Three Stars: December 3-9

3. Hockey Hero Mike Eruzione to Speak at Penn State
(Onward State)

It's pretty well known by this point, but Eruzione was giving the famous 2010 Penn State arena tour delegation a look at Boston University's facilities when Joe Battista received the text from Terry Pegula confirming that he had made his donation official. Kind of disappointed that Onward State missed on that little tie-in.

2. California “Gilmour Girls” Bring Unique Background to Nittany Lions
(ComMedia)

Ross Insana comes in hot with a great feature on Caliswag-certified women's freshmen Celine Whitlinger and Micayla Catanzariti. The pair, of course, went to prep school at Gilmour Academy, which is about 15 minutes from my hometown of Solon, OH, so bonus points for that.

1. Pegula Ice Arena Season Ticket Deposits to be Accepted Beginning Friday
(gopsusports.com)

There's a lot of information here to digest, and in a perfect world, I would have tackled this in a separate post when it happened, but since it's not a perfect world....

Penn State began accepting deposits for men's season tickets next year at the Pegula Ice Arena on Friday, so you might want to get on that by calling 1-800-NITTANY or stopping by the Bryce Jordan Center ticket office. The deposit is $25 per seat, and no commitment to a specific type of seat is required yet. The deposit period will run through April, after which those making deposits will be prioritized based on Nittany Lion Club points and status as a current season ticket holder (it's not disclosed how those two things weigh against each other) and given a seat selection time. Beginning next June, those seeking tickets will then begin to grab specific seats, at the following prices (the color coding corresponds to the seating chart above, in case that wasn't completely obvious):

The prices and minimum donation of $50 per seat (for season tickets) are interesting, because:

1. It's not at all out of line with what people pay at major hockey schools.
2. It's still about double what people have been paying, even this year with NCAA hockey.
3. At the cheaper prices, Penn State has successfully filled the 1,300-seat Ice Pavilion, although not necessarily easily - for example, tickets to the first NCAA men's game in PSU history were still available on game day.
4. The building, as most new buildings do, will probably fill itself in the first year, but what happens after that?

I'll save more for a full post I haven't written yet at some undetermined future date, since I'm running long for a Three Stars entry. But I sincerely hope that those in charge, as well as the highly-paid consultants who undoubtedly assisted on this, haven't underestimated the amount of market building that remains to be done.

Oh, and the women? $50 for a season ticket, $5 per game for anywhere in the main seating bowl, which will be general admission. That was easy. I'm actually glad that they'll be charging for women's games starting next year, because it reinforces the idea that it's something of value.

Further information about suites, loges, etc. is available at the link - if you're interested, you're rich enough to dig that up yourself. Or pay someone to do it, your choice. You can pay me, I'd do it for like $10 and a box of Lemonheads.

Best of the Rest

AGU 2012 Beginning: “Chasing Ice” and Climate Change
(Mass Media Musings)

Last week, former Lady Icer Abbey Dufoe attended the American Geophysical Union's (AGU) fall meeting in San Francisco, mingling with the likes of James Cameron and presenting her iBook Controversies in the Hydrosphere. Yeah, no big deal.

While a nasty shoulder injury suffered last season kept her from playing on this year's ACHA team as a senior, it's pretty safe to say she has a bright future in environmental communication and is presently seeking a graduate program that will allow her to continue on that path. I have no problem admitting that she's already environmentally communicated to me - I bought and now use reusable grocery bags after reading her thoughts on the disposable version.

Anyway, make sure you're feeling okay about your life first, then check out Dufoe's blog posts about her experience at the meeting, starting with the link above, and continuing with...

AGU 2012 Day 1: Scientific Literacy, Communication and Climate Change
AGU 2012 Day 2: Presentation Day!
AGU Day 3: Favorite Aspects of the Conference
AGU Day 4: What I Learned
AGU Day 5: Sustainable San Francisco

NCAA Men's Hockey Frozen Four
(Ticketmaster)

The men's Frozen Four is in Pittsburgh this year, and tickets are now on sale. Go forth and make sure Penn State is represented beyond the annual display of every NCAA Division I jersey.

In Rhodes finalist Rocha, Army has ‘amazing young man’
(USCHO)

In case you forgot, Army senior defenseman Cheyne Rocha is the son of Larry Rocha, a former Icers assistant who led the team during its successful 1984 nationals run, and Candace Finn-Rocha, a former PSU lacrosse player and one of the best athletes in school history. A high bar, to be sure, but Cheyne certainly doesn't look like he's about to become the family loser.



#8 Conor Garland first qmjhl goal vs Victoriaville
(YouTube)

Yeah, so Conor Garland scored in his first QMJHL game on Friday after ditching Muskegon and Penn State. He's still an idiot, according to former recruiting classmate A.J. Greer.

Atlantic Hockey Picks Dec. 7-12
(USCHO)

The Nittany Lions (I liked “Icers” better)...

I like the cut of your jib, guy. Let's go Icers.

Preliminary World Juniors Roster Named
(usahockey.com)

Penn State, realistically, is still a couple years away from getting representation in the world's most prestigious junior tournament, but Miami forwards Riley Barber and Sean Kuraly (neither of whom suck) were named to Team USA's preliminary roster last week. Why does that matter? Because the tournament runs December 26th through January 5th, so both would miss the Three Rivers Classic if they pass the final cut.

Union defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, who scored the game-winning goal in Penn State's November 25th trip to Schenectady, is also on the preliminary roster.

Big Ten added Rutgers, Maryland in part to ensure Penn State remains in league
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

While it needs to be said that Barry Alvarez has a penchant for talking out of his ass (see Johnson, Mark: Penn State coaching search and), this still has to be considered a solid ego boost for the Penn State community.



PSU Hockey 1972
(YouTube)

Okay, the quality is non-existent, I get that. Still, this video does give at least a sense of what the original Ice Pavilion was like in the earliest days of Icers history.