Three Stars: August 26-September 1

3. Women’s Hockey: Freshmen excited to begin
(The Daily Collegian)

A sure sign that the season is almost upon us: the Collegian is back at it on a regular basis. This article, which takes an overview of women's team freshmen Laura Bowman, Kelly Seward, Amy Petersen and Sarah Nielsen, is a great way to get the fall semester going.

2. Steinour reflects on his career in "Hockey Valley"
(Stack The Pads)

On the other end of the career curve, of course, is recently-graduated men's forward Eric Steinour. What's Big Stein up to now? Something that sounds a little more difficult than writing a hockey blog:

I am working for Affiliated Engineers in Chapel Hill, NC as a Mechanical Systems Designer. Affiliated Engineers is a multi-discipline technical consulting firm. The team I am a part of is specifically involved in designing steam and chilled water plants and distribution systems. We design new systems as well as redesign existing systems to be more efficient. Many of our clients are universities and medical facilities.

1. A Look Inside The Pegula Ice Arena
(Onward State)

Not a particularly tough call this week, as the fruit of Onward State's all-access look inside the arena is the most extensive peek we've received since the ice was installed.

Best of the Rest

@kingston1990
(Twitter)

Amazing? Horrifying? I suspect that there's very little middle ground on this one, as tends to be the case with tattoos.

Also, apropos of nothing, Runnin' With The Dogs is both the worst college hockey blog out there and written by the biggest tool out there.

University Park Alumni Athlete Letter
(ps4rs.org)

Alumni activist group Penn Staters For Responsible Stewardship - an organization drawing even fewer middle-ground opinions than most tattoos - has assembled a list of former PSU student-athletes who support the lawsuit brought by the Paterno family (as well as several faculty and Board of Trustees members) against the NCAA over... well, you know. Hockey's sole representative is former Icers captain Ryan Wick, a 2000 graduate.

Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center to Host 40 2014 NHL Draft-Eligible Players
(USA Hockey)

Last Monday, USA Hockey unveiled the players who will participate in the second annual CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game, which will take place on the 26th in Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center. Freshman goalie Eamon McAdam participated in last year's inaugural edition of the draft showcase in Buffalo as part of his push to the 70th overall pick. However, there will be no repeat participation by a Penn State commit, as well-regarded defenseman Kevin Kerr was surprisingly snubbed.

On a related note, if anyone needs a hotel room in Pittsburgh on September 26th, let me know in the comments.

Penn State hockey gets new voice
(The Daily Collegian)

In other "yay, the Collegian's back" news, new men's beat writer Darian Somers - you'll like him, trust me - takes a run at Brian Tripp, the team's new radio voice. Tripp replaces Steve Penstone who, contrary to the verbiage used in the article, was let go this offseason.

The Old NHL, Penn State Hockey, and Your FGSB Mailbag
(The 700 Level)

In response to someone asking how badly Penn State is going to get spanked this year:

Penn State’s move to The Big Ten is quite a big deal, especially for their hockey team, which I’m sure everyone knows went D1 last year. Their first year in D1 they were independent and actually didn’t do too badly for a really young team. On the official roster there were 14 freshman, 6 sophomores, and 7 juniors. Hey, you when go from club team to the big leagues that transition is going to take some time. With this young team they took down some big clubs in Wisconsin, Vermont, and Michigan State. The realignment has everyone saying they’re going to get whooped up on. On paper it looks like it, but I’m not so sure.

Penn State’s new conference is made up of them, obviously, and Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State. Those are some perennial power houses in the college hockey world, but Penn State is looking to be better than last year. They have their first ever NHL draft picks joining the program this season, and as you can see above have already done surprisingly decent with the guys that are ALL coming back this year (they went 13-14 last season).

Well done, guy.

UC Men's Hockey Dawes Exits Program For Position With Penn State's Women's Team
(uticaod.com)

It seems as if new women's team director of operations Alex Dawes will be missed in the neighborhood of Utica College, his previous employer. Seriously, I probably won't even get a write up this flattering when I die.

Onward State Cribs: Campus Towers
(Onward State)

Ever wonder what the apartment of women's forwards Katie Murphy and Shannon Yoxheimer (and their roommates) looks like? Onward State's new Cribs series has you covered. Since it's way nicer than my place, I would've been okay not finding out about it.

Condon, Rau Named Gopher Hockey Captains
(gophersports.com)

Leading off the opponent news section of Three Stars this week are the new captains of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, senior forward Nate Condon and junior forward Kyle Rau. Both are NHL draft picks, in 2008 by Colorado and in 2011 by Florida, respectively. Of course, you can't swing a dead cat at Minnesota's roster without hitting three or four draftees, so I'm not sure of that fact's newsworthiness.

Gophers hockey player Guertler suspended
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Incoming Gophers freshman Gabe Guertler, on the other hand, is not off to a good start if he wants to be a captain someday. Guertler received a DWI while operating a moped Friday night/Saturday morning and has been suspended by the team until at least November.

Judge throws out Milo’s case against Vermont, Sneddon
(USCHO)

Score one for common sense as former Vermont Catamount Justin Milo's "waaaah they cut me... no fair!" lawsuit against UVM and coach Kevin Sneddon has been thrown out.

RITMHKY
(Ow.ly)

RIT's men unveiled a new jersey last week. It's a throwback to the school's inaugural 1968 design, but with modern logos. Solid concept and well executed.

Former Laker Jones Picked 3rd Overall in CWHL Draft
(hurstathletics.com)

Brian Selected in Second Round of CWHL Draft
(rmuathletics.com)

Two Former Orange Selected by Toronto Furies
(suathletics.syr.edu)

Last week's Canadian Women's Hockey League draft was pretty good for College Hockey America, led by former Mercyhurst star Jess Jones, who was chosen third overall by the Brampton Thunder. Robert Morris goalie Delayne Brian (formerly of Wayne State as well, leaving there when WSU's program folded) was the first pick of the second round by the Alberta Honeybadgers, and a pair of Toronto Furies-drafted Syracuse alumnae, Holly Carrie-Mattimoe (second round) and Lisa Mullan (eighth round) closed things out for the conference.

Jones and Mullan both graduated from their schools in 2012 and never faced Penn State. Carrie-Mattimoe, however, had two goals and two assists in four games against PSU as a senior last year. Brian backstopped the Colonials' 4-1 win at the Ice Pavilion on November 11, 2012 with 19 saves and backed up Kristen DiCiocco in the other three PSU-RMU meetings.

Eight Hockey East teams to compete in Frozen Fenway
(New England Hockey Journal)

If you're the type of person who still gets excited by outdoor hockey not involving your favorite team, good news: the annual Frozen Fenway series is returning in January. Penn State opponents Boston College and UMass-Lowell are both among the eight Hockey East teams involved in the event hosted by the famous home of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox.

KSU Levies Lifetime Ban Against Coaching Staff
(hockeyyall.com)

While details of the alcohol-related tomfoolery of Kennesaw State at the ACHA Division 3 national championships back in March have not come to light, it must have been a pretty good time. Last we checked in, KSU had suspended the team for the entire 2012-2013 season. Now, it's banned the coaching staff for life. Even Jerry Sandusky can, theoretically anyway, outlive his sentence. Not so much if you're affiliated with Kennesaw State and get bombed at a hockey tournament, I guess.

Former Cal U. hockey players headed to trial
(Washington Observer-Reporter)

In other #ACHAProblems, former California (PA) hockey playing brothers/marijuana aficionados Steven and Jesse Powell waived their preliminary hearings and will stand trial. As you may recall, the Powells' arrests back in April led to Cal's suspension of the entire Vulcans hockey program, a sanction that was eventually lifted under the condition of required drug testing.

While the incident is obviously tailor made for jokes, I'll pass this time around. Instead, I think it needs to be said that Cal has handled the whole thing flawlessly from day one (in my view, anyway), and the university deserves to be commended for that.

@BattistaJoseph
(Twitter)

Guy Gadowsky ran in the inaugural Mt. Nittany Marathon on Sunday. Which is notable in and of itself, but as an added bonus, it led to another look at Penn State's new white jerseys, via Nate Jensen's Twitter.

Catfight Takes Center Stage

What: NCAA Men vs. Vermont in the inaugural Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff

Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA

When: Saturday, January 19 at 8:00 p.m.

Coverage: Television: The Comcast Network (check local listings); Audio: UVM (free), PSU ($), ComRadio (free); Live stats: PSU (free); TYT live blog (free)

This is going to be fun.

With ticket sales reportedly exceeding 17,000 a sellout crowd in Pennsylvania's largest city, an unprecedented live television audience, and a puck drop just five hours after a nationally-televised Penguins-Flyers game on the same ice to open the lockout-shortened NHL season, Saturday night's Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff will undoubtedly be a landmark game in the early history of Penn State's NCAA program.

Oh yeah, and PSU has a decent chance of winning too.

Since the 2012-2013 schedule was announced, I've claimed that Vermont was Penn State's best shot at a major-conference win (let's forget, for now, that we already have a major-conference win). The reasons are simple and well documented, but just to review:

• The Catamounts, a Frozen Four team in 2009, have regressed each season since then, bottoming out at 6-27-1 (3-23-1 Hockey East) last year.
• From that team, UVM lost four-year starting goaltender Rob Madore.
• They also lost leading scorer Sebastian Stalberg, who had a year of eligibility remaining but elected to go pro. He signed with the San Jose Sharks as a free agent and now plays for their AHL affiliate in Worcester, MA.
• Zemgus Girgensons, easily Vermont's top recruit for this season, was drafted 14th overall by the Sabres last June and elected to sign with Buffalo rather than attend college. He's also in the AHL, with the Rochester Americans.
• Head coach Kevin Sneddon saw his staff gutted over the summer. Assistant John Micheletto was hired to coach Hockey East rival Massachusetts, and Micheletto took fellow UVM assistant Joey Gasparini as well as director of hockey operations John Gobeil with him.

Worst offseason in college hockey? Has to be up there. And it's not like they were starting from a fantastic position.

Nevertheless, it could be said that UVM has already exceeded expectations this season. At 6-11-4 (3-8-4 Hockey East), the team has already matched its overall and conference win totals from last season. The two most recent of those six wins came at the Catamount Cup, the holiday tournament they host at Gutterson Field House, when Vermont took the title by defeating current No. 17 Union - an opponent in common with PSU, of course - and Princeton. Despite a current three-game losing streak, including a home sweep by UMass-Lowell last weekend, Vermont seems to be trending up, as they're 3-4-2 since November 30th.

No, it's not exactly national championship-level stuff, but it's marked improvement from last season, and decidedly against the odds.

The return of Connor Brickley from a skate laceration should add punch to UVM's offense.

Chris McCarthy, a senior, and Jacob Fallon, a sophomore who transferred from Michigan, pace the Cats with six goals apiece, although Florida Panthers draft pick Connor Brickley is arguably the the team's best forward. Brickley missed 12 games after being cut with a skate blade against Boston University on November 16th, but returned last Friday, picking up two assists over the weekend. Colin Markison was also expected to be a key contributor this season, but like Brickley has missed most of the season, finally returning to the lineup last weekend for the first time since the season opener.

Vermont carries three NHL selections in all, and the other two are defensemen, Michael Paliotta (Chicago, third round, 2011) and Nick Luukko (Philadelphia, sixth round, 2010). Luukko, who leads the team's blueliners in points with seven, is the son of Peter Luukko, the president of Comcast Spectacor and also of the Flyers. Just in case you were wondering why Penn State ended up playing Vermont in this game, instead of nearby Princeton or anyone else. Behind those guys will likely be goaltender Brody Hoffman, who has capably picked up Madore's torch to the tune of a 2.95 goals against average.

Eric Steinour has skated against UVM before.

One interesting footnote: Should Penn State senior forward Eric Steinour play on Saturday, it will actually be his second time opposing the Catamounts. As a member of the U.S. World University Games team in 2011, he and the rest of the American side (which also included former Icer Tim O'Brien, as well as then-PSU head coach Scott Balboni as an assistant coach) played UVM in a pre-tournament exhibition on December 29, 2010. Vermont won the game 7-1, with Brickley scoring twice and adding an assist - he had just been one of the final cuts from the U.S. World Junior Championships team that year, explaining some possible issues with the Team USA crest. Current captain H.T. Lenz had a goal and an assist, and Tobias Nilsson-Roos was the other still-active player to score in the game.

M: Penn State 8 vs. Arizona State (ACHA) 3

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // USCHO recap

House of Sparky recap // WCSN recap

Guy Gadowsky postgame video

Michael Longo/David Glen postgame video

Hopefully by now, you guys know how greatly I despite mailing in one of these posts by copy/pasting a press release, as I've done this time for Penn State's win over Arizona State to improve to 7-5-0 (5-4-0 NCAA DI). However, the unfortunate reality is that as just one guy, I'm not able to do something like a) Be in Erie, PA for the Penn State-Mercyhurst women's game Friday night at 7:00 p.m., b) Drive home to Medina, OH after the game, c) Do what I need to do on this blog the way I like to do it, d) Get enough sleep to avoid dying on I-90 and e) Be back in Erie, PA for a 2:00 p.m. puck drop Saturday. In that sequence, c) is what has to suffer, and so here we are.

The bright side? Because Saturday's women's game isn't directly opposite Saturday night's PSU-ASU series closer, I should be able to address both adequately. Also, at least I'm not getting paid to do it while slapping "From Staff Reports" on top. So there's that.

---

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Freshman forward David Glen (Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.) notched a hat trick to lead the Penn State men's hockey team to an 8-3 exhibition victory against Arizona State at Greenberg Ice Pavilion Friday evening.

In addition to Glen, four Nittany Lions - senior forward Michael Longo (Allison Park, Pa./1g, 1a), freshman defenseman Joseph Lordo (St. Louis, Mo./2a), senior defenseman Nate Jensen (Shorewood, Minn./2a) and junior forward Michael McDonagh (Wilmington, Mass./2a) - recorded multi-point games. Freshman goaltender Matthew Skoff (McKees Rocks, Pa.) turned aside 24 shots.

Arizona State took a 1-0 first-period advantage before the Nittany Lions tallied four straight markers, including three in the second stanza, as they skated to a 4-1 lead. The Sun Devils, who compete in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, scored once more in the second to halve the lead, but Penn State responded with a 4-1 run to end the game.

Penn State outshot the Sun Devils by a 52-27 margin and finished 3-for-3 on the power play. Arizona State was 0-for-1 with the man advantage. Joe D'Elia started for the Sun Devils, allowing four goals on 19 shots, while Kyle Dietriech surrendered four goals on 33 attempts.

Arizona State's Dan Styrna opened the scoring at 12:20 of the first period, but Penn State responded with four straight goals. Freshman defenseman Luke Juha (Mississauga, Ont.) knotted the game at 1-1 with a power-play tally with 1:15 left in the stanza. Lordo passed to McDonagh, who skated down the right-wing boards before sliding a backdoor pass to Juha.

Sophomore forward Tommy Olczyk (Long Grove, Ill.) put the Nittany Lions ahead, 2-1, at 2:01 of the second frame. McDonagh passed to Longo, whose initial shot was stopped, but Olczyk knocked the rebound into the net.

The Nittany Lions grabbed a 3-1 lead after Kenny Brooks' (Las Vegas, Nev.) wraparound goal at 4:20, and Glen added his first of the game 1:11 later after capitalizing on passes from sophomore defenseman Peter Sweetland (Newtown, Pa.) and senior forward George Saad (Wexford, Pa.).

Arizona State's Faiz Khan scored with 13:27 left in the second period to make it a 4-2 game. After Glen tallied a power-play marker with 15 seconds left in the frame, Arizona State cut the lead to 5-3 with Styrna's second goal at 2:26 of the third stanza.

Longo gave the Nittany Lions a 6-3 lead with 13:44 left in the game after his shot from the right circle found the back of the net. Freshman forward Casey Bailey (Anchorage, Alaska) and sophomore forward Max Gardiner (Deephaven, Minn.) collected assists on the play.

At 11:09 of the final frame, Eric Steinour (Carlisle, Pa.) gave Penn State a 7-3 advantage. Sophomore forward Jacob Friedman (West Bloomfield, Mich.) passed to Steinour, who deked to his backhand before slipping the puck past Dietriech. Lordo also garnered an assist on the play.

While on the power play, Glen capped off the evening with his third goal with 6:04 remaining. With the faceoff to the right of Dietriech, Glen won the draw back to Jensen, who took a shot from the point that Glen redirected into the back of the net.

Penn State and Arizona State will conclude their two-game series Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Men's Media Day: Gardiner, Dolan, Steinour, Yanis

Interviews with sophomore forward Max Gardiner, senior defenseman Brian Dolan, senior forward Eric Steinour and freshman defenseman Mark Yanis at men's media day Monday afternoon.

The Comeback: Photographic Evidence

All photos courtesy of pennstatewomenshockey.com (click for full size).

Brandon Russo leaves a Sooner in his wake.

Oklahoma goalie Nick Holmes needed to be wary of Justin Kirchhevel.

Tommy Olczyk can smell a rally brewing.

Eric Steinour gets sandwiched, but still manages to play the puck.

Rich O'Brien (center) is pretty happy about George Saad's (right) winner.

M: Penn State 7 vs. Oklahoma 2

Collegian recap // Black Shoe Diaries recap

Official site recap // Box score

(links added as available)

The No. 1 Icers (22-3-1) begin a stretch of six straight home games to close the regular season with a convincing 7-2 win No. 9 Oklahoma (21-12-1) Friday night. Penn State is now 14-0-0 at the Ice Pavilion this season, heading into Saturday's rematch with the Sooners at 3:30 p.m.

It might sound counter-intuitive considering the final score, but both Oklahoma goals made the Icers sweat. Jon Schanke's tally off of mass PSU confusion in the defensive zone gave the Sooners a 1-0 lead just 55 seconds from puck drop. With Brian Dolan in the penalty box 5:01 into the third period, Shane Vorndran put home a rebound to cut the Icers' lead to 4-2 and make a once-safe margin seem tenuous again. Even some of the close calls could have made things more interesting, such as when P.J. Musico made two of his best saves of the year in one early second period 3-on-1 sequence, at a time when a goal would have brought the Sooners within one and carrying momentum.

Outside of those moments though, this one was all Icers. Chris Cerutti and George Saad answered Schanke in short order with net-front goals in the opening stanza, while Brandon Russo and Nate Jensen added to a slim lead in the second period. Eric Steinour's two goals sandwiched a pretty effort from Justin Kirchhevel in the last six minutes of the game to create a lopsided score.

M: Penn State 3 at Delaware 4

Collegian recap // Official site recap // UD Review recap // Box score

Round 1 of a season-defining showdown went to the newly-minted No. 2 Blue Hens, who used a tenacious, opportunistic effort to take advantage of several defensive mishaps in beating Penn State 4-3 on Friday night in Newark, DE's Fred Rust Ice Arena. The Icers are now 10-1-0 this year.

It was a game of rapid momentum swings, occasionally involving the same players on both the positive and negative sides. Shortly after Dan Meiselman put back a rebound to tie the game at one, he turned it over just inside the UD blue line and the error resulted in a Kevin Miller goal on the other end to get the lead back. In the third period, Mark Zeszut and Mike Piet staked the Hens out to a 4-2 advantage off of a pair of turnovers. Just when Delaware looked to coast to the finish line from that point, Rich O'Brien's deflected shot found its way behind S.J. Broadt with 20 seconds left, and the Icers very nearly forced overtime in a game that was frustrating to watch on just about every level (including the watching itself, if you didn't read the Cover It Live below).

While it wasn't necessarily a game the Icers deserved to win, it was a particularly tough pill to swallow beyond the simple destruction of PSU's unblemished record. A Tim Acker blast from the circle appeared to tie the game at three in the third period, but after a brief conference, it was ruled that the net came off prior to the goal. Shortly after that, Piet scored to expand the UD lead. Following an icing call with 1.7 seconds left in the game, the Icers got an offensive faceoff and O'Brien quickly scored, but not quite quickly enough. The game was also notable for the absences of Brian Dolan, Justin Kirchhevel, Taylor Holstrom, Forrest Dell, Paul Daley and Dom Morrone for various reasons.

Regardless, the same two teams will travel to University Park for a Saturday night rematch.

M: Penn State 5 vs. Ohio 3

Collegian recap // Official site recap // Box score

(OU) Post recap // View From the Booth recap/highlights

The top-ranked Icers completed the sweep of Ohio behind an uneven but gritty effort that finally broke through OU's stellar defensive zone play in the third period. Bobcat Brett Agnew once again burned PSU on the power play in the first, and that goal held up until a wild final period that saw (among other things) a Kurt Collins hat trick which included two shorthanded goals, a penalty shot and a P.J. Musico attempt at a goal on an empty net.

M: Penn State 7 vs. Ohio 1

Collegian recap // Official site recap // Box score

(OU) Post recap // View From the Booth recap/highlights

No. 1 Penn State improved to 4-0-0 with a dominating 7-1 win over Ohio. The Icers shredded the Bobcats' depleted defense for 55 shots and found secondary scoring from Eric Steinour, who had two goals. Jake Friedman made the Bobcats pay for 12 minor penalties with two goals of his own on the power play, and Matt Madrazo missed his second straight shutout by 2:04 behind a good defensive effort.

M: Blue 5 vs. White 3

Official site recap // View From the Booth recap // Daily Collegian recap

Straight away, I'd like to apologize for the fiasco surrounding my promise to live blog Blue/White. First, an unbreakable commitment (a birthday dinner for my father) was dropped into my lap the day before (thanks, Mom). So that took the "live" part off the table. My backup plan, to watch the game later that night and use it as a dry run to practice live blogging games that count, was done in by the fact that the recording wasn't archived on UStream.

None of that is meant as an excuse. Despite my self-effacing tendencies, I hold myself to a pretty high standard, and I didn't even come close to meeting it here.

With that out of the way, here's what someone who actually saw the game - the Collegian's Christine Newby - wrote about it:

Four unanswered goals by the Blue team in the Icers' annual Blue/White game resulted in a 5-3 victory Friday night at the Ice Pavilion.

The four goals, all coming in the second half, began with sophomore defender Nate Jensen, collecting freshman forward Tommy Olczyk’s rebound and putting the puck past goaltender Matt Madrazo.

Senior Nick Seravalli tied the contest at three apiece, and sophomore forward Justin Kirchhevel scored back-to-back goals in a span of just three minutes.

Kirchhevel said a month of practice was tough and the sophomore added he was glad to finally get a chance to play in a game.

“It’s definitely good to get our feet wet and get in a game situation again and have fans for once,” Kirchhevel said. “It’s definitely a good start.”

Assistant coach Keith Fisher said the guys are sick of practicing and the Blue/White game was not only good for the players, but the coaches as well.

“It’s nice for the coaching staff to evaluate guys in a game setting versus practice,” Fisher said. “They are two different things and a lot of times you get two different players.”

Freshman Brandon Russo and seniors Chris Cerutti and Dan Petrick were out of the lineup due to injuries. Cerutti injured his left knee on Aug. 23, and Icers coach Guy Gadowsky confirmed on Aug. 24 the forward sustained a Grade II medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain. Petrick is out with a small fracture in his left wrist.

Fisher couldn’t say much about Russo’s injury.

“I don’t know too much specifically about it, but he’ll be out for a couple weeks probably,” Fisher said.

The Blue/White game was two, 30-minute halves with a running clock.

As for the next week, the Icers have their first regular season game Oct. 7 against Lebanon Valley at the Ice Pavilion.

Of course, she wasn't the only person who was there. Ben Jones of Black Shoe Diaries also went and brought back one of the more unique things I've seen in a while - a series of 12-second, slow motion videos. Here's a taste, with Eric Steinour's first-half 2-on-1 goal courtesy of George Saad's feed, but you need to go to the link and watch all of them. Do it. Now.



I think my favorite thing about the videos is that they're a clear demonstration of the skill level possessed by people who are really good at hockey as they do things that we sometimes take for granted as those who merely watch those who are really good at hockey.

Others who saw the game include the man known to many of you as IcersGuy on BSD as well as Icers SID Troy Weller. Here are some of their thoughts collected from Twitter.

It's an interesting dynamic - transfers can be dangerous on their own; returning Icers still dangerous together.

No goalie looked outstanding, but all 3 looked solid. At this point, I'll be happy with any starting.

Kirchhevel said the veterans are really doing a good job of taking the younger players under their wing.

Olczyk said guys have been playing soft in practice the past couple days, said they need to stop that but don't want to hurt anyone. He also said the gelling in the locker room is going extremely well because the main goal is an ACHA title.

So it's Blue-White game this week, then a step backwards next week vs. LBV, then a huge jump forward on the road @ Illinois. Yeesh.

Yeah, pretty much. This one's going to feel like a Game 7 compared to next Friday.

The final piece of this post was meant to include thoughts from the other side of the Ice Pavilion surface, via alumnus coach Mark Horgas, but we've learned that he was unable to fulfill his coaching duties Friday night due to a personal issue. TYT passes along its best wishes.

Horgas (left) and Joe Battista at the press conference introducing Guy Gadowsky. Photo: Jay Horgas

Four Aces

Penn State has announced that four new recruits have joined Jake Friedman and Tim Carr in the class of 2011: forwards Chris "Creek" Lewis, Forrest Dell and Dan Meiselman, as well as defenseman Peter Sweetland.

Since I haven't figured out the best way to cover recruiting yet, let's just stick with the "toss everything I can find against a wall" approach, first used with Carr and Friedman. No YouTube this time, which I suppose means that these four all have well-adjusted parents. Take the good with the bad.

Peter
Sweetland

Defenseman
Green Mountain Glades (EJHL)
6'2", 205 pounds
Newtown, PA

EJHL Player Page

Sweetland's 24 points (3-21), were tops among Glades defensemen as the team advanced to the EJHL playoffs, where they fell in the first round to Friedman's South Shore Kings. On December 9th, he had a season-high three points (1-2) in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of those same Kings. We probably could have used him on the power play last season, as exactly half of his points (1-11) came with the man advantage.

Back in October 2009, Sweetland was named EJHL rookie of the week by HockeyBarn.com. Here's what his blurb says:

Pete had back to back two-assist games for the Stars this past weekend in their split with Apple Core. After being All-League last year in the Empire League, Pete is starting to really understand the intricacies of the game at the EJHL level. Three of his assists this weekend were highlight-reel back door feeds. Pete is a solid student with a 3.5 GPA and continues to get better every week. His grades and upside are attracting significant interest from Division One schools.

Can't wait to see how he's developed since then.

Dan
Meiselman

Forward
Capital District Selects (EJHL)
6'2", 205 pounds
Winnetka, IL

EJHL Player Page

Meiselman was the Selects' leading scorer this season, with 36 points (23-13). What makes this especially impressive is that he did it in 34 games with the team after starting the season with the New York Apple Core. The Illinois native also knows a thing or two about how to finish a season, as he scored in 12 of CD's last 14 games (14 total goals), despite the fact that the team had little to play for, missing the playoffs with a last-place 6-36-2-1 record. And he has a pretty flattering write-up from USA Junior Hockey Magazine to his credit:

Meiselman started the year with the New York Apple Core, scoring two points in six games for Henry Lazar’s crew.

“They had just too many players there, and Danny came up and scored six points in nine games,” said Salfi.

Meiselman, a 1990-born forward from Winnetka, Ill., is a good student, scoring over 2000 on his SAT.

“I’m not sure what he wants to be, but at one time I thought it was an engineer,” said Salfi. “He was out visiting Penn State, which will be Division 1 in the future, but regardless it’s a great school, academically. Dan is one of those kids where you look at the scoresheet after the game and there’s his name [for a goal or assist].”

Offense is certainly the name of the game where Meiselman is concerned.

“He’s always been a guy who can find the net,” said Salfi. “He likes to shoot the puck, and that’s one of the hardest things to do today – to get kids to shoot the puck. He’s not a smooth skater. I believe he started hockey later [than most of his teammates], but he works all summer on it.”

Guess I should have known about him back in December, when that was published. Time to tweak the Google Alerts.

Forrest
Dell

Forward
New York Apple Core (EJHL)
5'11", 185 pounds
Evergreen, CO

EJHL Player Page

Between Friedman, Meiselman and Dell, Penn State has recruited three of the top 50 EJHL scorers from this past season. Dell held up his part of that statement with his 39 points (17-22) in 36 games, good for second on the Apple Core. Prior to his EJHL career, Dell played some Canadian Junior A, spending time in both the Saskatchewan and Manitoba Junior Hockey Leagues.

Season   Team                   Lge    GP    G    A  Pts  PIM
-------------------------------------------------------------
2008-09  Weyburn Red Wings      SJHL    5    0    4    4    2
2008-09  Winkler Flyers         MJHL   31    8    7   15   16
2009-10  Weyburn Red Wings      SJHL   58   14   21   35   61

I did a Google Image search for each of these players, hoping for a solid action shot. Instead, I got an invite to the gun show.

It's not stalking if you get it from Google - standard operating procedure for these posts - and not straight from his Facebook page. That's the rule that I just made up. Wait, is that even him?

Also, you don't run in hockey, you skate. First person to drop a "Run Forrest!" is persona non grata with me.

Chris "Creek"
Lewis

Forward
Boston Bulldogs (AtlJHL)
6'0", 215 pounds
Fort Covington, NY

AtlJHL Player Page

I think there's one question on everyone's mind here: is "Creek" one of those nicknames to be used in place of his first name, or is it just sort of a second-option type of thing? If I was a legitimate member of the media, that would be my first question for him. Whatever you want to call him, Lewis just finished a second straight stellar season with the Bulldogs, posting 92 (34-58) points in 44 games to follow up his 82 (32-50) in 2009-2010. His second-in-the-league 2010-2011 point total included back-to-back five-point games against the Laconia Leafs on December 19th and January 9th.

The Icers have a pretty extensive relationship with both the Bulldogs and the Atlantic League - Eric Steinour and Josh Hand both played for highly-respected coach Mike Addesa. In fact, Steinour captained the 2008-2009 Bulldogs, while Lewis played 37 games for the team that season.

A couple thoughts on a big-picture level are in order. First of all, I like the fact that we've taken the "eastern" recruiting approach so far, although I'm sure it's just a result of Scott Balboni and Josh Hand both being eastern guys - the to-be-determined head coach will ultimately take things in his direction, of course. Regardless, I hope we can maintain a strong presence in the east to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the Big Ten, which slants towards the setting sun (in hockey terms). Turns out, the whole "we're on the Big Ten Network" thing isn't a valid recruiting pitch against Wisconsin.

Also, while a lot is made of the potential of current Icers to make the NCAA team, here's something a little more immediate to keep in mind: Penn State's departures following this past season were four forwards (Tim O'Brien, Marek Polidor, Chris Pronchik, Taylor Cera), a defenseman (Carey Bell) and two goalies (Teddy Hume and John Jay). In this 2011 class, we've now recruited four forwards (Friedman, Dell, Lewis, Meiselman), a defenseman (Sweetland) and a goalie (Carr). You don't have to be an RPI grad to do that math - there's going to be a squeeze on roster and lineup spots for 2011-2012 if we get any more recruits, and we probably will.

Men's World University Games Preview

The World University Games, or Universiade as it's called by almost everyone outside of the United States, has always been kind of special to me because it's one of the rare times where I'm not at a clear disadvantage to most following the Icers by virtue of living in Blow-hio. Are you going to Erzurum, Turkey for this one? Me neither. Yeah, okay, there's also that whole "representing your country" thing - I've been a sucker for international hockey going back to the 1992 Winter Olympics, where Ray LeBlanc and Team USA introduced me to this sport we all love as much as anything or anyone else.

The 2011 WUG, set to start Thursday, takes on a little bit of added significance, as it's the last one involving Penn Staters. By the time the next one rolls around in 2013, the top-level ACHA teams for both men and women will be gone from PSU, replaced by the NCAA teams. That brings with it the chance to have players compete in the World Junior Championships, which is exciting too, but the participation, especially at first, will be pretty far off of the guaranteed couple of players every two years PSU gets with the WUG.

With all of that in mind, I'm going to try my best to grind out some solid coverage of the event, beginning with this post and continuing with a similar one for the women's team (featuring four Lady Icers players and the head coach) tomorrow. So without further ado, off we go.

Last Time

Team USA is coming off a best-ever-with-ACHA-players (meaning since 2001) 3-2-0 record and seventh-place finish at the 2009 WUG in Harbin, China. Seventh is deceptively low in a sense, as Team USA had a shot at making the semifinals going into the last game of group play, needing only to beat Japan to be in the final four. Unfortunately, Japan stunned the Americans, who then took out their frustrations on China in the seventh-place game.

That team featured Icers Lukas DeLorenzo and Jaime Zimmel, as well as Scott Balboni as an assistant coach to Rhode Island's Joe Augustine, a role he’ll reprise this time around with Michigan-Dearborn's Dave Debol. It was DeLorenzo who provided Team USA with their highlight of the tournament – the shootout winner to defeat heavy favorite Slovakia, who went on to win the bronze.

Your shutter speed can't handle DeLo's wheels. Photo: USA Hockey

The Team

Defenseman Dan Lassik and forwards Kyle Krannich and Devin Sheehan, all from Rhode Island, are the only three returning players from the 2009 team, but they'll be joined by a glut of talented forwards, particularly guys like Michigan-Dearborn's Michael Macari, Western Michigan's James Telfer and Oakland's Kevin Kranker, all of whom had good pre-tournament games last month. Tim O'Brien and Eric Steinour, of course, represent Penn State, and also did well in those games with a goal and an assist each. Headshots of the Icers delegation:

O'Brien's chirping the camera guy, Steinour's trying to look like Iceman, Balboni has never taken a picture that differs from this one by more than two percent.

The defense doesn't strike me as quite as deep, but it still features some great players, including Alan Dionne, Lassik's frequent defense partner at URI, Niagara's Kevin Morrison and Kent State's Michael Lepre, who can slide up to forward if needed. Looking at the emphasis on speed and offense in that group, it's pretty easy to see how Icers Kevin Miller and Dan Petrick were relegated to alternate status, although at times, the group (outside of Dionne and Lassik, who were outstanding in that pre-tournament series) was victimized in their own end.

Goaltending is in good hands with Iowa State's Erik Hudson and Drexel's Dan Pyne. While Hudson and his team haven't had the greatest of seasons, one only needs to remember the way he shut the door on favored Illinois and Ohio in the ACHA tournament last season to know that he's capable of bringing in big Ws from an underdog position. He performed admirably in the final against mighty Lindenwood as well, but was done in by a couple second-period goals and no offense. Pyne is a guy with quite a bit of experience trying to keep his team in games as well, and has performed very well in that role.

The Group

Team USA has been placed in Group C, along with Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Spain. While that's a pretty tough group with two very good opponents (sorry, Spain), it's nice not being stuck with Russia or Canada, and the all-but-guaranteed loss that comes with it. The key to topping 2009's finish will be to a) not stumble against Spain, which in my mind includes not going to overtime - the 3-2-1-0 points system in place doesn't reward OT wins as much as regulation ones, and b) upset either Slovakia or Kazakhstan. That should be enough to lock in a spot in the quarterfinals as one of the top eight teams, and with a seed high enough to avoid Canada and Russia in that round.

The Rest of the Field

Group A: Russia, Japan, Czech Republic, Turkey
Group B: Canada, Korea, Belarus, Slovenia
Group C: Slovakia, Kazakhstan, United States, Spain

In case your inference skills are lacking, yes, Canada and Russia are the heavy favorites. As they should be - the two hockey-rich countries have met in each of the last two finals, with the Canadians winning in 2007 and Russia winning in 2009 (to go along with gold medals in 2003 and 2005). The Canadian team should be pretty easy to put in context for North American hockey fans, as it's always made up of players from one of the CIS conferences on a rotating basis - this time, it's OUA's turn.

What exactly is that context? Well, as one example, on January 3, 2001, the Icers lost to York University, an OUA team, 6-1. This was the last time Penn State played a CIS team. And while there's no question the ACHA is much improved from ten years ago (witness Iowa State's competitiveness in three games against the CWUAA, a different CIS conference, over Thanksgiving weekend this season), it's still at a deficit to the CIS.

Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Korea and Japan will be the leading teams looking to join the Canadians and Russians at the the end of the tournament, while teams like the US, Belarus and the Czech Republic push to be considered part of that secondary group.

The Schedule

Full schedule here - be prepared to deal with Turkey time, seven hours ahead of eastern time.

Here's Team USA only, using good, old-fashioned eastern time. Get ready to do a lot of personal internet usage at work.

Group Play
Friday, January 28 vs. Kazakhstan, 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 30 vs. Slovakia, 9:00 a.m.
Tuesday, February 1 vs. Spain, 9:00 a.m.

Medal Round
Thursday, February 3 - Quarterfinals/Relegation Round
Friday, February 4 - 11th and 9th place games/Relegation Round
Saturday, February 5 - Semifinals/7th and 5th place games
Sunday, February 6 - Gold and Bronze Medal games

Windy City Warmup

Before heading over to Turkey, both the men's and women's World University Teams participated in a pair of exhibition games in the Chicago area over the weekend. As internet information about these games isn't exactly in great abundance, much credit is due to my three primary sources for this: the ACHA website, the USA Hockey WUG blog and the gametracker provided by Davenport University (for the men's game on Sunday).

Men

Saturday, January 22nd - Team USA 4, Goose Island Senior A 0

1. USA Morrison (Ciaverilla, Kranker) 19:22 1st
2. USA Collar (Macari, Telfer) 19:23 2nd
3. USA Gorczyca 16:24 2nd
4. USA Ciaverilla (Kranker) 12:13 2nd

Goalies: Hudson (25:00 W), 6 shots, 6 saves. Pyne (25:00 ND), 4 shots, 4 saves

USA Hockey blog game post

Sunday, January 23rd - Team USA 6, Davenport University 2

1. DU Ouelette (Kuhn) 3:04 1st
2. USA Dionne (Lassik, Collar) (sh) 2:18 1st
3. USA Telfer (Dionne, Collar) (pp) 3:53 2nd
4. USA Desano (Collar) 2:36 2nd
5. USA Dionne (pp) 18:46 3rd
6. DU Juliano (Kuhn) 16:20 3rd
7. USA Gorczyca (Pilmore, Balint) 3:53 3rd
8. USA Lepre (Krannich) 4:24 3rd

Goalies: Pyne (31:10 ND), 10 shots, 9 saves. Hudson (8:50 W), 13 shots, 12 saves

USA Hockey blog game post
Box score

Thanks to the Davenport gametracker, I can add a little more detail on the second game - including adding in the Davenport goals, which are excluded on the ACHA site. Team USA dominated throughout, outshooting the Panthers 44-18 (including 30-5 through two periods). However, DU's Brit Ouellette opened the scoring before Alan Dionne, who continues to emerge as one of the stars of the team, answered 46 seconds later. The WUG team then put the game away with three consecutive goals spanning the second and third periods, capped once again by Dionne, this time on the power play.

Penn State update: Not really a whole lot to report here. You've already seen everything I know about the game with the Senior A team. Against Davenport, thanks again to the live stats, I can tell you that Eric Steinour took a high sticking penalty with 3:07 left in the game and that his was a perfect 4-0 on faceoffs. Tim O'Brien was 3-2 on draws.

Women

Saturday, January 22nd - Chicago Young Americans U-19 3, Team USA 2

USA Goals:
1. USA Ducie (Juha, Wynn) 14:52 2nd
2. USA Kucharski (Nelson) 6:39 3rd

Goalies: Rossi (32:27 ND), 14 shots, 13 saves. Vaughan (27:33 L), 20 shots, 18 saves

USA Hockey blog game post

From the just-linked blog post, we know that Team USA got into some penalty trouble late, and that two were in the box when the Young Americans scored the winning goal with 12.4 seconds left. It's probably important to note that to the best of my knowledge, this was the women's team's first time playing together, as they didn't have exhibitions in December like the men.

Sunday, January 23rd - Team USA 4, Robert Morris University (IL) 2

USA Goals:
1. USA Rumsey (Redick) 11:25 1st
2. USA Katz (Nelson, Kucharski) 5:16 2nd
3. USA Kucharski 18:02 3rd
4. USA Rumsey (Redick, Crawford) 3:40 3rd

USA Hockey blog game post

The Team USA women bounced back with a win in the second game, although it didn't come easy as RMU (IL) superstar Danielle McCutcheon tied the game at 2 with 18:18 to go. Shelby Kucharski gave the US the lead back just 16 seconds later before Grand Valley State teammate Ashley Rumsey added some late insurance.

Penn State update: One of the benefits of having goalies on the team is supposed to be that you always have some kind of idea how they played, but we don't even get that for the Sunday game! You can see the shots and saves for Heather Rossi and Katie Vaughan on Saturday. The only other mention of a Penn Stater also comes from that game and courtesy of the USA Hockey blog:

Penalty: USA #6 Lindsay Reihl 12:47 remaining in the 3rd

The first US game in Erzurum is (very) early Thursday when the women play Slovakia, while the men get started the next day against Kazakhstan. In the meantime, be sure to check out my WUG preview posts, coming Monday and Tuesday.

All Your Offense Are Belong to USA Hockey

Tim O'Brien, Eric Steinour, Scott Balboni. Please tell me that you didn't need this caption.

With some inspiration from today's Collegian article on the subject, I thought it might be a decent time to take a quick look ahead as the Icers prepare for the absolutely critical next six games without Tim O'Brien, Eric Steinour and coach Scott Balboni, who jet off to Turkey for the World University Games in a few short days. First off, the PSU perspective, courtesy of a snipy-snip from the aforementioned article.

[Assistant coach Josh Hand, who will assume head coaching duties] said in terms of his day-to-day routine, changes will be minimal, and he believes it will be a smooth transition. While there is a seven-hour time difference between Turkey and State College, he said both coaches will remain in constant contact.

“For the most part [Balboni and I] are on the same page with everything,” Hand said.

“The decisions won’t change because, for the most part, we will still be in touch to talk about any potential decisions.”

While the coaching change should be smooth, replacing two of their top players should prove to be a more difficult proposition.

“It’s going to be a big loss, and it will create a big hole in the lineup,” [captain Marek] Polidor said.

“But you know what, we have the guys that can step up, and it gives them an opportunity to contribute to the team.”

True enough. Let's not forget that we have a lot of guys who played pretty well a couple months ago when we were absolutely gashed with injuries, then were sort of pushed to the background when the injuries healed. Yeah you, Michael Longo. No need for panic mode just yet, until we see what happens.

Also, let's not whine too much, it's not like PSU's the only team down some personnel. What about our opponents during WUG - who will they be missing?

West Chester (January 21st/22nd) - Nobody
Delaware (January 28th/29th) -  Nobody

Oh, okay, never mind, whine away.*

* Note that this is not at all meant to disparage the tremendous honor given to O'Brien, Steinour and Balboni. I'm just looking at it purely in terms of the Icers' fortunes, and in light of the fact that we have less of a safety net than at any other time during WUG since ever.

Without having seen the tryout camp in August or even knowing who was there, it's tough for me to say how the No. 3 (for the moment) team in D1 got completely snubbed. Not that it bothers UD's Dave Lombardi or anything, as he had this to say after Team USA's exhibition loss to Saint Michael's College on December 28th.

Looks like WUG team USA could have used some @UDHockey players like @josh24weiner to bury and kills some penalties

Team USA's loss I guess. Unfortunately, the Icers' loss too. But hey, a Dearborn program that hasn't mattered in half a decade is well represented on the team, so we're good.

Penn State's luck shifts a little bit when it comes to Rhode Island, the alumni weekend (February 4th/5th) opponent. Rams on Team USA include forwards Kyle Krannich and Devin Sheehan, both of whom were on the 2009 WUG team that finished seventh in Harbin, China. Krannich in particular is a pretty big blow to URI - he's the Rams' third-leading scorer, wins two-thirds of his draws, and is a +20 this year. Oh, and he's their captain too. He may even book their hotels, I'm not sure.

Rhode Island suffers two more significant absences with defensemen Dan Lassik (who also did this in 2009) and Alan Dionne. In tandem, the pair might have been the best players on Team USA during those exhibition games last month, and they'll be counted on to generate a lot of offense from the back end in Turkey - offense they won't be generating at the Ice Pavilion in a couple weeks. So - finally - we hit someone who might be up against it more, and with a chance to maybe avenge a couple losses against a quality team in the eyes of the coaches, who hopefully won't notice what I just said.

All in all, not the best setup ever for the Icers, especially over the next two weekends, and especially without the luxury of not having to worry about a nationals invite, but into the great unknown we go regardless.

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.

Saint Michael's 3, US National University Team 2

SMC recap // USA Hockey recap // Box score // Play-by-play and shot chart // Photos

Despite losing in this second game of the pre-tournament Vermont series, there's a lot to like about the WUG team. It has an extremely deep forward group that can be assembled in a number of effective ways, defensemen that contribute to the attack without sacrificing much at home, and stout goaltending. A lot of this led to long stretches of dominant play at even strength against NCAA Division II Saint Michael's.

However, it was following one such sequence from Team USA to start the game that the Knights ended up with the game's first goal just 2:17 in, a transitional effort off of a rebound on the other end that saw Alex Davidson streak down left wing, fight off defenseman Jacob DeSano to get the puck to Michael Jangro, who found Fran Briand in front to cash it in.

That lead held up until 9:07 of the second, when a strong US forecheck led to another series of repeated chances. In this particular instance, Rhode Island's Devin Sheehan went cross-ice to Icer Tim O'Brien in the right-wing circle. O'Brien then found Brandon Contratto on the doorstep, and he made a nifty move to get the puck around Saint Michael's netminder Brendan Rimmer on the glove side.

However, much like yesterday's game against Castleton, penalty issues would again haunt Team USA. But unlike yesterday, the ACHAers didn't have a four-goal margin for error. Just 14 seconds after Contratto's goal tied things up, Alan Dionne took a boarding penalty. That one was successfully killed, but 38 seconds after that kill ended, a tired PK had to go back to work following Michael Macari's hooking infraction. A 5-on-4 quickly became a long 5-on-3 when Mercyhurst's Mark Loecher also went off for a hook 24 seconds later. The Knights took advantage with goals on both ends of the two-man advantage from Reave MacKinnon and Colby MacDonald 19 seconds apart.

Another similarity to yesterday was the fact that both Penn Staters on the team were involved in the scoring. Team USA cut the deficit to 3-2 when Eric Steinour found Adrian's Tom Ciaverilla in the slot with a quick pass off the rush, and Ciaverilla beat Mike Dizgun, SMC's second goalie. Steinour and Ciaverilla joined Kevin Kranker on what was generally the WUG team's best line throughout the game.

One interesting aspect to this game was the use of an experimental rule enforcing icing at all times, even against a penalty kill. The NCAA had considered making it a universal rule change in the offseason, before an extreme uproar caused the rules committee to back off, ratifying it only for exhibition contests such as this one.

If there was a reason for people to be concerned about that rule change, it certainly wasn't demonstrated by Team USA's power play. It was 0 for 5 on the evening (1 for 11 when adding in the Castleton game) and was especially out-of-sync on the first three attempts, where the US struggled getting set up in the zone, and once there struggled to hit the tape with consecutive passes. The last two were much better - including 10 shots on the last one, which started under somewhat controversial circumstances. SMC recap:

The best chance for Team USA came when sophomore Tyler Pilmore cruised on a breakaway with two Purple Knights trailing closely behind. [Morgan] Bell dove to disrupt Pilmore briefly, allowing Saint Michael's sophomore goalie Dizgun to make the save. Bell got called for tripping on the play, which had the Team USA bench screaming for a penalty shot. After the officials discussed the play, it was determined that the trip happened after Pilmore took the shot, which allowed the Purple Knights to kill the penalty and hold on for the win.

In all, Dizgun was bombed with 21 shots on goal in the final frame (to just four for the Purple Knights). However, none found the back of the net, including during a frenetic extra-man push as time expired.

One final note: I'm sorry if I misidentified any players in this post. I tried to corroborate with the box score and other accounts where I could, but that wasn't possible in every case. Why am I apologizing? Well, look at what I was working with - and no, play-by-play was not included.

I don't know what it means when the gear thingy is off, but the guy moving the camera should probably turn it on, straighten the camera out, and quit trying to whistle to that one techno song they play at every hockey game during stoppages.

Next up, of course, is the showdown with Vermont tomorrow night at Gutterson Fieldhouse. Win (!), lose close, lose big or draw (?), it will be one of those events that will come up in message board arguments for years to come. Regardless of what happens, it's hard not to be encouraged with how the WUG team is shaping up - as long as it stays 5-on-5.