootout) before winning the final game on the schedule, the Navy Crabpot Invitational consolation game against Lehigh. I suppose in that context, 6-16-0 so far this season isn't all that bad.

Berks still lurks squarely in the lower regions of D1, playing out of the ECHA with mid-Atlantic teams like Lebanon Valley, Lehigh and Villanova. The league's position in the larger ACHA picture is reflected by the team's schedule, as the Blue Lions haven't played a team ranked higher than 21st in the latest poll all season. At the same time and despite their D1 status, they're still in the sights of top D2 programs like University Park's Ice Lions, victors by five and six goals against Berks this year (the second score was a little harsh, with two late garbage goals from the Ice Lions).

Following break, Berks' schedule ramps up a few clicks, with games against ECHA frontrunners Navy, Towson and Drexel in January. To stay afloat through that tough stretch, they'll need Larry Barretta and Sean Sowney to continue their high production level.

Altoona (ACHA D3)

People always talk about the NCAA men and women of University Park as young teams, but it's safe to say that Altoona, with its team perpetually made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores - it's a commonwealth campus, after all - has them beat.

This season's team is young even by that standard, with eight sophomores and 18 freshmen. Partly as a result, Toontown has struggled this season, with a 4-8-1 record and a last place spot in College Hockey East (CHE)'s South Division (which is also occupied by Pitt-Johnstown and St. Vincent).

Generally speaking, when things have gone right, big scorers like Conlan Sodrosky, Ben Kinch and Jeffrey Nelson have helped balance out what has been a porous defense to this point. Both sides of that Jeckyll and Hyde story made an appearance against St. Vincent on October 26th, when goals from Sodrosky (two of them) and Kinch helped Altoona to a 5-1 third period lead. The Polar Bearcats then cut it to 5-4 in short order, forcing Altoona to hang on for the last 3:39 of the game to get the win. St. Vincent is ranked tenth in the Atlantic Region of ACHA Division 3, qualifying the game as Altoona's biggest win of the season. One week later, in a 7-3 win over Pitt-Greensberg on November 3rd, James DiBerardinis and Charles Dunton stepped up with four-point nights.

Altoona will look to get the season righted and crawl back into CHE playoff contention with six straight conference games in the 2013 portion of the schedule, beginning with hosting system rival Behrend on January 12th in a game that will be covered by TYT.

Brandywine (ACHA D3)

By virtue of carrying the No. 5 slot in ACHA Division 3's Atlantic Region, Brandywine is the only one of the commonwealth campus teams presently with a poll ranking.

Division 3's tournament setup is identical to what the Ice Lions face in Division 2: The top two teams in each region at the end of the season advance to the national championships, while the teams ranked third through tenth play for two additional slots given to each region. As the fifth-place team then, Brandywine is in position to qualify for regionals, as it did last year with the ninth seed.

If there is a knock on the squad, it's that they've struggled with the sort of teams they'll need to beat to advance beyond that point. While their 13-6-0 record is packed with wins against ranked opponents - Fairfield, Fredonia, East Stroudsburg (twice) and Albany to name a few - they haven't beaten a team higher than ninth in their region. Meanwhile, the six losses have come against the likes of California (PA) (twice), Alvernia and Pitt-Johnstown, the Atlantic Region's first, third and sixth place teams - in other words, the teams that will likely stand between Brandywine and nationals.

As you might expect with a good team, the scoring has been nicely balanced, with Mike McGahey, Joseph Naselli, Francis Fourney, Brandon Benn, Billy Gregg and Andrew Haber all averaging better than a point per game. Andrew Hieber keeps things reasonably tight in goal, with a 3.05 goals against average.

Behrend (ACHA D3)

The CHE rival of Altoona has tracked fairly similarly with their southeastern frenemies, posting an overall record of 7-10-1 and trailing California (PA), Robert Morris and Fredonia in the league's North Division.

In fact, Behrend also claims a win over St. Vincent as possibly their biggest of the season. In that November 16th tilt, the Polar Bearcats led 5-2 early in the third period before Behrend stormed back with five unanswered in the last 16:34 of the game. Robert Banks had a hat trick and an assist in the game, while Jacob Grumski also put up four points. As momentum-generating as a win like that normally is, it was actually the exception in a seven-of-eight losing skid from October 27th through December 7th that turned Behrend's season in a southbound direction.

Banks and Jared Bagnato, who leads the team in goals with 12, make up a high-powered pair of defensemen with numbers that make most forwards jealous. Grumski and Kevin Backoefer, however, are not two of those forwards, as they also add plenty to an offense that - again, like Altoona - has to outscore a defense that allows 5.47 goals per game.

Another big win for Behrend came on October 21st, when Bagnato scored at 2:57 of overtime to take down Altoona, 3-2 in Erie. They'll attempt the season sweep, as mentioned, on January 12th before closing with road games against CHE teams Robert Morris, St. Vincent, Cal and Fredonia. The lone remaining home game is an out-of-conference matchup with D'Youville on January 26th.

Harrisburg (ACHA D3)

Harrisburg competes in the Mason-Dixon Collegiate Hockey Association with American, Dickinson, Johns Hopkins, Franklin & Marshall and Mount St. Mary's. Presently the Capital College representatives are in a tie for fourth place with an overall record of 2-7-0.

The team stumbled to the semester's finish line, with blowout losses at Dickinson (11-1) and at Bryn Athyn (14-5) on December 1st and 9th, respectively. In the Bryn Athyn game, Harrisburg managed two goals in a 2:05 span to cut its deficit to 6-3 midway through before things got out of hand.

November 5th was the date of Harrisburg's last win, 7-4 over Mount St. Mary's. Ian Thomson led the way with two goals and two assists, while Richard Hoffer buried a goal with three assists. Ian McKenna and Alex Shuey each chipped in a pair of scores as well.

A light spring schedule - just three games - begins January 26th at home, against American.

Three Stars: May 28-June 3

Curtis Loik was involved in an interesting transaction last week.

3. RMU Hockey
(Facebook)

Robert Morris' Facebook page is running a poll asking who you'd like to see the Colonials play in their opener at the Pittsburgh College Hockey Invitational in December. I have no clue how much influence this poll has over the actual decision (if any), but get on there and vote for Miami. An RMU-Miami matchup would lock in PSU-Ohio State on the other side. You do want to play Ohio State this year, right?

Don't worry about coming off as selfish either. A PSU-OSU matchup stands the greatest chance of drawing out the notoriously light-traveling Buckeye fans, as well as casual PSU fans who would only turn up for a name opponent, and therefore maximizing the tournament's revenue. And from host RMU's perspective, that's a good thing. So is playing someone you haven't already played that month - the Colonials are slated to play Ohio State on December 7th and 8th, followed by the Nittany Lions on the 15th. Technically, they also play PSU on the 2nd. Wait, what?

They mean RMU's ACHA D3 team, a regular opponent of Brandywine's ACHA D3 team, right? If not, that's about the craziest scheduling quirk I've ever seen. Geographically, it makes sense. RMU is at Holy Cross on the 11/30-12/1 weekend, and it wouldn't be an ordeal to swing past southeast PA on the way home. But until the Colonials officially announce their schedule - the source on this is the Atlantic Hockey site - I'm just going to assume it's some kind of amusing error.

2. In hockey or softball, Neuqua’s Meyer thrives on pressure
(dailyherald.com)

Get to know freshman women's goalie Brooke Meyer here. And here's all I need to know:

“I love the pressure — take me to a shootout any time,” said Meyer, who has never lost one. “I love being the last person my team can count on. You gotta love pressure to play sports.”

1. Penticton-Victoria Trade
(Brian's Banter)

In a somewhat curious move, the Penticton Vees have shipped the rights to incoming forward Curtis Loik to the Victoria Grizzlies to complete the January 11th trade in which the Vees acquired Wade Murphy, a 2013 Merrimack commit and a vital component of Penticton's run to the RBC Cup this past season.

In my mind, Loik is the real wild card in the trade as he seems poised to break out as a 19-year-old in 2012-13, but it won't be in the BCHL as he's committed to Penn. State for the upcoming season. I'm thinking the only way he goes to Victoria is at the recommendation of his college team, and that's got to be what the Grizzlies are banking on, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been included in the deal.

TYT has confirmed with Guy Gadowsky that Loik is still scheduled to come to PSU this season, so uhhh...sorry about your luck Victoria. The Grizzlies still do get Zach Urban and Chad Bannor, two uncommitted defensemen who could conceivably help their team this year. And it's not like their shot in the dark at Loik had any risk associated with it. So nice try, I guess.

Best of the Rest

Princeton tough guy stands ready to help Kings
(The Trentonian)

Regular readers of Three Stars know I'm a sucker for a good Gadowsky compliment. So here's one from Princeton alumnus/Kings enforcer Kevin Westgarth:

"Coach (Guy) Gadowsky was there when I was there, and it was a big reason why I got to where I am. I wouldn’t change that for anything."

O'Brien, Crispin, Mitchell And More To Tee Off On Cancer
(gopsusports.com)

...and a check in with Gadowsky's women's counterpart, Josh Brandwene (also known as "and more"), reveals that he played in the Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Tournament on Friday.

@sjchro
(Twitter)

The last Lady Icers captain approves of the first Nittany Lions captain. That's always nice to know.

2012-2013 Recruiting Update
(sundevilhockey.com)

While I'm not paying too much attention to ACHA recruiting as a whole, I really can't imagine that anyone's doing better than Arizona State right now. Their latest adds: USHL defenseman Jordan Young, OJHL defenseman Zach Bayer and forward Faiz Khan, a transfer from NCAA Division III UMass-Boston. All three are Arizona or California natives who apparently agree with my opinion that going to a large and well-known school with a good ACHA program is better than DIII. There's not a huge difference in the quality of the hockey, you're not going to make much of a living playing the game either way and you're not getting an athletic scholarship either way, so you might as well go to a place like ASU instead of a place like...well, UMass-Boston.

The Sun Devils, in addition to this latest group, are also bringing in three Canadian Junior A guys and a transfer from DI Canisius to complement what was already a pretty good roster. Calling it right now: Penn State better not take the games with ASU this year lightly, or the visitors may leave the Ice Pavilion with a story for their grandkids. The Lions will have the better team, but the Devils will certainly be talented enough to punish them if they're less than fully dialed in. PSU, of all schools, should know that an in-transition DI is not necessarily an automatic over a top ACHA. Let's not be the people who don't learn from history, especially when its our own history.

Five members of the Spartan hockey media contingent discuss the coming season with coach Tom Anastos (left) while a camera guy records the proceedings...oh wait, that's just one guy on the near side of the table. So four members.

Anastos Holds Spring Media Briefing
(msuspartans.com)

There's little doubt in my mind that Michigan State gets social media and the public dialog better than any other Big Ten school (I'll exempt Penn State from this statement, since it's still too early to say how things will go once the NCAA program is in full swing). Head coach Tom Anastos is on Twitter, and on the Derek Schooley Scale of Interesting, he doesn't rate too badly. And during Anastos' spring media briefing, the program's Twitter account shot out some of the details. This one's among the juiciest, if you don't want to listen to the whole thing:

Analysis of the 2012-2013 Penn State hockey schedule
(Rome's Ramblings)

Remember last week when I complained about a lack of analysis concerning the schedule? Order up.

I'll pass on a full critique of the critique, but generally speaking, I think this perspective eschews rationality in favor of a "waaaahhhh...I wanna be a real DI team NOW!" attitude. While that's understandable to a point, there are numerous reasons why Penn State couldn't (and really, shouldn't) have a schedule of Denver, North Dakota, Minnesota, Boston College, Michigan, rinse and repeat, this year.

Basically, have some patience. We'll get there, as soon as 2013-2014, when 20 of our 34 are spoken for by the Big Ten. Plus in the non-con, we'll almost certainly have return trips from the likes of Union and RIT (the writer seems to think that reciprocation has to happen in the same year) plus the Pittsburgh tournament.

Hockey back at WSU with new ACHA squad
(MichiganCollegeHockey)

It's good to see the Wayne State men back on the grid. Still, scoreboard.

Staten Island Sanitation worker jumps to his death from Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
(silive.com)

A 54-year-old Sanitation worker jumped to his death from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Sunday morning.

Joseph Battista plunged around 8:20 a.m. from the upper level, according to police.

Passing drivers spotted Battista standing outside the guardrail, pacing in the rain, around 8 a.m., according to a New York Post report. Two officers approached Battista in an effort to talk him down, but the 54-year old Sanitation worker jumped.

You guys better appreciate the amount of stuff I have to sift through to do this. Rest in peace, Joe Battista.