Three Stars: November 26-December 2

3. Penn State at Mercyhurst // Exhibition Game
(collegehockeystats.net)

Something I learned this past weekend: the first game in the history of Mercyhurst women's hockey was played against the Lady Icers on October 9, 1999. Unfortunately, I think the Collegian passed on covering it to run one of 38,000 PSU-Iowa football articles that week (fall break didn't help either), so this box score might be the only online trace of it. That's just as well - it wasn't really a pretty result for us.

By the way, that's two consecutive women's opponents mentioning their history with the Lady Icers in their game notes, if you're scoring at home. Just saying.

2. Ice Hockey Recap: The First Ranked Opponent
(Black Shoe Diaries)

Penn State Hockey: Weekend Roundup #4
(Victory Bell Rings)

Because of the out-of-sync timing between my posts and theirs, I never get enough of a chance to toss some love to the other great PSU hockey bloggers out there, including IcersGuy and Mary Clarke of BSD and VBR, respectively. Because of the aforementioned timing issue (their recaps go up later in the week), these posts are actually their thoughts on the Nittany Lions' weekend at then-No. 8 Union November 24th and 25th. Know what though? That one was better anyway.

Get to know their stuff, and follow them on Twitter too (@hey_pono for IcersGuy, @marycclarke for Mary Clarke). Because you're not a fully-informed fan if you're only listening to one voice.

1. Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff Promo
(YouTube)

Yep, it's a commercial for Penn State's game with Vermont in Philly on January 19th. Cheeseball? Sure. But in a fun way. And the Nittany Lion does the ear thing he does right at the end, so it's all good.

Best of the Rest

Welsh Signs with the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL
(The Hockey Writers)

Even though he didn't move directly from Penn State's commit list to major junior, I suppose Thomas Welsh can be considered our first CHL defection. I've largely gotten over his decommitment after he wasn't able to "come to terms" (his awkward choice of words that may or may not indicate that he wasn't looking at PSU for the 'right' reasons) with the school. I fully expect this to be the last time I ever mention him now that he's officially gone for good. However, because Welsh's relatives continue to email me articles, as if I have any interest whatsoever in promoting him at this point...

...here's a photo of Welsh getting scored on by Team USA at the World Junior A Challenge last month. I'm not sure which of the nine goals scored by Eamon McAdam's teammates in the game is represented here, sorry.

Sooners face big second half of the season
(Hockey in the Heartland)

Now that the ACHA has our attention, here's how future opponent Oklahoma (February 15th and 16th) is looking for the spring semester. The Sooners' trip to the Ice Pavilion will actually be their second NCAA DI series of the season, as they play Alabama-Huntsville on January 11th and 12th. So basically, the Icers could never get any DI games, and as soon as they depart the ACHA, teams start getting four per season.

David Glen records a hat trick in Penn State's big win Friday night but Joe D'Elia and ASU get revenge on Saturday
(Stack the Pads)

Remember when PSU was unbeaten against the ACHA as an NCAA program? Those were good times. StP has some evidence in support of that, including video of four of the Nittany Lions' eight goals Friday night.

Women's Ice Hockey Signs Seven to Letters of Intent
(quinnipiacbobcats.com)

Former PSU women's target Mika Nervick, a Minnesota high schooler - man, do we hit Minnesota hard on the women's side - signed with Quinnipiac.

Allentown Arena - yeah, that name will stick here in the 21st century - will host the AHL in 2014.

Ground breaks on new Allentown arena, expected to be Phantoms home in 2014
(Broad Street Hockey)

Yay, Pennsylvania hockey!

I do have to say that it's a great testament to the hockey fans of Glens Falls, NY that the team draws more than six people per game (3,514 so far this year, well below the AHL average of 5,313), given that they've basically been used as a place to stash the team for five years while this project gets done.

HockeyTown: Princeton, New Jersey
(New York Hockey Journal)

Guy Gadowsky is quoted heavily in this article, mostly dealing with the development of minor hockey in his former location. Undoubtedly, he's trying to build the same sort of depth of organization in Central PA.

Picture Gary Bettman on the couch of a fighter/shrink...
(Toronto Globe and Mail)

Speaking of Princeton-era Gadowsky, here's a great feature on Kings enforcer Kevin Westgarth, one of the players he coached at PU. It's so bizarre to me that between Westgarth and George Parros (who was a Tiger pre-Gadowsky), Princeton generates not only a couple of the NHL's most intelligent players, but guys who also happen to be able to throw hands.

Bockmann's overtime-winner hands league-leader first loss
(uwsp.edu)

Former Icer Josh Daley and his teammates at UW-Stevens Point took down UW-Eau Claire, the third-ranked team in NCAA Division III, in overtime Saturday night. The Pointers are 5-5-1 so far, with Daley playing in five of those games and posting an assist.

Lebanon Valley College Moving to ESCHL IN 2013-2014
(achahockey.org)

Next season, the Icers' old conference will feature Delaware, Rhode Island, Rutgers, Stony Brook, West Chester, and now LVC. It's great to see the league develop a little bit of depth after PSU's final ESCHL season (2010-2011) saw only UD and URI join the Icers as solid programs, with complete wastes of ACHA D1 status Robert Morris and WCU holding down the other two spots (but not doing much else of value).

What Went Wrong?

Inspired in part by the comments on my recap of the Oakland game, I decided to take one more look back before we forge ahead. Here are five things that contributed to the Icers' disappointing finish at nationals.

Not the last time Justin Kirchhevel and Nick Holmes crossed paths.

The Best Players Weren't The Best Players

It's a cliche, but one that held true here. Justin Kirchhevel and Tommy Olczyk were far and away the Icers' two leading scorers all season. Through the regular season, Kirchhevel's 36 assists and 55 points were team highs, while Olczyk's 23 goals were tops. Tommy O's 50 points were second best, and third-place Taylor Holstrom was pretty distantly so with 34. So basically, those two guys were a huge proportion of the Icer offense - maybe too huge, in hindsight.

During the tournament though, neither player was particularly noticeable except for a 1:01 sequence against Oklahoma. At the horn to end the second period, of course, Kirchhevel got involved in his tete-a-tete with OU goalie Nick Holmes. With Holmes then serving his major penalty for head butting to start the third, Olczyk (and Dom Morrone) burned cold backup Colin Fernandes twice in quick succession, for what would prove the winning margin. Kirchhevel was then benched for the fateful Oakland game due to his lack of discipline.

Turnovers

It's been a two-season-long epidemic, and it cost the Icers dearly against a disciplined, opportunistic Oakland team. I'll leave it at that.

Our Expectations

Given the hype of the transition to NCAA status and given the entry of those four NCAA transfers (Kirchhevel, Holstrom, Bryce Johnson and Nate Jensen) as well as the arrival of USHL vets Olczyk and Brandon Russo, I think many of us got a little carried away. When the season opened with the 12-1 pounding of Lebanon Valley and an 11-0 ripping of a good Illinois program, for example, I brought up the idea of going undefeated through the season in one of the live game blogs. It was a stupid, stupid thing to say, and I fully own up to that. I wasn't alone in that thinking though.

I think what we all forgot is this:

• More than half of the team was not new this year. The core of the team was still largely the same as the one that finished 11th last season after a first-round ACHA tournament loss to Rhode Island.
• The ACHA is better than ever from a talent standpoint and getting some former DI players doesn't entitle a team to roll the entire association. How many national championships have Shawn Tingley (Providence to Rhode Island), Blake MacNicol (Alabama-Huntsville to Ohio) and Blake Martin (Nebraska-Omaha to Oklahoma) won? That's not to say that PSU wasn't the most talented team this year - I do think that was the case - but the gap wasn't so wide that it was unscalable by a good opponent, especially if PSU was operating at less than 100 percent.
• While the massive group of newcomers outweighs last year's small senior class on balance, it's foolish to be dismissive of losing all-time program greats like Tim O'Brien and Teddy Hume.

The ESCHL and the Schedule

All season long, the Icers showed signs of a team that wasn't challenged enough by a schedule that lacked for both steak and sizzle at times. I think the decision to pull out of the ESCHL for the final season of ACHA play (assuming PSU initiated that move) was a mistake.

Okay, maybe adding those lost conference games turns out to be a wash (two more against newly-minted national champion Delaware would have been great, but those West Chester and Robert Morris games...maybe not so much). However, I'm really thinking about that conference tournament over the weekend of February 17th-19th. Instead of possibly playing both UD and Rhode Island again that weekend, the Icers closed with two against Mercyhurst, and one each versus Duquesne and Kent State. PSU essentially went from February 4th until March 4th - the comeback against Oklahoma through the tournament game with the Sooners - without playing a single game they stood any realistic chance of losing. That's no way to stay sharp down the stretch.

I do understand some of the realities that led to the schedule being what it was. But I still feel like it was an opportunity lost to some extent, not just in terms of this season, but in terms of growing the program for its NCAA future. Essentially, PSU prepared for its inaugural NCAA season by playing the same schedule as usual, except with a proven NCAA coaching staff and an infusion of a few former NCAA players.

Tournaments, Generally

I've frequently thought about what a national championship really means since the Icers were stunned by the Grizzlies. It's kind of crazy if you scrutinize it. Penn State played 31 regular season games this year and won 27. That's good by any standard (except the "we're going to go undefeated!!!11!!" one, I suppose), yet the season is ultimately defined by whether you go on a four-game winning streak at the end. It seems a least a little backwards to value that over something like, say, being ranked number one through the vast majority of that 31-game season while (most of the time) plowing everyone, but hey, that's the system.

That's not meant to take away from Delaware's accomplishment this season, or the accomplishments of past Icers teams for that matter, but I do think a little perspective is in order. One loss at the wrong time should not condemn the body of work as a whole. A national championship was never PSU's birthright - again, the talent gap wasn't wide enough to consider anything automatic - and any time you play a good team, there's a decent chance you'll lose. Play three good teams in a row and, yep, multiply "decent chance" by three.

My point? If it wasn't Oakland, it might have been the Hens, who were one of the three ACHA teams to top the Icers during the regular season. Maybe, if the puck bounces a little differently in a couple of the tournament's overtime games, it would have been Ohio or Arizona State. Or Lindenwood in the final if the semifinal losers win instead. Maybe if Holmes keeps his cool, the Sooners find a goal in the third period and come out on top. They're all good teams, they all could have pulled it off in theory. Within a short, single-elimination tournament, and by extension within one game, a sole bad break can spell doom. We should be careful to not let that break or two define what we saw this season.

In the NCAA, teams and their supporters frequently measure themselves by accomplishments other than national championships. Many of those are based on the regular season, like rivalry games, the Cleary Cup (ECAC regular season championship trophy) or the MacNaughton Cup (same thing, for the WCHA). Others are based on tournaments - both the NCAA and conference tourneys - but even there, boasts of something less than "national championship" are considered valid, like NCAA tournament or Frozen Four appearances. I think part of this phenomenon is a general understanding that winning the NCAA tournament, which involves four victories in a row to emerge from a group of 16 roughly equivalent teams, is both rare and probably at least partially influenced by pure luck.

By the way, that's our reality now. Time to move on.

ESCHL Championship: Rhode Island 4, Delaware 3

For the second straight day, Rhode Island used a huge second period to survive a late rally - except this time for the ESCHL playoff championship and with formidable Delaware on the opposite bench.

The Blue Hens struck first when Jason Michaud capitalized on an Alan Dionne turnover from just underneath the top of the circle 2:40 into the game. Robert Beggi answered 14:04 later, finishing a nice passing play with Devin Sheehan and Jay Dupras, to close the first period at 1-1.

Rhody's second period barrage came from David Macalino, Dionne (on a 5-on-3) and tournament MVP Shawn Tingley. Ryan McDonald stopped the bleeding with five minutes left in the second at the end of a textbook breakout, and Kevin Miller pulled UD within one early in the third, but the Blue Hens would get no closer despite controlling play for much of the late second and third periods.

While the Icers did not participate in the final - snapping PSU's run of ESCHL playoff titles at three - George Saad, Tim O'Brien and Matt Madrazo all received honors in the postgame ceremony. O'Brien was named first-team all-ESCHL, Madrazo was second-team all-tournament and Saad won the conference's Sportsmanship Award. Congratulations to the three of them, as well as to URI for adding the playoff championship to the already-won regular season crown. See you guys in Newark in two Saturdays...

The less popular angle to the Rhode Island trophy picture.

ESCHL Semifinals: Delaware 3, Penn State 1/Rhode Island 5, West Chester 4

Collegian summary // Collegian recap // Onward State recap // Black Shoe Diaries recap

VFTB highlights // PSU press release // UD press release // Box score

Well, that sucked.

I don't know of a nice way to describe what happened Saturday afternoon, so I'll just get straight to the point: the Icers were outworked, out-talented, out-coached and pretty much out-everythinged today by Delaware. We didn't look like a team that was the least bit interested in building on some of the successes of this semester, and unless something changes drastically in the next two weeks, the trip to nationals is going to be just as quick as the one to the ESCHL playoffs. As it stands, I'm not the least bit worried about missing a Penn State game as a result of my having to come home from Delaware on Travel Monday to take a midterm.

It wasn't always this ugly. Just 4:02 into the game, Dan Loucks took out Connor Moore behind the Penn State net. Marek Polidor then collected the loose puck and fired possibly the only stretch pass all afternoon that worked from his own goalline. After deflecting off the Delaware defense at center, it found a somehow-onside Chris Cerutti behind everyone, and Cerutti finished like he's been known to do from time to time. Good to have you back, Chris.

This concludes your summary of the Icers' offensive effort Saturday. Following the goal, the game looked a lot like the beginning of the Robert Morris-West Chester first-round game where the dominant team, inexplicably, was trailing. That fun only lasted until 7:41 of the second period, when a Zack Reubel dump-in took a strange bounce and was misplayed by Matt Madrazo. Thus ended the Icers only chance of winning the game, which more or less amounted to hoping Madrazo - who was outstanding otherwise - somehow made that paper-thin lead hold up.

That's not to say there weren't chances, although they were few and far between. On one such chance with 2:25 left in the second, Kurt Collins and Chris Pronchik used a blue line turnover to start a 2-on-1. Reubel hustled back from the opposite side and a combination of his nice play and some of the opposite from the Penn Staters foiled that effort. Just 25 seconds later, a deflected David Conte shot found the stick of Kevin Miller (the Delaware one), and Miller beat Madrazo with what would prove to be the game winner.

The Icers' last best chance to tie it up came with 8:55 left when Tim O'Brien took a pass just to the side of the net and attempted to stuff it in. O'Brien and several teammates thought he had scored, but it was immediately ruled that the puck had not crossed the line before coming to rest underneath Blue Hens goalie SJ Broadt. A power play with 1:44 left, combined with Madrazo being pulled, added some late drama, but ultimately it only led to an empty netter to supply the final margin.

So what's wrong with the Icers? In the chat room that's part of the UStream broadcasts, a couple of long-time fans hit on a couple problems today that I probably haven't examined here enough.

5:21 icersfan: sad that they don't seem to be communicating on the ice, this is what happens
5:22 icersfan: and if they play like this at natty's it will be one and done
5:23 sox88: you're right fan i attribute it to coaching though, you mix up pairings if somethings not working or change a d system that and where's the captain's putting fire into the players
5:24 icersfan: I agree soxs, but this has been a season long issue, it should have been fixed by now
5:25 edhume3: They lost some good coaching when Bill Downey left.
5:25 icersfan: mind you it is getting worse, ya gotta wonder if the NCAA move has something to do with it
5:25 icersfan: I hate to see them go out like this
5:27 icersfan: ed your right the loss of Downey was not good
5:27 sox88: agreed on both accounts, plus i seem to recall we had alot more asst vol coaches around too, i certainly miss Doc and Darren's help
5:30 sox88: and btw if it is a season long problem which it is makes it even more a coaching issure
5:30 sox88: issue sorry
5:31 icersfan: I think it has been a season long issue sox
5:32 sox88: agreed
5:33 icersfan: not sure what happened with coaching this year, not as good as in the past
5:35 sox88: you brought up the whole DI thing as a distraction and that could be the case to an extent with everyone wondering whats going to happen to the team
5:37 icersfan: True, maybe I am more correct than I thought

The volunteer assistant thing is something that had never even crossed my mind before, but it strikes me as a valid point - the numbers and quality probably aren't where they have been in the past. Probably more a testament to Joe Battista's magnetism than anything else. I like what I've seen from Josh Hand, so I'm not ready to say that Downey's departure caused all of this inconsistency. The NCAA transition has undoubtedly given us a giant bullseye and probably has created some tension with the underclassmen.

It's probably not a simple answer, and that answer may include all or none of those things. As of right now though, it looks like we'll have a nice, long offseason to figure it out.

Are there any positives? Well Madrazo, as mentioned. Although I once doubted it, I think he can be an equalizer at nationals against teams that, quite frankly, are better than us. The fact that this game wasn't 5-1 or 6-1 is entirely attributable to him. Also, both Cerutti and Taylor Cera returned from injuries - let's hope that some of the awfulness was due to the slightly reshuffled lines that resulted, which of course is something that can be fixed over the next couple weeks. Until we know one way or another, I foresee a whole bunch of taking anything good that happens against Rutgers next weekend and guessing whether it would've happened against Rhode Island.

Speaking of, there was another ESCHL semifinal played Saturday...

Rhode Island's explosive second period that featured goals from four different players over a span of 10:02 helped the Rams survive a late West Chester rally and win 5-4. With the victory, Rhody advances to face Delaware for the ESCHL playoff championship at 1:00 p.m. Sunday.

Those four goals, from Kyle Krannich, Jaryd Coleman, David Macalino and Justin Krute came after West Chester took a surprising 1-0 lead into the first intermission despite being outshot 16-6. And they, together with a Robert Beggi tally early in the third, were enough to counter three Golden Rams ginos in the last 20:07 of the game.

ESCHL 1st Round: West Chester 4, Robert Morris 2

The West Chester Golden Rams stormed out to a 4-0 lead late in the second, and the goaltending of Randy Japchen ensured that it was enough in a chippy 4-2 win over Robert Morris in the first round of the ESCHL tournament at the University of Rhode Island's Brad Boss Arena Friday night.

Japchen stopped 36 of 38 shots and was particularly effective early on, after WCU took a 1-0 lead 50 seconds into the game when Michael Kozza created a neutral zone turnover and finished the breakaway chance he started. The Colonials dominated play for stretches after that, carrying into the second period, and it looked for quite a while like the narrow lead might be short-lived.

However, three Golden Rams shots beat Robbie Fallick in the second period to put the game out of reach. First, Steve Meade skated down the right wing and scored from the circle early. Chris Doyle then slammed home a rebound a few minutes later, and Steve Meade deflected Gordon Nicholson's feed in to make it 4-0 with 33.5 seconds left in the period.

RMU made a game comeback bid, scoring just 13 seconds later when the ubiquitous Bryan Chiavetta found Luke Bennett on a transition goal, and Bennett scored a second goal on the power play 4:00 into the third. But it went no further, thanks to both Japchen and fatigue, as the fact that the Colonials only play two lines seemed to catch up with them as the game wore on.

West Chester now advances to the semifinals to face host Rhode Island tomorrow night (full schedule below the picture).

West Chester's Bob McInerney reminded Beau Roeder of Robert Morris' rank of 93rd among regional universities in the north, which is worse than his school's 84th.

Here's the remaining schedule for the ESCHL tournament.

Saturday, February 19th
Semifinals:
Delaware vs. Penn State, 4:00 p.m.
Rhode Island vs. West Chester, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 20th
Championship:
PSU/UD vs. WCU/URI, 1:00 p.m.

SpESCHL Weekend

The Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League tournament gets underway at Rhode Island's Brad Boss arena tonight. Before we go any further, the schedule:

Friday, February 18
First Round:
No. 5 West Chester vs. No. 4 Robert Morris, 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 19
Semifinals:
No. 3 Penn State vs. No. 2 Delaware, 4:00 p.m.
WCU/RMU vs. No. 1 Rhode Island, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 20
Championship:
PSU/UD vs. WCU/RMU/URI, 1:00 p.m.

I think it's fair to say that the conference has never been this balanced at the top. Penn State went 3-4-1 against Delaware and Rhode Island. Delaware went 3-3-2 against Penn State and Rhode Island. Rhode Island went 6-2-0 against Penn State and Delaware but needed overtime or a shootout in three of the six wins.

Below is a quick look at each ESCHL team and where they stand headed into the weekend. Along with the requisite paragraph-ish per team, I've included their chances of each possible tournament outcome. These are based on the ACHA computer rankings (the no-goal-differential version) done by some site that does a lot of these types of things and is linked on the ACHA website. Part of the explanation of those rankings reads:

[Team] A rated .01 ahead of [Team] B can be interpreted as saying that if these two teams played exclusively against each other, A's predicted winning percentage is 1 percentage point higher than B's (i.e. A's predicted winning percentage vs. B would be .495, B's against A would be .505).

I took them up on that and multiplied out the predicted win percentages against each opponent on the way to the championship. Where the opponent is unknown, I weighted it by the likelihood of each possible team making it to the round in question.

Yeah, I'm a nerd. I also have an uncanny ability to avoid doing work by any means necessary, which is why I've linked my posts concerning the Icers' games with each team, rather than take the trouble to, you know, come up with something new instead.

1. Rhode Island (28-4-1, 12-4-0 ESCHL)

Semifinal loss: 21.5%
Final loss: 41.8%
Championship: 36.7%

Ramchargers (11/12/2010)
Weekend Observations: Rhode Island (11/15/2010)
Since Last Time: Rhode Island (2/4/2011)
Weekend Observations: Rhode Island (2/6/2011)

I don't think I fully appreciated Alan Dionne and Dan Lassik until I had the chance to follow them closely with the World University Games team. If there was a Norris Trophy in the ACHA, there's a decent chance they'd be two of the three finalists - and their absence for WUG is the biggest reason I'm not completely convinced of any meaning to the Icers' three-point alumni weekend against the Rams beyond the poll credibility PSU desperately needed.

Put those two guys together with a forward group led by Shawn Tingley, Kyle Krannich and David Macalino and a steady goaltending tandem of Andrew Marks and Paul Kenny, and you have yourself a pretty good team (one the Icers aren't done with after this weekend). Oh, and they're on home ice. And as top seed, they have a pretty easy path to the championship game. And I tried to qualify their season record against PSU and Delaware above to make it sound not quite as good. Basically, they're the deserving favorites.


2. Delaware (28-4-2, 11-3-2 ESCHL)

Semifinal loss: 43.5%
Final loss: 21.9%
Championship: 34.6%

Hen-d of the Semester Showdown (12/3/2010)
Weekend Observations: Delaware (12/5/2010)
Since Last Time: Delaware (1/28/2011)
Weekend Observations: Delaware (1/30/2011)

The Hens actually have the best power ranking in the ESCHL, but they take a hit on the percentage from having to play both Penn State and likely Rhode Island (specifically, there's 78.5% chance of seeing URI in the title game) while the Rams only face one of the Big Three.

Not much has really changed with Delaware since last time we saw them, which makes sense, because it wasn't that long ago. They're still ridiculously deep (12 players with 20 or more points, guys with two points per game who can't crack the lineup), and they still don't like us. They did stub their toe against Liberty on February 5th, proving once again that pink jerseys, while generally for a great cause, mean you're probably losing the game.

Delaware 7, Penn State 2, in case you forgot.

3. Penn State (20-9-1, 10-5-1 ESCHL)

Semifinal loss: 56.5%
Final loss: 19.7%
Championship: 23.8%

Penn State has never lost a game in the conference tournament since its inception in 2007-2008 (that's all three championships if you're keeping score) but will not be favored to build on that statistic - the Icers enter this thing as the number three seed, both in terms of the ESCHL standings and in terms of the power rankings.

I think it's fair to say that I have no idea how we'll do. Delaware's up first, and we split with them in December, then again in January. Flip a coin. Rhode Island would be the likely championship game opponent, and while they destroyed us on their ice back in November, PSU grinded out a win and a shootout a couple weeks ago with both teams pretty shorthanded. Flip another coin. The power ranking percentages, by the way, pretty closely follow my more simplistic coin flipping (which of course gives you 50%, 25%, 25%, respectively). The Icers have been playing with a decided sense of purpose since the second weekend in January, but with the trip to Newark now booked, does that soften the intensity level just a little bit? We'll see.

I'll deftly merge my usual pregame "Outside Reading" feature in at this point. First off, Steve Penstone checked in with Josh Hand and Tim O'Brien this week. Both interviews were conducted before the Icers learned that they had in fact made the ACHA tournament, so feel free to take them in the "we'll laugh about this someday" spirit. And to the question I raised in the last paragraph, both also seem to be taking this weekend pretty seriously, an attitude that hopefully includes the rest of the room as well. It's certainly not the big one, but why not win them all?

Good week for Collegian coverage too, particularly with today's look at ACHAs and goaltending column, as well as yesterday's piece concerning the Icers' underdog status. I've tried to give Mr. Barton and Mr. Garcia enough credit for their outstanding work this season, but I want to toss some to the photography staff too - look at the picture of Matt Madrazo in the second link. That's pro.

4. Robert Morris (16-15-0, 5-11-0 ESCHL)

First-round loss: 30.0%
Semifinal loss: 50.7%
Final loss: 14.3%
Championship: 5.0%

Colonial Times (1/13/2011)
Weekend Observations: Robert Morris (1/16/2011)
Since Last Time: Robert Morris (2/10/2011)
Weekend Observations: Robert Morris (2/13/2011)

Penn Staters learned first-hand last weekend that you can't be flat-footed against these guys or Bryan Chiavetta and Luke Bennett will run your show. That said, score a bunch of goals and give up more is still their modus operandi. But that said, they have beaten every team in the conference this year except Delaware. If Robbie Fallick takes out a few star players on opposing teams, it just may be enough for the Colonials to make some noise this weekend.

Here's a re-enactment of the incident I just referenced, with George Saad played by Paul Newman. Okay, obviously, it's from Slap Shot and (legal disclaimer) you know what that means re: the language. If you're an idiot, blast it at work, and get fired/sued for creating a hostile work environment, it's not my fault.



5. West Chester (11-20-1, 2-14-0 ESCHL)

First-round loss: 70.0%
Semifinal loss: 27.7%
Final loss: 2.2%
Championship: 0.1%

Less Than Golden (11/5/2010)
Weekend Observations: West Chester (11/7/2010)
Since Last Time: West Chester (1/20/2011)
Weekend Observations: West Chester (1/23/2011)

Sorry Kenny, I don't make the rules. Well, okay, I make the rules, but not the power rankings. 0.1 though? Ouch. That seems harsh even if I was making fun of them, and I'm not. And I had to round up to get there. Really though, the Golden Rams, 31st in the power rankings, probably didn't need any more obstacles in their way for purposes of this little exercise. An extra game the rankings say they only have a 30 percent chance of winning, for example.

A positive? Okay, I can do that. The power rankings don't account for the fact that they turned over a third of their team halfway through the year, and since then, WCU has held their own - 2-6-0 against the ESCHL this semester including a win against Rhode Island, and only two of the six losses were by more than two. More specifically, they split with Robert Morris, Friday's opponent, and with URI, Saturday's opponent should they win. It's extemely unlikely they'll get further than Saturday, but don't count them out just yet.

For more on the WCU perspective, check out the Golden Rams Hockey blog's post on the ESCHL tournament. Actually, it's pretty well on point for everyone else too.