Morrone Joins NCAA Roster

Last month, former Lady Icers Cara Mendelson and Katie Murphy were rewarded for a summer of hard work with spots on the inaugural women's NCAA team. Now, the men's team has also made a late addition in the form of former Icers forward Dominic Morrone.

Morrone was in a similar position as Mendelson and Murphy, in that he was left off of the initial 2012-2013 roster announcements, but was given the team workouts in order to stay prepared for the possibility of...well, this. Evidently, he has satisfied whatever concerns led to his exclusion and will join 15 other Icers in varsity play this season.

While the New Jersey native can be a chirp artist's dream at times (his hotheadedness did improve last season in my assessment), Morrone has also been a tremendously productive offensive player. The former Boston Jr. Bruin put up 77 points in his first two seasons before slumping a little bit last year, with seven goals and 16 assists in 27 games. After skating on a good early-season line with once-again teammates Jake Friedman and Bryce Johnson, Johnson's broken thumb suffered December 9th of last year threw things into flux and probably hurt Morrone indirectly.

Despite that, he bounced back to be involved in the defining moments of the Icers' last-ever win, over Oklahoma at the ACHA National Tournament. With Sooner goalie Nick Holmes serving a major penalty following his altercation with Justin Kirchhevel at the end of the second period, Morrone and Tommy Olczyk took turns assisting each other in the first 61 seconds of the third period against cold backup Colin Fernandes. Those two goals broke a 3-3 tie as PSU went on to win 6-3.

Morrone, an accounting major, won ACHA Academic All-American honors last season, which requires a 3.2 grade point average. He becomes the 28th player, 17th forward and sixth senior on the team, which opens its schedule October 12th against American International.

Call Me Maybe?

Sources have informed TYT that several players not included on the initial NCAA roster releases for the men's and women's teams have been given "maybe" status, and might be added to the team as the season approaches.

Two of last season's Lady Icers, Cara Mendelson and Katie Murphy, as well as Icer Dom Morrone are definitely on call. Others might be (and probably are) as well, but their identities aren't known.

According to one source, players have been given the NCAA team's workouts and have been training as if they were on the team.

Mendelson and Murphy, both freshmen last season, were vital in helping the Lady Icers capture the ECWHL regular season championship while Morrone, who will be a senior this year, has 100 career points in 93 games - including a goal and an assist over a vital 12 second stretch to help the Icers to their last-ever win in the ACHA quarterfinals against Oklahoma.

The reasons for adding women's players at this stage are obvious. The Daily Collegian's Christine Newby reported in April that...

Penn State’s vice provost for affirmative action, Ken Lehrman, also in charge of Title IX, said the average size of a men’s NCAA Division I roster is 26.

“We are in balance [with Title IX] now,” Lehrman said. “So we reasoned that if we’re going to add 26 more participants on the male [hockey] side, we have to get to approximately 26 [women’s players]. Maybe we can get by with 25 and it wouldn’t throw us out of whack, but something very, very close to that.”

As things stand right now, the men's roster is at 27 and the women's roster is at 25. This would seem to place things in the Title IX danger zone according to Lehrman, as he said "maybe we can get by" with 25 women if the men's roster was at a smaller number than it is. That situation becomes magnified further if the men were to add Morrone or any of the other Icers not originally included (one, forward Josh Daley, has already elected to transfer).

Basically, don't be surprised to see some more roster tweaking ahead of the first DI games for both the men's and women's programs.

Eight Icers Earn ACHA Honors

Tommy Olczyk is a finalist for the ACHA D1 Rookie-of-the-Year award.

With a large, talented and successful freshman class last season it shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but the Icers were represented twice on the ACHA's all-rookie team in the form of goaltender P.J. Musico and forward Tommy Olczyk. Another first-year ACHA player, forward Justin Kirchhevel, was given third team ACHA All-American honors.

Olczyk was also named a finalist for the ACHA's Division 1 Rookie-of-the-Year award, along with Lindenwood's Steve Brancheau, Minot State's Michael Jordan and Oakland's Dustin Hopfner.

Olczyk, from Long Grove, IL and the son of former NHL player and coach Ed Olczyk, came to PSU from the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers this season and immediately emerged as a team leader and one of the team's best all-around players. His 24 goals led all Icers, and his four game-winners notably included an early third-period strike to help PSU to a 6-3 ACHA tournament win over Oklahoma in what turned out to be the final Icers win ever.

Musico, an athletic goaltender from Orange, CA, rotated with Matt Madrazo for most of the season, but ended with a spectacular 1.51 goals against average and 0.925 save percentage. He had a pair of shutouts, including a 17-save effort in an 8-0 win over West Virginia on January 20th. He also stopped 22 of 23 in a 5-1 win over eventual national champion Delaware on November 19th, 2011.

Kirchhevel, a Brookings, SD native who transferred from Alaska-Anchorage, was half of a dynamic tandem as one of Olczyk's linemates for most of the season. He led the Icers in assists (37) and points (56), and also impressed defensively and as a lethal penalty killer. Two of his 19 goals game in the last five minutes of the February 4th game against Oklahoma, as PSU rallied from a late 3-0 deficit to win in overtime.

Olczyk, Musico and Kirchhevel will all join Penn State's inaugural NCAA Division I team in the fall.

Additionally, forwards Dominic Morrone and Chris Cerutti, as well as defensemen Dan Petrick, Dan Loucks and Rich O'Brien were named ACHA Academic All-Americans. Academic All-Americans are required to be in their junior or senior year and have a 3.2 cumulative grade point average. O'Brien will join Olczyk, Musico and Kirchhevel as a member of the 2012-2013 Nittany Lions.

This latest batch of award winners joins Lady Icers Lindsay Reihl, Sara Chroman and Lydia Scott, who were named Academic All-Americans on the women's side on April 16th. Morrone was also named to the ACHA all-tournament second team, while senior forwards Kurt Collins and Paul Daley participated in the ACHA Division 1 All-Star Game on March 17th.

Here is the full list of the ACHA Men's Division 1 All-Americans:

M: Penn State 5 vs. Pittsburgh 1

Collegian weekend recap // Collegian Sunday recap // Official site recap

Box score // View From the Booth recap/highlights

The Icers (9-0-0) avoided a letdown on Sunday afternoon against Pittsburgh after the riveting come-from-behind win against Fredonia State on Saturday night. With the top line of Taylor Holstrom, Tommy Olczyk and Justin Kirchhevel sitting this one out, the speed line of Bryce Johnson (2 goals), Dominic Morrone (1 goal, 1 assist) and Jake Friedman (2 assists) picked up the scoring slack. P.J. Musico made several large, timely saves to keep the Panthers at arm's length throughout the game, while Pitt goalie Rob Behling stopped 50 of 55 to prevent the Icers from blowing the Panthers' doors off.

Media Day Roundup

The Icers held a media day yesterday. No, I didn't know about it until after the fact either, don't feel bad. Regardless, here's a quick spin around some of the coverage. First up, the Collegian, which didn't write an article on the proceedings, but gave us something even better - video highlights of Guy Gadowsky's press conference (as well as Justin Kirchhevel and Kurt Collins briefly at the end).



If you didn't watch it, the biggest news from within: until Gadowsky and his staff get more a feel for the team, the seniors will begin the season rotating as captains. Icers seniors include Chris Cerutti, Collins, Paul Daley, Dan Loucks, Dan Petrick (who's injured and may not get a turn before full-time captains are named) and Nick Seravalli.

While it's not necessarily newsworthy, Gadowsky continues to have an infectious enthusiasm for Penn State and Penn State hockey that comes through every time he speaks, which even energizes jaded bloggers. I can only imagine what it does on the recruiting trail.

PSU's resident AP scribe, Genaro C. Armas, was there and drew the following quotes not covered in the video. First, from Bryce Johnson, the speed merchant who transferred from St. Cloud State via the USHL's Omaha Lancers.

"[The Big Ten is] going to be a real fun time, especially with the big powerhouses Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It's going to be nice to know that every weekend we go out to play, it's going to be a bloodbath."

And also from Joe Battista:

"It's the buzz, I understand a lot of schools are scrambling, moving conferences. The Big Ten conference is certainly poised to be the premier (hockey) conference. Now, how competitive we are remains to be seen."

Armas' story, which also included things Gadowsky said in the video, ended up being quite popular - it was picked up by the Washington Post, as well as papers in places like San Francisco and San Antonio. Not a bad little bit of publicity, that.

But with all due respect to Armas, the most interesting guy who covered media day is better known for doing something else.

...well, assuming you're not back out in the parking lot getting loaded by the time he's in.

I suppose if you back up Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin, you should probably figure out something besides football to do for a living. So credit third-string quarterback/journalism major Shane McGregor for being smart as well as a good writer. Here's his collection of quotes for the Centre Daily Times, starting with Gadowsky this time.

“It’s been an extremely unique situation. Our coaches have been out recruiting, the administration is planning, and we’ve been getting to know our guys as competitors and students.”

“You can’t just judge guys on how fast they skate or how much they bench-press and how fast they can shoot the puck. There’s a lot in hockey that deals with competitive nature and how they think and see the game. That really takes time, so we’re testing our guys and really getting to know them.”

“It’s been so cool for me to really feel this place. Not just see it, because you see it on TV and you read about it, but that really doesn’t give it justice. You have to feel how it is to be at Paternoville and be at a football game. It’s very, very special, and that’s something very few institutions can talk about.”

Paul Daley:

“Practice has been going very well. Coach Gadowsky really emphasizes hard work and intensity on the ice. He has done a great job with us, caring about what we’re doing both on and off the ice and stressing our involvement in the community.”

Dominic Morrone:

“With the spotlight and people talking about it now, I think it will help our attendance and get people out to games that normally wouldn’t come. It’s a big step for Penn State, and it will be cool to think we were here when it all first started.”

Gadowsky rounded out the day with a couple of radio interviews (on State College stations 95.3 FM and 1450 AM) where he reiterated some of the same themes. All in all, not a bad bit of effort and some good PR all around. Now just imagine if even more people heard about it.

Weekend Observations: Rhode Island

Collegian Friday summary // Collegian Saturday summary // Collegian weekend recap // Onward State weekend recap // Friday VFTB highlights // Friday box score // Saturday box score

Right off the top, I think you have to give the entire team all the credit in the world for scaling the mountain that was in front of them circa January 9th. Then, Ohio had just finished pasting the Icers at Bird Arena in a pair of games during which Penn State looked - no other way to put it - completely awful, and not at all like a team that wanted or deserved to go to the ACHA national tournament. Now, the outlook is pretty close to the opposite of that - six wins in the eight games since then, including 2-1-1 in the last two weekends against two of the ACHA's best teams, a lot of that coming without some key personnel.

There are some doses of reality to go around - URI was gashed worse than we were by the World University Games and we were generally outplayed (badly at times) over the last four games, for starters - but this, on balance, has to be a positive weekend. The Icers are now two home games against a bad Robert Morris team from a trip to nationals, and we've shown that we're at least more capable of competing at a high level than we looked one month ago.

A lot of that positivity comes from the way unheralded players have filled in effectively. It's almost become boring at this point with the way it's happened with such regularity. The latest example is freshman Andrew Duval, in the lineup because of an injury to Michael Longo, himself a guy that had been effective in a larger role. Duval followed in the underclassman hero footsteps of Mike Broccolo last week and Mike McDonagh the week before by scoring the winning goal Friday. On that one, George Saad did a tremendous job keeping the play alive in the corner. The puck ended up on Rich O'Brien's stick, and he had a shooting lane, largely because of Saad's drawing the coverage in. O'Brien's blast pinballed off a man and a heads-up Duval found the loose puck and buried the decider, which also happened to be his first at Penn State.

How good have McDonagh, Broccolo and Duval been? Well, let's put it this way: McDonagh made our power play not suck (which takes some doing), at least temporarily, on Saturday when he and Marek Polidor crashed on Dan Loucks point shot, and the captain allowed the freshman to do the honors. He added two assists in that game as well as one on Friday, and has generally looked fantastic playing on a top line with Dom Morrone and Paul Daley.

Taking out Robert Morris, who can't brush their teeth without giving up five goals in the process, the Icers are just 4-of-34 (11.8 percent) with the man advantage in 2011. It's definitely a concern, keeping in mind that in close-to-the-vest tournament hockey, special teams are vital. However, I'm willing to see how it looks in possible rematches with both Rhode Island and Delaware at ESCHLs in a couple weeks with Tim O'Brien once again manning the point and Eric Steinour giving us size down low. Their absence might have been felt there more than anywhere else.


O'Brien had as many PPGs in his last three WUG games as the Icers combined had in their last four. Photo: Shane Bufano


Speaking of the ESCHL, apparently Saturday's shootout loss eliminated the Icers from ESCHL regular season title contention and clinched said title for the Rams. I have to admit that I have a hard time caring all that much. Other than the guaranteed scheduling (which is huge, I understand that) and unless you need an autobid, conferences are completely pointless in ACHA Division 1. Maybe it's a product of my coming up during the independent years, but nationals are the one and only season measuring stick to me. I've heard stories about the wars in the old ICHL, a conference where winning the tournament was important enough to actually decline a nationals bid. However, this is not that, and I think most who have seen both will agree with me.

Getting back to the games, I've been hard on the defense at times. So to be fair, I'm going to list some of the great plays they made during a crucial early penalty kill of Joe Zitarelli's checking from behind major in Friday's game. Any time there's a five-minute power play, there's one certainty: either way, a momentum swing is coming. These guys helped make sure that swing went PSU's way, and the payoff was the game's first goal 3:24 after it ended. Times given from this point are time remaining in the period (the penalty ran from 13:04 through 8:04).

• 12:37 - A Loucks interception leads to the first zone clear of the kill and an offensive faceoff. Thanks to some nice forechecking by Nick Seravalli and Chris Pronchik, URI doesn't re-gain the zone for 39 seconds.
• 11:44 - Dan Petrick wins a battle in the corner and gets the puck to Pronchik for another clear.
• 11:33 - A Rich O'Brien poke check allows another clear, and another 28 seconds wasted.
• 10:34 - Brian Dolan deflects Robert Beggi's follow-up chance on a wide-open net out of play.
• 9:52 - Loucks chips the puck off a stick and out of play - a neutral zone faceoff.
• 8:25 - Carey Bell blocks a point-blank Jaryd Coleman attempt, again with only a gaping net in front of the shot otherwise.

Not bad, eh? I like how it involves almost every d-man who dressed too.

Another guy of whom I was critical last week - Morrone, and yes, he still deserved it - offered much in the way of redemption this week as well, as he was the only Penn Stater with multiple goals on the weekend. He opened the scoring Friday after that five-minute PK. The goal started when McDonagh won a battle on the boards and got the puck to Petrick, whose nifty pass sprung Morrone. The sophomore from Sewell, NJ then used Daley as a decoy on the 2-on-1 and beat Andrew Marks cleanly. Then with 4:18 left in regulation on Saturday and Penn State trailing by one, Daley got the puck down ice, where Morrone was one-on-one. No. 19 simply wanted the puck more than URI defenseman Brandon Pinheiro. A prone Pinheiro, loser of the puck battle, could then only watch as Morrone put Paul Kenny's jock in the rafters, as Jeremy Roenick once put it.

While the shootout didn't go the Icers' way, the fact that it came to that means that PSU, for all intents and purposes, "won" alumni weekend. And regardless of who Rhody was missing, that's nothing to brush aside.

Next up: Robert Morris (yes, again). But you're excused if you breathe a sigh of relief first.

Weekend Observations: Robert Morris

Collegian weekend recap // Onward State recap // VFTB highlights (Friday and Saturday) // Friday box score // Saturday box score

When I previewed these games on Friday, I laid out a sort-of checklist of things I wanted to see this weekend, so let's start with that. How'd we do?

Two wins. Obviously, we accomplished this one. The importance of the sweep should be clear if you take a peek down the road at a much-improved West Chester this weekend (more on that Thursday), at Delaware the weekend after and Rhode Island the weekend after that, before circling back around to our home games against RMU to complete our ESCHL season and our ACHA national championship tournament resume. The first three of those will pass without coach Scott Balboni, Tim O'Brien and Eric Steinour as they head to Turkey for the World University Games. URI gets hit even harder than PSU, as they lose four of their best players, but neither Delaware nor West Chester has anyone on the team.

Losing either of these games would've been an unmitigated disaster, plain and simple. We have it tough enough the next few weeks.

Results from a re-tooled power play. The pure numbers say 5-of-11 for the weekend, and while that's obviously outstanding, to me it even goes beyond that. The Icers failed to score on the first two Friday night, however you could see that the units were composed and confident, in contrast to what we saw last weekend. I firmly believe that you can have a good PP opportunity that doesn't end in a goal, and these both qualified.

Let's take it one more step. On Friday night, Robert Morris closed to within one (3-2) at 11:11 of a wild second period that featured seven goals. 1:39 later, PSU's went on the man advantage and quickly shut the "Let's go Bobby Mo!" guy up for 10 seconds (which I suppose is his usual interval anyway) when Tim O'Brien's point shot deflected off Dominic Morrone, then found George Saad's stick with a gaping net in front. The Colonials never got closer than two the rest of the way. The PP also helped blow open Saturday's game - which was 3-2 Icers after two - with third period goals from Michael Longo and Paul Daley

Offensive resurgence from some of the secondary scorers. I mentioned Morrone by name at that point, and he answered with three goals and an assist. I should do stuff like that more often, because I'm absolutely positive that Morrone read my post and took out his anger at me on the back of the net behind Phil Salerno. Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

Another guy it was nice to see on the scoresheet: Steinour, who tallied shorthanded Friday just after Paul Daley foiled the Colonials' breakout with a takeaway. He then added the eventual game winner Saturday by going hard to the front of the net and getting rewarded with a gino on a pinballing Saad shot. That goal ended a flurry of three goals in the first 4:28 of the period - not an unusual occurrence in a weekend filled with Jeremy Roenick-in-NHLPA '93-like scoring (clip rated TV-MA).

Longo and Joe Zitarelli chipped in late goals Saturday. Saad had two goals Friday and added an assist Saturday. Basically, the Icers' always-vaunted balance was back in force.

A quality start from Teddy Hume, if he gets one. Well, he didn't. Dan Ivanir did, which I see as a good thing, just because he's sort of been the forgotten man in all of this mess but has played well whenever called upon. The sophomore played effectively in his first action since November 5th when adjusting for RMU's offensive prowess, before suffering some leg cramps and giving way to Matt Madrazo late. Madrazo then started (and finished) Saturday and shut the door. So has Ivanir replaced the struggling Hume in the rotation? It's probably not that simple - after all, PSU has more than two quality goalies, and making sure none of them collect rust is a pretty challenging juggling act. The picture should become clearer over the next few weeks with no games available for "it's been a while and he's been working hard, let's try him out" starts.

A few other items of note from the games:

• Taylor Cera separated his shoulder on his first shift Friday and is out for about four weeks. Just a few more degrees to the slope of the mountain Penn State has to climb during that time.
• Tim O'Brien scored his 100th Icers goal in the second period Friday. He should probably send thank you cards to both Marek Polidor and his stick manufacturer. Polidor started the play by digging the puck out of the corner, then after getting it back from Chris Cerutti, shattered his twig shooting it from up top. O'Brien then capitalized on the loose puck and the confusion. O'Brien's 99th started with some nice backchecking from the Burghler, so he is creating his own luck a lot of the time too.



POLIDOR SMASH!!! Okay, this happened before the stick thing, but sticks, Colonials, makes no difference to the captain.



• Cerutti, who has been tremendous whether playing with O'Brien or Morrone - something that's also not luck - collected his 100th Icers point Friday.

You want a big-picture look to close the post? Too bad. You're not getting one right now because, honestly, it would be foolish of me to try. VFTB had this to say about it:

As I said in Saturday's wrap up, I think the sweep should keep the Icers at or near the 10th spot in the next rankings, which will come out on Friday as the Icers take on West Chester in a home-and-home series.

Hard to disagree. With the exception of No. 14 Iowa State and their sweeps of RMU (IL) and Illinois, I don't know that any bubble team distinguished themselves either way during this ranking period. Co-No. 10 Oakland lost one game, but it was to Division 2 Grand Valley State. No. 9 Oklahoma was 3-2-0, but four of the five games were against top tennners Minot State and Arizona State. We know what PSU did. All of which probably means the next ranking, at least the part we're concerned with, looks a lot like this one. Whatever the coaches make of that mess, we'll know exactly where we sit Friday, at which point we can reset everything.

Weekend Observations: Towson

Collegian Friday recap, Collegian Saturday recap, Friday box score, Saturday box score

Old school opponent, old school stomping. There's your one-line recap for the two games.

I'm struggling, because I want to say something bad about Friday's game, if for no reason other than to be balanced. I guess if I have to pick something, it would be the early penalties. Taking two in the first 10 minutes of a game can be a nice way to get behind the 8-ball against a quality team, but in a mismatch of epic proportions like this one? Quite the opposite.

On the second penalty, a slow start sped up in a hurry. Dominic Morrone and Chris Cerutti were relentless on the forecheck. Morrone created a turnover that Cerutti pounced on and gave back to Morrone, who would've had a goal had he not tried to force an extra pass. No matter. Moments later, Towson's Brian Furlong tripped over the neutral zone chasing an errant pass, Morrone hustled to the loose puck, swooped in alone, and scored. Tim O'Brien got in on the shorthanded fun when Towson goalie Stephen Kelly's pass took a funny bounce off the boards and found his stick.

I always try and talk a little bit more about what I considered the key goals in the game, and for Friday, I'm going with the first two, unless someone can name a time a team has scored twice on the same PK and lost. I'm sure now that I said that, someone will tell me that Mike Richards did that at some point in a game the Flyers lost.

On Saturday, you can probably go right back to the beginning of the game. O'Brien in the first minute of the game off a turnover, Cerutti to Morrone on a phenomenal pass just two minutes later, then O'Brien with another goal off another Tigers turnover. We're just 7:56 into the game at this point, but we've clearly seen this movie before, and it doesn't end well for Towson.

Obviously there were a staggering 20 goals scored besides the ones I've already mentioned, and of those, it's worth congratulating Michael Longo on his first Icers goal Friday. And his second. He was in no mood to wait as long for that one as he did for his first, picking Brandon Stroup's pocket right off the draw and scoring nine seconds later (Steve Penstone talked to Longo afterwards here). Also good to see Nick Seravalli on the scoresheet as he continues to get back up to speed. Paul Daley had a hat trick Friday but doesn't get a mention until now - those things happen when there's enough credit to go around. Same goes for Dan Petrick and his hat trick Saturday, or Brian Dolan, who joined Longo in scoring his first Icers goal on Saturday.

Incidentally, rough go for Kelly, as Towson coach Mario Tremblay...errr...Ed Slusher left him in the game for all 25 Penn State goals. I genuinely feel bad for the kid, he deserved better, especially on Saturday when he played better than his stats.

Morrone and Cerutti were reunited on a line, with Kurt Collins on the other wing. I said before that I like the Morrone-Cerutti combo, so I'm hoping it sticks this time. Collins certainly wasn't out of place there either. Exhibits A, B and C in my argument might be goals 2, 7 and 9 on Saturday, all of which were beautiful passing plays involving at least two of them. It wasn't just the goals though, it was the way they carried the play between the goals as well.

I think going with that and Eric Steinour-O'Brien-Daley as your top two is really more like a 1A and 1B (or 1B and 1A, tough to tell), as opposed to the first line/fourth line/who knows what in the middle setup we've been seeing. I think you have to keep Mark Polidor and Chris Pronchik together, and Longo obviously worked well with them - Polidor created the turnover that led to Longo's first.

Yeah, more of these lines, please. Easy for me to say over a weekend in which pretty much everyone who dressed ended up with points I realize, but hey, it's not like I didn't already have pieces of this opinion before these games.

It's always kind of tough to evaluate what you saw in a 13-0 game (or a 12-3 one), and goaltending might be the best example of that. At some point during the third period Friday, Matt Madrazo made two nice saves in a row. I tweeted that he just faced his two toughest challenges of the night, and got this in reply. Yeah, that too. Back in my undergrad days, in a similar type of game, I remember someone from Section E asking Mark Scally if he wanted to borrow his Game Boy. Still ranks as one of the funniest things I've heard. I think Scally cracked up too.

I think the fair assessment is this: Madrazo was barely tested in the first two periods. He saw more action in the third (yes, beyond those two saves I just referenced) and played well. His aggressive style does take him out of position on second chances sometimes, and he needed a great save from Petrick to preserve the shutout on one of those - but all in all, a great game from the freshman. And a great weekend for Petrick - saving shutouts, bagging a hatty, playing up front late on Saturday. Not too shabby.

Teddy Hume, on the other hand, still looks off. He got the start Saturday, and while the stats say three goals in 25 shots, it goes beyond that for me. He still looks like his confidence is shot, playing a little tentatively and giving up juicy rebounds. The first goal was particularly brutal, as it deflected in off his blocker. He was even perforated for four goals by the peewees during the second intermission! Just kidding, he was letting them score. I think.

Possibly the most unfortunate thing in all of this - the motivation of the Icers' record-low No. 11 ranking had to be wasted on Towson. With next weekend off, another ranking will be in the books by the time Penn State takes on Delaware, and I have to think we'll move up a spot or two on the back of these games. However, Kevin Miller is one guy who understands the situation too well to need rankings for motivation, or so he said during the second intermission of Saturday's game (1:24:05 in):

"[We were] a little bit down, and we just had to come out here and work hard and get two wins before the break, kind of get our season back on track...we just want to get some confidence going, we come back after the Thanksgiving break, have a week of practice, and then we have Delaware here. It's going to be a big weekend for us because we dropped two to Rhode Island last weekend, so we gotta get some ESCHL wins here."

My thoughts exactly. No wonder you're a personal favorite of mine.

Weekend Observations: West Chester

Collegian weekend recap
Friday box score
Saturday box score

There's an essential question that I think needs to be asked at this juncture. I think a lot of us, myself included, have been kind of biding their time with this team through the struggles, waiting for the "real" Icers to show up and lay waste to the ACHA. Is it time to accept that maybe that isn't going to happen? That maybe what we're seeing now is what we have? I don't know the answer, although I smell a full-on post about it coming at some point when I have nothing better to talk about.

Watching Friday's game broadcast on UStream, Steve Penstone liked to talk about passes missing and/or not being controlled by the recipient. While that's true, I think it's more than simply a matter of needing Gordon Bombay's egg drill (3:20 in, and yes, I watched entirely too much of that movie in the process of finding that) - I think it's a matter of the team pressing. That occurred to me sometime during the first period when Paul Daley was floating a backhand pass across the width of the neutral zone and continued through a series of bad-angle shots from several players.

In a first-intermission interview, Joe Battista said that he thought he saw a turnaround coming.

I saw some good physical play toward the end of the period, and that says to me "alright, they're going to get revved up a little bit," and I'm sure Coach Balboni's giving it to them pretty good between periods.

Then, something - whatever it was - seemed to click for the last 40 minutes Friday and throughout Saturday's game. Penn State was dominant, playing with controlled confidence, and operating in what I like to call meat grinder mode for long stretches - cycle the puck, generate a shot, win a battle down low to keep possession (or lose the battle but cause a quick turnover on the forecheck), rinse and repeat. It's things like that, and things like the way the team responded to the two West Chester goals late in the first on Saturday that make me want to say "no, this team has more in the tank." For now, optimism's the word, and I'm not letting the scores of the West Chester-Delaware games poison that.

Dominic Morrone has been arguably the Icers' best player this season when healthy, and I don't want his efforts on what turned out to be the game-winning goal Friday to be overshadowed by Chris Cerutti's finishing off a hat trick. While on the power play, Morrone drove the net hard, working around one defender and through another, creating chances first for Daley, then for Cerutti, who pounded it home. Playmaker Morrone and natural goal scorer Cerutti complement each other well, and good things happen when they're on the ice together. It was disappointing to see them split back up on Saturday, but I also understand why Kurt Collins needed to come off of the Daley-Tim O'Brien line. Speaking of O'Brien, how great has he been quarterbacking the power play?

On the blueline, I like Kevin Miller and think he's been the steadiest of a pretty shaky group - Rich O'Brien offers offense and physicality to burn, but I trust Miller with the puck in his own end much more. That said, he has to stay on the ice. He accounted for half of the Icers' four penalties Friday night, and I considered both bad penalties to take - on the third period interference, it looked to me like he was just trying to lay someone out without regard to positional play or, you know, whether the guy had the puck. Miller came back Saturday with his first Icers goal, on a great feed from Mike Broccolo. Incidentally, I thought Broccolo and his fourth linemates, Mike McDonagh and Joe Zitarelli, had a great game Saturday.

That defense was victimized again Friday - the pairing of Carey Bell and Ryan Erbe was beaten for two of West Chester's three goals. The first goal of the game came immediately after an Erbe turnover. When the Rams took a 3-2 lead early in the third, Bell was beaten to the outside by Brian Ruskowski, who then found Tim Margadonna (Erbe's man) with space to get off a shot and beat Dan Ivanir.

I guess I have to address goaltending, since it's an issue now. With Teddy Hume away on a job interview, Ivanir got the start Friday, and Matt Madrazo was between the pipes Saturday. By the way, that job interview thing? Well, that smokescreen was nice for two days. Not that Hume didn't have an interview, but Balboni probably wasn't upset by its timing:

"We're at a point right now where our starting goalie is not playing too well. I'm trying to give other guys opportunities."

Oh, ok then. Could've just said that in the first place.

I'm really not sure what to make of either goalie's performance, although in my opinion, Madrazo was the better of the two. While he took himself out of position a couple times, he demonstrated a flair for the great save, stood tall in the face of runs in the second period and even contributed offensively with a first-period assist (and he was very close to a second). That said, I'm still not convinced that either one did enough to steal the bulk of the starts, and I'd personally like to see a couple more Hume-Madrazo split weekends to get a better look at the two in comparable situations.

Weekend Observations: Ohio

Collegian weekend recap
OU Post weekend recap
Friday box score (Penn State 3, Ohio 1)
Saturday box score (Ohio 6, Penn State 3)

Well, the home Ohio weekend has come and gone, and the Icers are no longer undefeated. That'll happen with too many turnovers, too many bad penalties, and a well-prepared opponent capable of making you pay for it. As with last week and future weeks, here are my disjointed thoughts.

Penn State seemed to be in a funk throughout most of both games, which ties in with something I said last week: the Icers are at their best when playing in control, not emotionally. Fortunately, there was enough concentrated life in the third period Friday to at least get a split from the weekend.

On Friday's eventual game-winning goal (start at 1:02:21), Eric Steinour had a tremendous sequence, where he laid a big hit just in front of the tunnel to the locker rooms, then seconds later knocked the puck loose, allowing Taylor Cera to pick it up, walk in, and score. Cera had plenty of room to do so because OU's defensemen were both slow to get back in front of the play after chasing the puck through the corner. Hopefully that goal, Cera's first of the season, gets him going a little bit, as he had to watch Paul Daley take his spot with Tim O'Brien and Chris Cerutti. Daley acquitted himself well, so that should be a mini-battle to watch going forward.

Much credit is due Ohio's Brett Agnew, who was given increased responsibility for the weekend due to an injury to Nick Rostek. Agnew's answer? Points on five of OU's seven goals on the weekend, including a hat trick Saturday. Yikes.

Yes, the officiating was awful over the second half of the game Saturday, with several muggings - Michael Longo a couple times, including after an offsides whistle - resulting in no call. The capper might have been Cerutti getting nailed for diving on a hook by OU's Jared Fuhs. But I refuse to go on an officiating rant here, the game was lost well before things got out of hand with the zebras. And on rewatching the Longo clip, it looked like the tackle on the offsides happened because Longo shot the puck after the whistle, a no-no. The rest followed from that, with Longo ultimately getting called for a retaliation penalty. Both players probably should've gone for it, but as officiating errors go, it's somewhere south of Crime of the Century status.

Anyway, remember this quote from Tim O'Brien after an incident last Saturday against UCO?

“I put our team in a bad position there and just let my emotions get the best of me. It won’t happen again the rest of the year.”

Fast forward to OU Saturday and O'Brien takes a misconduct for his actions following the Bobcats' sixth goal. So did he break his promise? I'm guessing he doesn't think so:

“I don’t know, that ref I guess was just out to get us. You can’t do anything about it. I don’t know why he gave me 10 minutes. I was just tapping my stick at him telling him nice call.”

No worries Tim, you wear your heart on your sleeve, but that's why we like you so much.

Dominic Morrone, despite battling a groin injury, might have been the Icers best player over the course of the weekend, but particularly on Saturday, where he was in on both of Penn State's power play goals (1G, 1A), with the goal coming on a highlight-reel end-to-end rush. He also had the empty-net clincher on Friday.

One thing that might be understated in all of this: Ohio's schedule probably prepared them for a high-intensity, big-time series much better than did Penn State's. The Bobcats had a weekend against current No. 2 Davenport (who themselves earned three of four points from a weekend with No. 1/two-time defending champs Lindenwood), as well as a decent Oakland team. Meanwhile, the Icers' best opponent (by a lot) was a Central Oklahoma team who now sits at 3-7-1. Brutal schedule, yes, but 3-7-1 is 3-7-1. And other than Penn State, they really didn't show up in any of those seven (plus one).

The good news? Penn State's now been in one of those series, and it should serve the Icers well going into Liberty and then the ESCHL schedule.