Three Stars: June 3-9

3. Forty Players Invited to 2013 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp
(usahockey.com)

The buildup to the selection of Team USA for the 2014 World Junior Championships is officially underway, as USA Hockey has picked 40 skaters for its August evaluation camp. From there, roughly 25 will be invited to training camp in December, with a few more being trimmed ahead of the event, which begins December 26, 2013 in Malmo, Sweden. Not surprisingly, given the talent flowing through the program and that Don Lucia will be the head coach of the team, five Minnesota Golden Gophers (Brady Skjei, Mike Brodzinski, Tommy Vannelli, Hudson Fasching and Taylor Cammarata) received invites.

When I see Brodzinski's name, I automatically think of Eamon McAdam, so what of the goalies? Well, they're still TBD. A bunch of them - McAdam included - are in Ann Arbor, MI right now (Sunday through Tuesday, to be precise) battling for invites to the evaluation camp. Those making the cut will be announced at the conclusion of the mini-camp.

2. Penn State's hockey team builds toward inaugural Big Ten season
(PennLive)

Often, I'm condescending towards stories built for a general audience. Not this one. Guy Gadowsky video, Pegula Ice Arena photo gallery, exploration of an underutilized angle with strength coach Robert McLean extensively quoted. Outstanding work, Mr. Leone. I'll even give bonus points for not automatically jumping on Tommy Olczyk for the player quotes. Read and enjoy, we're almost there.

1. Idea of hockey game at Beaver Stadium being considered?
(WJAC)

The big story this week, of course, was WJAC's confirmation that Penn State officials have discussed Beaver Stadium hockey. I've hesitated to talk about it because...

1. This is news? How is anyone actually surprised? Penn State would almost have to be trying for it not to have come up on some level by this point.
2. I'm roughly 98 percent sure that discussion of Beaver Stadium hockey had already been publicly confirmed. At the very least, athletic department employees Gadowsky and Bill O'Brien openly talked about it at the 2012 Coaches Caravan, and I believe that I've heard the hypothetical Joe Battista laid out for WJAC before, either on or off the record.
3. "Considered" is quite a few steps from "it's done."

But I suppose it's time to get this out of the way. To begin sorting through it, here's what Battista said.

"What will probably happen eventually is that we'll play Penn State-Notre Dame, Penn State-Boston College, Penn State-Michigan, and then we'll also have Flyers-Penguins, Penguins-Sabres, Sabres-Flyers."

"Probably," "eventually," several possibilities for games being thrown around... yeah, sounds imminent.

The idea of the NHL's Winter Classic stacked on top of major college games is not unprecedented - the now-annual Frozen Fenway college event got its start in the aftermath of the Boston Bruins' 2010 Winter Classic victory over the Flyers, and numerous lower-profile college games (Penn State-Neumann on January 4, 2012, to name one) have also piggybacked on the NHL-installed ice. Now that the pros have decided to play something like 30 outdoor games per year, that would seem to open even more possibilities.

The WJAC report was complemented by the official men's hockey Twitter dipping its toe into the water and unintentionally showing that the idea may be a bit undercooked. In response to the question "What do you think of an outdoor game at Beaver Stadium?" it got...

Ouch. Maybe we should park this one until people are excited enough about Nittany Lions hockey to think of it ahead of the NHL when the Nittany Lions' Twitter asks a hockey question. Or until PSU gets a mention in more than three of the roughly six zillion news articles and blog posts on the topic this past week (seriously, even Black Shoe Diaries is fixated on the Pens-Flyers side to the story while the Penn State blog ignores the idea of a Penn State team's potential involvement). The downside to having a huge stadium is that a crowd of 80,000 is a success for most places but a failure for University Park. We're going to need a massive amount of excitement for the college game too, and right now, nobody seems to care about Penn State playing outside.

And maybe it's a pipe dream, but as a matter of principle, I'd love for the Nittany Lions to not have to be an undercard to an NHL game. Big Ten rivals Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin have all managed to hold highly-successful outdoor hockey games in their school football stadia without swimming in someone's wake, and my hope is that PSU is able to do the same. In fact, my preference is that the PSU and NHL games take place in different seasons (yeah, good luck with that one, I know).

Enterprising journalists have confirmed that yes, people have talked about Beaver Stadium hockey, at least the NHL version of it, both in the eastern...

The Flyers have had preliminary discussions about playing a regular-season game at Penn State's Beaver Stadium against their archrivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, club president Peter Luukko confirmed Wednesday.

"We have spoken to the Pens and the league about expressing our combined interest," Luukko said. "Not sure if next year is a possibility. Penn State is very interested."

...and western...

"It would be great for Pennsylvania hockey," Penguins CEO David Morehouse said Friday.

The talks have been between Morehouse and Flyers president Peter Luukko, who confirmed them to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Luukko told the Inquirer that Penn State is "very interested" in being the site of such a game.

...halves of the commonwealth, and that PSU has been involved with those discussions on some level. Cool. Now don't blow it by letting the Sabres break up a potentially epic installment of the NHL's best rivalry (Terry Pegula, contrary to popular belief, bought an arena and some scholarships, not our souls) or by letting Luukko somehow cram his kid's team (Vermont) down our throats one more time on the NCAA side of things.

I'm hardly an outdoor game hater, and have made my position clear on one of the other occasions this came up. I just think we need to pump the brakes a bit. Everything is still very obviously in the earliest of stages, and the soonest this will realistically happen is 2014-2015. Beyond the things mentioned at that link, you're crazy if you think PSU will sacrifice an inaugural-season Pegula Ice Arena game, especially with no marginal benefit to doing outdoor hockey this year versus next year. Even a date 18 months from now assumes a positive resolution of things like the idea of 100,000 people parked in an icy mud pit (grass parking areas mixed with wintry precipitation) and the timing of Beaver Stadium's winterization.

We'll give Dan Vecellio and BSD the last word.

Battista told me that no formal talks with any teams had taken place from Penn State's end and that no commitments to any groups (teams, owners, etc.) had been made. The school was still in the exploratory phase and still researching whether a game at the stadium is even feasible considering parking and "winterizing" the stadium like they do every year as had been reported before. So, don't put too much stock into these stories just yet.

Yeah, that.

Best of the Rest

Kate Christoffersen before (left) and after (right) running a marathon

Lake Placid Marathon & Half Marathon
(coolrunning.com)

Kate Christoffersen, the Lady Icers original who played her senior year as an NCAA Nittany Lion in 2012-2013, ran a marathon on Sunday. Hey, if you have what it takes inside to come back from a career-ending concussion, why not?

She actually did quite well too. From start line to finish line, she only required 3:48:02, or 3:48:20 when measuring from the starting gun (the latter is the actual time used to rank the runners, which seems silly in this day and age). That was good for 85th place of the 327 runners overall, or sixth among females between 20 and 29 years old.

Save the Date: Summer Social
(psuboston.org)

If you're in Boston on June 29th and want to hang out with Battista and/or hear him speak (he's quite good at both of those things, trust me), here's your chance. Advance tickets are $40 for members of the Greater Boston Chapter of the alumni association, $45 for non-members, and $50 at the door.

Big Ten continues to expand its horizons and Purdue needs to catch up
(The Exponent)

Sometimes I forget that Purdue is in the Big Ten. Way to matter at things that aren't engineering, Purdue. Anyway, they're still broke and not adding sports like hockey or lacrosse, if you needed that.

Sidney Crosby’s sister carving her own hockey path in goal
(The Globe and Mail)

The headline says it all... Sidney Crosby's sister Taylor is a pretty well-regarded goalie, one good enough to get invites to Hockey Canada U18 camps. She's entering her senior year at Shattuck-St. Mary's, where she posted a 2.04 goals against average and a 0.924 save percentage last season.

Hey Taylor, if you're looking at colleges, I can name one fairly close to your brother's team... geez, wouldn't that be something?

Admit it: for a split second, you thought about Laura Bowman doing the Happy Gilmore swing

2013 State Golf Tournament Qualifiers
(mshsl.org)

Laura Bowman is a Minnesota Ms. Hockey semifinalist by winter and a Minnesota state golf tournament qualifier by spring. She's okay at sports.

The Minnetonka High School senior emerged as one of five individual qualifiers from Section 6AAA and will compete for the AAA (the largest division) state title on Tuesday and Wednesday at Bunker Hills Golf Club in Coon Rapids, MN. For the "small world" file: on day one, she'll be playing with Lakeville North's Brianna Vetter, the younger sister of 2014 commit Christi Vetter.

Amy Petersen, Bowman's long-time linemate and a fellow incoming PSU freshman, also doesn't suck at golf, as she finished 29th at last year's state tournament.

Koelmel Named President of HARBORcenter
(Tumblr)

After Pegula's Buffalo hotel/restaurant/ice rink project hyped a "major announcement" that many (guilty) assumed was the long-awaited "Canisius will play its home games here" unveiling, they instead introduced John Koelmel as the facility's president. Koelmel is a former CEO of First Niagara Financial Group, the entity which happens to have its name on the arena in which Pegula's Buffalo Sabres play. Moving on...

Rocha Named Academic All-America
(goarmysports.com)

Cheyne Rocha, a senior defenseman at Army last season, was one of just two men's hockey players nationally to be named first-team Academic All-America. As mentioned here numerous times before, he is also the son of former Icers assistant coach Larry Rocha and Penn State lacrosse legend Candace Finn Rocha. They did an okay job raising him.

Rocha, who commissioned as a second lieutenant two weeks ago and posted a 4.20 grade-point average, is the first Army hockey player to earn the national academic honor as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. He registered the highest grade point average of the 15 first-team choices.

Rocha, who won the Senior CLASS Award for ice hockey, was a Rhodes Scholar finalist and is a three-time Atlantic hockey Association Academic All-Star. The 2013-14 team has not yet been announced.

A native of Rye, N.H., Rocha missed just two games this season when he interviewed for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. In addition to play as a defenseman, he was instrumental in starting the House of Blues, an awareness campaign for prostate cancer. He is also active with the Special Olympics and Neighborhood Knights, a group of hockey players who perform community service in and around West Point.

An engineering management major, Rocha will enter the Engineers branch of the U.S. Army and begin his service in Fort Carson, Colo.

Alaska-Anchorage down to finalists for second time in coaching search
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Sure enough, despite the ouster of athletic director Steve Cobb, Alaska-Anchorage's gongshow of a head coaching search is marching forward. Even more surprisingly, they found five people who want easily the worst job in Division I right now.

@hockeyjcu
(Twitter)

John Carroll, a university in suburban Cleveland for those who don't know, has won the bid to host the ACHA Men's Division 1 National Championships in 2015. It will be the fifth time that the tournament has been held in the state of Ohio since 2003, and the fourth go for the Buckeye State in a nine-year stretch back to 2007.

This coming season's D1 tournament will be in Newark, DE, while D2 is in Marlborough, MA. The D2 men will head to Salt Lake City in 2015, and the D1 and D2 women join the D1 men at UDelly in 2014.

The Blue Streaks previously hosted D1's best in 2009, a tournament which saw the Icers bounced in the semifinals by Illinois (the Illini went on to lose the championship game to Lindenwood) but not before PSU earned nationals bragging rights over Ohio for all eternity. That year's tournament was probably best remembered, however, for the Zamboni exhaust incident that forced the evacuation of the rink, sent 100 people to the hospital (as a precaution, nobody to the best of my knowledge was seriously affected) and forced a couple games to be suspended and completed the next day, including one involving Penn State Berks. Hopefully they got that checked out at some point in the last few years.

Women's Team Makes Staff Additions

After the men's program added a strength coach, a trainer and an equipment manager on July 17th, it was only a matter of time before the women did the same, and those transactions were announced by Josh Brandwene today.

One of those additions is strength and conditioning coach Rob McLean, who will also fill that role for the men.

Another is equipment manager Graham Pepperman, who has held that role for the Icers, the 2011 women's World University Games team (coached by Mo Stroemel and featuring four Lady Icers, including NCAA defender Lindsay Reihl), and most recently the CHL's Dayton Gems (where former Icers goalie Brian Gratz was his boss as the Gems' head coach/GM).

Athletic Trainer Sarah Leslie is also someone who doesn't need a map to get around campus, as she's previously worked with three other varsity teams at PSU.

When combining these moves with the reassignment of Stroemel in April and the hire of Casey McCullion, it would now seem as if the men and women have parallel staffs, both of which are ready to lead Penn State into NCAA competition for the first time.

Here's the full text of the release:

---

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State women's hockey head coach Josh Brandwene announced the additions of strength & conditioning coach Robert McLean, athletic trainer Sarah Leslie, and equipment manager Graham Pepperman on Wednesday.

McLean

Previously added to the Penn State men's hockey team on July 17, McLean is a veteran in the profession, working for nine years with the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils. McLean comes to Penn State from the Avalanche where he served as the head strength & conditioning coach after two years with BRS Sports. McLean is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

"I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Rob to the Penn State hockey family," Brandwene said. "He has worked successfully with many NHL players, and his training philosophies are in exact alignment with the conditioning goals for our program. We are very grateful to have his day-to-day involvement with the women's team."

Leslie

Leslie joins the Penn State women's hockey team after three years working with Penn State's track & field (2009-10), men's lacrosse (2011-12) and field hockey (2010-11) teams. A 2005 graduate of Western Michigan, Leslie earned her masters of science in athletic training at West Virginia in 2009. Additionally Leslie is certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association as well as the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Before Penn State, Leslie worked with the Waynesburg University athletic department from 2007-09 as well as the University of Florida's training staff during the 2006-07 season.

"Sarah has already demonstrated her value to our program in a very short period of time," Brandwene noted. "She is highly organized and has prior tenure with a number of other collegiate programs that bring valuable experience to our student-athletes."

Pepperman

Rounding out Brandwene's additions is Pepperman, who was the head equipment manager for the Dayton Gems in the Central Hockey League during the 2011-12 campaign. Pepperman is a 2009 Penn State graduate with a bachelor's of science in organizational leadership. Pepperman served as Penn State club men's hockey equipment manager for four seasons before moving on to the USA Hockey program. Pepperman was the head equipment manager for the Women's National University Team at the 2011 World University Games in Erzurum, Turkey.

"Graham's experience in professional hockey will be a tremendous asset to our program," said Brandwene. "His organizational skills and enthusiasm will create a fantastic day-to-day experience for our student-athletes."

The Penn State women's hockey program begins its inaugural season under the direction of Brandwene with practices beginning in September and the first game in program history on Oct. 6 at Vermont.

PSU Adds S&C Coach, Equipment Manager

McLean

Penn State today announced the addition of head strength and conditioning coach Rob McLean and equipment manager Adam Sheehan to the men's staff.

As everyone knows, strength and conditioning is a vital component to every athletic program, and indeed every athlete. So, it would follow that if Penn State is going to recruit players with NHL aspirations, it would help to hire an NHL strength and conditioning coach.

That's exactly what PSU has done in poaching McLean away from the Colorado Avalanche, his employer since June 2010. McLean has also been the head equipment manager of the Avalanche (1995-1999) and the Florida Panthers (2005-2008).

If you glossed over those years, they include the Stanley Cup championship won by the Avs in their first season after relocating from Quebec.

Last one on the fourth row.

Does your strength and conditioning coach have his name on the Stanley Cup? That's what I thought.

The new most hated man in Penn State hockey (internally, anyway, and I'm sure S&C coaches don't mind that label, because it means they're doing their job well) has a nice list of accomplishments as a strength coach as well. Former first overall NHL Entry Draft selection Erik Johnson became a believer in McLean during his first offseason in Denver last summer:

"In the past, I really bulked up a lot and was a little too top-heavy," he said. "I've improved my footwork and foot speed. I think I've become more explosive and more powerful all around."

Colorado's front office apparently agrees, as they recently re-signed Johnson through 2016.

Also last summer, T.J. Galiardi (now with the San Jose Sharks) put on 20 pounds of muscle, thanks in part to daily 7 a.m. workouts with McLean.

"I think I've always been fit, but I just took things to a new level," said Galiardi.

"He's not going to get sand kicked in his face anymore," [then-teammate Paul] Stastny said.

The University of New Brunswick graduate has also spent two years as the head strength and conditioning specialist with BRS Sports (2008-2010) in addition to his three years in a role with Mission Hockey as a manager of advanced concepts design (2001-2004).

Sheehan was previously the assistant equipment manager for the Detroit Red Wings, and has also worked for the Carolina Hurricanes and Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL and Sacred Heart collegiately.

It's not very often that I can present a guy's career to you in his own words, but that's exactly what I'm about to do in Sheehan's case.

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Sheehan

I went to college [at Western Michigan] for criminal justice and psychology. I moved to Phoenix in 1998 to pursue that career. I worked with my team in college and when I got to Phoenix, I called the Coyotes equipment staff and asked if they needed some help part time. At that point they didn’t but they ended up helping me get a game night job with the marketing staff where I spent two seasons.

During that time I got to know Stan [Wilson] and Tony [Silva] from the Coyotes [equipment] staff and when a spot opened in 2000, they remembered me bugging the sh*t out of them for two years and brought me on the game night staff. I spent the next few years learning from Stan Wilson how to sharpen skates, do repairs, sewing and a lot of the things we do on a day to day basis. Their staff took me under their wing and treated me fantastic over all the years I was there. I was only a part time, game night guy so I was looking for a full time job with another team.

I got that chance in 2003 with Carolina where I held the same position that I have with the Red Wings. After that season, the NHL lockout happened and I returned to Phoenix briefly before getting a job with Sacred Heart University as equipment manager for the men’s and women’s teams. It was a fantastic experience and it helped me learn a lot. In the NHL we have everything we need to do the job. In college, you don’t. You spend time inventing ways to get things done when you don’t have everything you might need.

In 2008, a spot opened in Detroit and I had been hoping to move home to be back closer to family and work for my hometown team. I pretty much blew up [Wings equipment manager] Paul [Boyer]’s phone and was hired a few days later. I’m someone who believes in making the best of opportunities that come in life and don’t wait for things to be handed to me. I go for what I want!

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Beyond the additions of McLean and Sheehan, PSU has also hired Justin Rogers as an athletic trainer. He is a 2009 Michigan State graduate who was an athletic training student for the Spartan men's hockey team, and more recently was with the NFL's Chicago Bears and the University of Nebraska's football program.

Also, expanded roles have been announced for both director of hockey operations Billy Downey and Ice Lions coach Josh Hand. Hand will serve as a volunteer assistant coach for the NCAA team, while Downey adds video coaching to his responsibilities.