Three Stars: July 22-28

3. Southeast Schedules and What They Mean for 2013-14
(Twisted Thoughts)

While the ACHA Division 2 Ice Lions have yet to release a 2013-2014 schedule, several opponents - MACHA rivals Delaware, Virginia Tech and Liberty most recently - have. Here's what we now know of PSU's upcoming slate as a result:

October 26, 2013 - vs. Delaware
November 2, 2013 - at Delaware
December 8, 2013 - vs. Maryland-Baltimore County
January 10, 2014 - at Liberty
January 11, 2014 - at Virginia Tech
February 1, 2014 - at Maryland-Baltimore County
February 7-8, 2014 - at Navy Crab Pot (D1 Navy, D1 Towson, Maryland)
February 14-16, 2014 - at MACHA Playoffs
February 23-24, 2014 - at Southeast Regionals
March 21-25, 2014 - at ACHA National Tournament (Marlborough, MA)

The second-year Women's Ice Hockey Club, which is joining the new College Hockey East women's league with California (PA), West Chester and Delaware for 2013-2014, also has a few games out there, thanks to the schedule releases of both the Blue Hens and Michigan State.

October 19, 2013 - vs. Michigan State
October 20, 2013 - vs. Michigan State
November 16, 2013 - at Delaware
November 17, 2013 - at Delaware
December 7, 2013 - vs. Delaware
December 8, 2013 - vs. Delaware
February 21-22, 2014 - at CHE Playoffs (York, PA)
March 13-16, 2014 - at ACHA National Tournament (Newark, DE)

Notably, the December 8th Delaware game will be played at Galactic Ice in Altoona. Guess PIA isn't solving everyone's ice time issues after all.

2. The debate: players discuss CHL vs. NCAA
(The Daily Collegian)

Tackling something like a CHL vs. NCAA article is a tough task, because it's been done so often that it's difficult to find a fresh angle to bring to the table. But Matt Nestor has pulled it off by writing for a general Penn State audience that might not be familiar with The Choice while also bringing in quotes from guys like Luke Juha and Guy Gadowsky, both Canadians who played or are playing NCAA hockey.

Juha is a particularly insightful source as a guy who was once considered a potential late-round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Electing for college over major junior probably hurt his stock in the short term, and he went undrafted. But Juha seems to believe that he'll ultimately be a better player because of college hockey, with a better shot of making it as a pro. And I believe that he's right.

1. Head Coach Morris to step down
(ohiobobcatshockey.com)

Andrew Largeman, Zach Braff's character in the movie Garden State, memorably said:

"You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone... You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start."

That's how I'm starting to feel about ACHA Division 1. Maybe the process is a bit more gradual and less traumatic than it was for Largeman, but it's there nevertheless, because the simple fact is that after you remove yourself from a place, it still continues to evolve without you.

The ACHA will look a lot less like it did when we left without legendary Ohio coach Dan Morris, who is stepping down after 12 seasons, 344 wins and the 2004 national championship. Given that he also played for the Bobcats between 1993 and 1997 (winning three more national championships during those years) and then was an assistant coach under Craig McCarthy between graduation and taking over as the head guy, it's a no-brainer to call Morris one of the most important figures in the history of one of the ACHA's most important programs. Of course, he was also the Icers' archnemesis for all but the final one of those years on the wrong side of the greatest rivalry in ACHA history - including the 2004 title game win over PSU that ended Joe Battista's dynasty of four straight and five in six years.

No Dan Morris, Illinois' Chad Cassel departed a year ago, Minot State apparently wins the Murdoch Cup now... it doesn't feel like home anymore. And to be honest, neither does NCAA Division I and the Big Ten just yet, but it will. We have to evolve too, after all.

Best of the Rest

Eddie Quagliata and Matt Welch model Illinois' new jerseys...who says there's no "I" in "team?"

Just a year in, head coach Fabbrini hires another assistant
(The Daily Illini)

Let's stick with the ACHA for a minute, because it was quite a week for IllinoisWatch.

First, last Monday, the school's student paper published a write-up on new Illini assistant coach Blake Sorensen, who seems to believe that the program would consider going DI, and claims that belief was part of the reason he took the job: "Maybe I’m thinking out of the box, but I’m thinking the U of I would be the next school having the aspiration of going to the next level. So I said, ‘Why not?’ It was a very easy decision." That's either your garden-variety pipe dream or he knows something, take your pick, but I don't remember Billy Downey saying anything like that when he was hired as an Icers assistant in 2008.

That, by itself, is interesting but hardly A Thing. However, mostly-spam Twitter account @USCollegeHockey fanned the flames three days later: "May we have BREAKING NEWS soon? We were 1st to report Penn St.'s ascent to D1. Is another top ACHA team making the jump? Details soon..." They didn't specify that they were referring to Illinois, which is a pretty effective technique in the world of rumor mongering (PS. Someone will die of heart disease today. Because I can see the future.)

For the record, I don't know if @USCollegeHockey was first on Penn State in August and September of 2010. And I don't care. You know who I credit as being first? The Harrisburg Patriot-News' David Jones, who noted Terry Pegula's windfall from the Royal Dutch Shell sale in May 2010 and connected it to the idea of Penn State hockey a few days later. Accuracy and fresh insight over unchecked speed, every time.

Anyway, "soon," evidently, was Saturday evening, when @USCollegeHockey jumped back in with "Remember that BREAKING NEWS we mentioned on Thursday?" and attached a screengrab of a Facebook status (since deleted).

From there, the predictable played out. People overreacted, some commented on how it would be a great idea (it would be), Let's Play Hockey patted themselves on the back over the Jimmy John's rumor they advanced a couple years ago, and real journalists like Matt Slovin and Chris Peters got to work, ultimately taking about 90 minutes to confirm that the Facebook post had to do with the sale of the team's new jerseys.

There's an important lesson, which should have been learned from Penn State, that also needs to be applied here. PSU's process took five years from the initial Battista-Pegula dinner. Along the way, people talk, toes are dipped in the various pools and feasibility studies are conducted. And any one of those occurrences, which repeat themselves many, many times throughout those five years, has the potential to become an "OMG IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" tweet. Just as a rumor doesn't mean something is imminent, the short-term dismissal of a rumor doesn't mean that the information wasn't a legitimate hint, just applied incorrectly or prematurely. Illinois probably has explored the idea of NCAA hockey, and they probably will have an NCAA program someday. There's been an awful lot of smoke, and it's increased in volume recently. But I'm fairly sure that when it does happen, @USCollegeHockey won't be the first to tell us.

Portland, ME's newly-renovated Cumberland County Civic Center will host the 2015 Ice Breaker

@Chris_MJH
(Twitter)

Last week, Notre Dame was awarded the 2014 Ice Breaker (a season-opening four-team tournament presented by College Hockey Inc.) while Maine grabbed the 2015 version. And almost immediately, the rumor mill fired up.

Hearing Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St & BC are possible teams to take part in '15 IceBreaker.

Just as a reminder, since this seems like an appropriate spot: way back in January 2012, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that the Nittany Lions had signed on for the 2014 Brice Alaska Goal Rush. The Goal Rush is another season-opening tournament, hosted by Alaska and always including their dumpster fire of a neighbor in Anchorage. This year's field - Denver and Western Michigan are the two "outside schools" - was announced on November 16, 2012, so we might hear confirmation on that one relatively soon.

150 Miles for a Cure...
(Bike MS)

Coming up on September 28th and 29th, women's assistant Casey McCullion will once again go on a bike ride to raise money to fight multiple sclerosis. Please consider supporting her and the cause if you're able. And yes, I'll remind you again.

Pro New York Sports Exclusive: Eamon McAdam
(Pro New York Sports)

Know what I like seeing in a player? This, from Eamon McAdam:

I want to help the team progress as fast as possible and by my second or third year I want to give the team here a chance to go for a National Championship. This may seem like a lofty goal but the age old expression of championships are won with goaltending is true in my eyes and if I put in enough work I am hopeful I can give the team a chance no matter who we’re playing.

Check Gadowsky's track record, especially with a Princeton program that had/has a lot less behind it than what's in place at Penn State. Kid ain't crazy.

New York Islanders 2013 draft review
(Hockey's Future)

Your second dose of Big Mac comes through a roundup of Garth Snow's 2013 draft picks. If you're like me and are now trying to follow the Isles a little bit, it's probably good to check things like this out once in a while.

Ohio State's dumping of Mark Osiecki has continued to prove costly

Magyar chooses Kitchener Rangers over Ohio State
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Ohio State's firing of coach Mark Osiecki back in April... yep, still an absolutely terrible decision. The latest evidence: Ohio native and Cleveland Barons product Nick Magyar, a Buckeye commit who played for Sioux City and the National Team Development Program in the USHL last season, has signed with the OHL's Kitchener Rangers and blowtorched his college eligibility. Magyar is just the latest in a growing line of Osiecki recruits to flee, including Nolan Valeau, Cliff Watson and Zach Stepan.

U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2013 Unveiled
(USA Hockey)

This year's U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class lacks the direct Penn State connection of the 2012 group featuring Eddie Olczyk, but it's still a robust collection headlined (for our purposes) by Ron Mason. Mason coached at Lake Superior State (1967-1973), Bowling Green (1974-1979) and Michigan State (1980-2002), won the 1986 national title with the Spartans, and was the winningest coach in college history (924 victories) until he was passed by Jerry York last season. He was also among the hockey giants surveyed for quotes distributed to the press on September 17, 2010, for whatever that's worth:

“I think it’s wonderful that Penn State will have Division I hockey. I’ve long thought that if Penn State ever decided to elevate its program that it would be a school that would challenge for championships. This is a good move for the school and for college hockey.”

Jake Gardiner, a Maple Leafs defenseman and Max's brother, is among the U.S. Olympic hopefuls

Men's National Team Orientation Camp Roster Set
(USA Hockey)

Arguably the biggest story in the hockey world last week was the release of Olympic team camp rosters by most of the countries expected to contend in Sochi, Russia next year. Team USA's version includes a pair of Penn State siblings in Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Gardiner and Blackhawks forward Brandon Saad, and yes, we're going to keep living vicariously through those guys until there are Nittany Lions in the show.

The 48-man camp roster will eventually be cut to 25, so Saad and Gardiner certainly aren't home yet, although both are strong contenders for selection.

Glen Gulutzan happy to return 'home' with Canucks
(Vancouver Sun)

Glen Gulutzan, one of the more prominent members of the Guy Gadowsky coaching tree (Gadowsky coached Gulutzan with the WCHL's Fresno Falcons in 1996-1997 and 1998-1999), has joined John Tortorella's Vancouver Canucks staff. Gulutzan, last time we checked in on him, was being fired as head coach of the Dallas Stars after two seasons, so it's nice to see him land on his feet.

@BillRiga
@KeeferJ_
(Twitter)

The leading Twitterdrama last Tuesday: assistant coaches acting butthurt for really, really stupid reasons. First, there's the case of Quinnipiac's Bill Riga, subtweeting QU blog From the NIP to the Bank for having the audacity to predict the Bobcats' lineup for the coming season (forwards, defense/goalies).

Love people who have our line-up and freshmen predicted. I don't even know and I've seen them all play a lot. #smarterthani

Someone needs to look up the definitions of "prediction" and "know" and note the differences.

Jerry Keefe of Northeastern skipped snark and went straight to fury. His target? The Providence Journal's Mark Divver, whose horrific crime was tweeting that new Providence College commit Spenser Young, a defenseman at Phillips Exeter Academy, held an offer from Keefe's Huskies. Time to rumble.

Divver wisely bowed out at that point, but in Keefe's estimation, Twitter still wasn't safe - after all, there were people making innocuous "don't see that every day" comments about the Keefe-Divver exchange to straighten out.

@smclaughlin9 @MarkDivver don't like when people tweet false info to make a hockey program look bad. We all work to hard for that.

Yeah, you (may have) lost out on a highly-sought-after (heavy hitters Boston College, Yale and New Hampshire also whiffed on Young, according to Divver) recruit. Brutal. Your program looks absolutely horrible now. But no worries, you're well on the way back, because you don't spread rumors about the media.

@smclaughlin9 @MarkDivver I don't report false info on twitter about you guys and your jobs so don't do about hockey programs and our jobs

Also, don't tell Keefe he's in an argument...

@smclaughlin9 @MarkDivver it's not an argument it's a point I feel strongly about.

...or that he melted down.

@FearTheTriangle @TheBUHockeyBlog no meltdowns here!

I beg to differ. The best summation is brought to you by Boston University "blog/Twitter combo without the blog" BurntBoats.

Moving On
(From the NIP to the Bank)

Finally, best wishes in blogger retirement to Luke Devoe, who is stepping aside from his aforementioned work on Quinnipiac.

I don't feel a true kinship with too many bloggers out there (which isn't to say that I don't respect and enjoy their work or like them as human beings). The SB Nation guys have 800 different writers and 20 billion pageviews a month. Other blogs are run by professional journalists as a side project or as part of the coverage of their beat. TYT isn't any of those things, and I don't really identify much with their realities. Devoe was different. Much like him, I'm just a guy who loves hockey, loves his school, and enjoys the artificial level of closeness allowed by doing this. That's why I find his reasons for stopping heartbreaking.

I became blacklisted to a certain extent because, well, I was a little too opinionated during a rough stretch of play. I accepted this, altered my approach, and went on covering the team I love. Recently, a small but similar event occurred. While it would be easy to shrug it off and file it under the "can't make them all happy" category, I simply can't.

Back when things weren't exactly gravy and FTNTTB wasn't on the best of terms with the brass at the Q it was tough receiving sideways stares walking into a venue that I held, and still hold, so near and dear. It was even harder when those stares were coming from some people whose opinion mattered. The labor of love turned into a exhausting game of second guessing and self-censoring, even at times when I truly felt I was right. I just don't feel like doing it again. I concede.

Shame on you, Bill Riga and anyone else who may have contributed to his struggles.

Friedman, Zimmel Win Silver at Maccabiah Games

PSU junior Jacob Friedman was one of Team USA's key players throughout the Maccabiah Games

In the open division hockey tournament at the 19th Maccabiah Games, held between July 20th and 26th, Nittany Lions junior forward Jacob Friedman and former Icers forward Jaime Zimmel won silver medals with the U.S. squad., following a 7-1 defeat to Canada in the final Friday morning.

The Maccabiah Games, often colloquially called the Jewish Olympics, brings more than 9,000 athletes from 78 countries to Israel to compete in 38 different sports over two weeks, making it the world's third-largest sporting event behind the Olympics and the World University Games. Each sport has tournaments for three separate divisions - juniors for 15-18 year olds, masters for those above a certain age (40 in hockey) and open for, essentially, everyone else. That last division, due to its inclusiveness, contained an eclectic mix of pucksters at the 2013 Maccabiah: former and current professionals, collegians and juniors were all involved.

The origin of the second-ever Maccabiah Games ice hockey competition is an interesting story in and of itself. While it was a demonstration sport in 1997, a tournament won by Canada over Team USA, hockey disappeared from the quadrennial event for the next three cycles.

That changed when six Jewish NHL owners (Anaheim's Henry Samueli, Tampa Bay's Jeffrey Vinik, Edmonton's Daryl Katz, Philadelphia's Ed Snider, Toronto's Larry Tanenbaum and Florida's Cliff Viner), along with commissioner Gary Bettman, threw their support behind installing hockey as a medal sport this year. As a result, Metula, Israel's Canada Center rink was renovated and notables from around the hockey world signed on to participate.

Not that things went perfectly from there. The U.S., Canada, Israel and France was the original open tournament field, but the French withdrew, forcing the organizing committee to permit a Ukraine team including non-Jewish athletes in as a replacement. Russia was reportedly in at one point, but pulled out as well.

Mike Keenan, Canada's coach and the source of much of the tournament's star power thanks largely to his 1994 Stanley Cup win with the New York Rangers, took a job in the KHL and had to quit - although his replacement, Guy Carbonneau, wasn't exactly a significant step down. On the U.S. side, defenseman Colby Cohen, who scored the national championship winning goal for Boston University in 2009 and was a black ace on the Boston Bruins' 2011 Stanley Cup team, signed a contract in the Finnish Elite League and could not participate. The hosting Israeli team ran into budgetary issues that prevented them from importing many potential dual-citizenship players and paying insurance on professionals (categories that notably include Oren Eizenman, a former RPI star and the brother of Icers and ACHA Hall of Famer Alon).

Furthermore, just to ensure that hockey wasn't too much of a distraction from the real world, Canada Center - Israel's only full-size rink - is roughly three hours north of Jerusalem, but just a few hundred yards from the Lebanese border, necessitating a heavy presence of United Nations and Israeli security forces in the area.

It was against that simultaneously hopeful and issue-plagued backdrop that things proceeded, with each team playing the other three participants in a preliminary round that determined seeding for the semifinals.

The U.S. blasted shorthanded Israel 14-0 on the first day of the round robin, July 20th, and Friedman played a huge role in accelerating the score out of reach early. The Michigander scored three times in the first period (video: 1, 2, 3), generally by doing what he does best - carving out space in front of the net despite not being blessed with gargantuan size. Vermont Catamount Pete Massar set up the second and third goals by Friedman, while Zimmel assisted on the 2-0 goal, by Jacob Rosen. Ben Rosen, who just finished his career at Boston University, scored twice during the opening bombardment.

Icers alumnus Jaime Zimmel's three power play goals against Ukraine helped produce two tough wins

A much sterner test presented itself the next day in a Ukranian team highlighted by defenseman Alexei Zhitnik, who played 1,085 NHL games with the Kings, Sabres, Islanders, Flyers and Thrashers. However, Zimmel stepped to the fore to help Team USA improve to 2-0 in the round robin with a 5-3 win. He drew a first-period penalty that did not bear fruit, and the match remained goal-free after one period, thanks in part to a couple big saves by Air Force goalie Jason Torf. The 2009 PSU graduate then took over with a pair of power play tallies (1, 2). One opened the game's scoring within the first minute of the middle frame, while the other was a sufficient reply to Vitali Lakhmatov subsequently tying the score and gave the U.S. the lead for good.

Tuesday's showdown between the U.S. and Canada to close the preliminary round ended in a 6-1 decision for the maple leaf-bearing squad. The Americans did manage 43 shots, helped by a rash of Canadian penalties, but a stellar effort by former Clarkson goalie Cody Rosen kept the red, white and blue at bay. Adam Henrich, a 2002 second-round draft pick of the Lightning who bumped around the ECHL and AHL for six seasons before moving to Europe for the last three, had a hat trick for the victorious side.

Before topping the U.S., Canada thumped both Ukraine (7-1) and Israel (15-0), while Ukraine took care of Israel 12-3 on the final day of the round robin, so these were the final standings:

	Team	W-L-T	Pts.	GF	GA
1	Canada	3-0-0	6	28	2
2	United States	2-1-0	4	20	9
3	Ukraine	1-2-0	2	16	15
4	Israel	0-3-0	0	3	41

Top-seeded Canada earned the right to skate through Israel once again in Wednesday's semifinals (and they did, with 13-2 the score this time around), while Team USA needed to deal with a much tougher Ukraine to set up an all-North American gold medal game.

As in the U.S.-Ukraine meeting on July 21st, the rematch saw a scoreless first period before a Ben Rosen blast dented Ukrainian twine midway through regulation. Steven Weinstein made it 2-0 for the Americans a couple minutes later on the power play, a score that held up into the second intermission. Five minutes in the third, Zimmel's greasy tally on the advantage helped open the floodgates, and two Jacob Rosen markers sandwiching one by Dalton Weinstein closed out the scoring in what turned out to be a surprisingly decisive 6-0 win.

One of the tournament's storylines was its paucity of close games (the USA-Ukraine matchup in the round robin was the only one closer than five goals through the semifinals), but shockingly, the Israelis managed to buck the trend in the bronze medal game, leading the Ukranians after two periods and hanging within one into the last ten minutes before falling 9-5.

Unfortunately, things reverted to form in the border-war final that went to the northern side by a 7-1 count Friday morning. Game details are still sketchy (and considering that the teams are about to travel back to North America, it's tough to say when they'll be filled in), but Canada potted two goals in each of the first two periods - with the opener on the power play - before closing out with a 3-1 third. The winning side notably included Michigan Wolverines Zach and Spencer Hyman, which will undoubtedly give Friedman a little extra juice in at least four games for Penn State this season.

U.S. head coach Billy Jaffe, himself a former Wolverine and a player in the 1997 Maccabiah Games hockey tournament, said afterwards that "the boys left it all out on the ice but Canada was simply better." Nevertheless, he remained upbeat about the experience:

Congratulations to Jacob Friedman, Jaime Zimmel and the rest of Team USA on your silver medals and on representing your country with great distinction.

Friedman, Zimmel Aim For Maccabiah Games Gold

PSU's Jacob Friedman faces off against Michigan State's Lee Reimer on January 26th

Nittany Lions junior Jacob Friedman and former Icer Jaime Zimmel are two of the 18 players who will compete for Team USA in the hockey tournament at the 19th Maccabiah Games, a quadrennial event for Jewish athletes. The 2013 version will take place in Israel from July 19th through 26th. In all, approximately 9,000 athletes from 76 countries will participate in what is the third-largest international sporting event in the world.

However, with fewer than 100 athletes and four countries - Canada, Israel, Ukraine and the U.S. - in the open division of the Maccabiah's first hockey competition since 1997, the format will be quite simple. Each team will play the other three during a round robin stage lasting from July 20th through the 23rd. After that, each squad will be seeded for purposes of placement in the July 24th semifinals, with 1st playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd. The points system will be two for a win, one for a tie, zero for a loss, the IIHF rule book will be used, and all games will be played at the Canada Center in the town of Metula, Israel's only full-size ice rink.

Friedman, unofficially the first NCAA-era recruit in Penn State history in that he was the first commit following the the Pegula donation announcement, is coming off of his sophomore season. In thirteen 2012-2013 games, Friedman scored once and added an assist, with both points in a 4-0 win over Division III Fredonia State on December 11, 2012. As a freshman with the Icers, he had nine goals and 12 assists in 31 games, helping PSU to the number one ranking for most of the season and a berth in the ACHA national semifinals. In May, Friedman was honored as an Academic All-Big Ten selection.

This won't be Zimmel's first time competing in a red, white and blue jersey. In 2009, while still an Icer, he was a member of Team USA's World University Games entry that finished a best-ever seventh place (a mark later eclipsed by 2011's sixth-place team) in Harbin, China. Zimmel scored three times and added an assist in five tournament games, including two third-period points against Slovakia on February 22, 2009. After overtime became necessary largely thanks to the New Jersey native, the U.S. went on to a shootout win clinched by Icers teammate Lukas DeLorenzo. Zimmel played 122 games at Penn State from 2005 through 2009 and registered 93 points, including a 26-goal campaign in 2007-2008.

Besides Zimmel and Friedman, other current and former college players dot Team USA's roster, including Air Force goaltender Jason Torf, Vermont forward Pete Massar and Bentley defenseman Steve Weinstein. Former Boston University star and AHLer Colby Cohen, a Philadelphia-area native who scored the national championship-winning overtime goal against Miami in 2009 and Abington's Ben Pulley, who played for the EJHL's Philadelphia Revolution last season, represent the Keystone State on the roster. Former Michigan forward Billy Jaffe, who is now an NHL Network analyst, is the head coach.

Following the Maccabiah Games promises to recreate the struggle of doing so with the WUG (or any non-televised overseas happening, to be fair), but live scoring and results can be found on the event's website, its YouTube channel may include highlights, and photos will be posted to Maccabi USA site.

Here's the full schedule for the hockey tournament. Keep in mind that all times given are local and that Israel Daylight Time is seven hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. So for example, Team USA's opening game with the host country will be played at 2:30 p.m. in Pennsylvania but 9:30 p.m. in Israel.

Ehresmann Shines at USA Hockey Select U18s

Hannah Ehresmann, a goalie scheduled to join the Nittany Lions in 2014, completed a week at the USA Hockey Select U18 Player Development Camp in St. Cloud, MN on Tuesday. The senior at Minnetonka (MN) High School helped her Team Pink to a 1-2-0 record while splitting crease duties with three-time national development camp selection Selena Hunter.

Her only rough patch came in Pink's opener, a 3-0 loss to Purple on July 12th that saw Ehresmann allow all three goals over the second half of the game. She bounced back quite well - in fact, as well as possible - by not allowing a puck past her during the rest of her time in St. Cloud. On July 13th, she posted 23 minutes of a shutout despite her team dropping the contest against Royal, 2-0. Pink closed out its schedule with a win, 3-1 over Black on Monday, as Ehresmann chipped in another half of perfect goaltending.

She was judged to be among the top eight of the 20 goalies at the camp and filled one of the spots available for the position on the four all-star teams that played each other on Tuesday. Despite the bump up in competition, she managed to extend her shutout streak to 70:32, although a Kyra Smith-allowed goal caused her Team Blue to lose to Team White, 1-0.

In all, Ehresmann closed things out with a 1.50 goals against average against some of the top players in the nation in her age category, while also receiving plenty of on- and off-ice instruction - obviously a heavy emphasis at a camp that only involved four full games over seven days. Not too shabby.

In 2013-2014, she is projected to take over as the number one option between the pipes at Minnetonka. The Skippers have won three consecutive Minnesota Class AA state titles, thanks in large part to her efforts in relief of Sydney Rossman on the last two of those teams, as well as those of current Penn State freshmen Amy Petersen and Laura Bowman on all three.

Kerr Enjoys Great Week at Select 17s

Although he missed out on the big prize at the end - selection to the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament - defense recruit Kevin Kerr completed a very successful six-day turn at the USA Hockey Select 17 Player Development Camp in Williamsville, NY on Wednesday.

As a member of Team Gold, Kerr helped his squad to a 3-2-0-0 (W-L-OTW-OTL) record. A 5-1 win over Columbia Blue opened proceedings up on June 28th, and he assisted on the 1-1 goal with his team on the power play. The next day, he was held off the scoresheet in a 6-2 loss to Kelly Green, but Kerr bounced back to collect the only assists on the 1-0 and 2-1 goals on Sunday against Royal Blue, although Gold went on to lose 5-3. A stop-the-bleeding 5-1 win over Black on Monday saw an unspecified minor penalty by the Bensalem, PA native.

Kerr closed his team's schedule (Gold finished third in their five-team National Division, and only the two division winners advanced to a championship game) by scoring twice against Forest Green on Tuesday, including a late winner in a 5-4 victory. It was an effort that caught the attention of The Hockey News prospect guru Ryan Kennedy.

Kerr's five points in five games tied for tops on Gold, and through the pool stages of the camp (everything but the championship game) he was 18th in scoring among all players and best of the defensemen.

Not surprisingly, he was chosen to participate in the all-star game that closed camp, and his White topped Blue 3-2 in a shootout. The only blemish on the week, as mentioned, is that Kerr was not picked for the Team USA entry to the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, a roster populated by standouts from Select 17s. The tourney is an international U18 showcase that takes place every August and includes some pretty high-end talent - last year's gold medalists from Canada were paced by Nathan MacKinnon, the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft on Sunday.

His reaction to the snub was pretty mature:

One of his Gold teammates, defenseman Mat Harris, felt he was done wrong:

All in all though, not bad for competing against some of the top 1996 birth years out there. While NHL picks are no big deal for Penn State anymore*, look for Kerr to receive heavy consideration for next year's entry draft. It's probably fair to consider him the clubhouse leader to become PSU's fifth overall selection (third while affiliated with the university), although he's certainly not the only Nittany Lion who will be eligible.

The Tri-City Storm, which chose Kerr seventh overall in the 2012 USHL Futures Draft, will be the lucky recipient of his services this fall. Previously, the Team USA selection for the 2012 Youth Olympic Games enjoyed a successful run in the Team Comcast organization and with Holy Ghost Prep.

Next up: Hannah Ehresmann, a goalie scheduled to join the women's team in 2014, and the other Penn State commit set to participate in this year's USA Hockey camps. She will join the other Select U18s in St. Cloud, MN from July 10th through 16th.

* they still are

Ehresmann to Attend Select U18 Camp

Goalie commit Hannah Ehresmann, scheduled for a 2014 entry, has been named at at-large selection to the USA Hockey Select U18 Player Development Camp. The event runs from July 10th through 18th in St. Cloud, MN and is a showcase for the best American players in the age group.

As with all USA Hockey national camps, Select U18s are heavily scouted and a good showing can help open up future national team opportunities.

Ehresmann is a rising senior at Minnetonka High School in Minnesota where, of course, she teamed up with PSU freshmen Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen for the last two seasons, both ending in state titles for the Skippers. While she generally backed up Let's Play Hockey Senior Goalie of the Year Sydney Rossman on those teams, Ehresmann was outstanding when called on - she had an 11-1-0 record with a 0.91 goals against average and a 0.939 save percentage in 2012-2013, following up 7-2-0, 1.21 and 0.928 in 2011-2012. Rossman is headed to Quinnipiac in the fall, so Ehresmann is expected to do the heavy lifting for Minnetonka in their attempt to add to their already unprecedented three-peat in the coming season.

Last summer, the rapidly rising prospect participated in the Select 16 Player Development Camp. While splitting each game down the middle with Gold Team goalie partner Sara Merker, she stopped 19 of 20 across her first two appearances before surrendering four goals on 13 shots in her final game to wind up with a 3.33 goals against average. She's also been an Upper Midwest High School Elite League selection and even played a part in getting hockey declared the official state sport of Minnesota as a sixth grader back in 2008.

Kerr Earns Select 17s Nod

Kevin Kerr, a defense commit scheduled for 2014 or 2015 entry, has been picked for the prestigious USA Hockey Select 17 Player Development Camp. The camp begins on Thursday, June 27th, and runs through July 3rd in Williamsville, NY.

Kerr earned his way in by successfully navigating a tryout festival in his home Atlantic District last month, an event that helps fill a predetermined allotment of players districts are allowed to advance to the national camp (the Atlantic District number for defensemen was five). Previously, Kerr attended both Select 15s and Select 16s while a member of those respective age groups.

Select 17s, as you might have guessed, are a heavily-scouted event, so playing well would give Kerr a shot in the arm for next year's NHL Entry Draft. It would also give him a strong argument for consideration by future USA Hockey teams, including the National Team Development Program, which may have a few slots open on their Under-18 team. Space is pretty limited there though, as the vast majority of the U18 squad is filled by players moving up from the Under-17 team (Kerr got a tryout for that team last year but didn't make it).

It's been a pretty good several days for the Bensalem, PA native. Last Wednesday through Friday, the seventh overall selection in the 2012 USHL Futures Draft was at the Tri-City Storm's tryout camp in Las Vegas. The Storm hasn't made an official roster announcement yet, but Kerr let it slip on Twitter that he will be one of the 25 players invited back in the fall after playing five games for the team last season over a couple of call-ups. Primarily, he was with the Team Comcast 18Us and Holy Ghost Prep in 2012-2013, with the former winning the Atlantic District title and advancing to the quarterfinals of the USA Hockey national championships.

McAdam Misses WJC Evaluation Camp Cut

Following a tryout held Monday through Wednesday in Ann Arbor, MI, freshman goaltender Eamon McAdam was not one of the four netminders invited by USA Hockey to its 2013 National Junior Evaluation Camp, which will be held August 3rd through 10th in Lake Placid, NY.

The evaluation camp is used to help select players for the team that will represent the United States at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championships, which will be held December 26, 2013 through January 5, 2014 in Malmo, Sweden. Following the August camp, the list will be pared down to form a preliminary Team USA roster in early December. After a training camp and exhibition games, a handful of final cuts produce the roster that will head overseas.

The goalies getting the green light to that next phase of selection were U.S. National Team Development Program products Thatcher Demko and Collin Olson, Providence's Jon Gillies (a member of last year's WJC team) and Anthony Stolarz, a 2012 second-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers who will make a second consecutive selection camp appearance.

Given the USA Hockey backgrounds of the four goalies picked, it's probably fair to say that McAdam was always a longshot - if you think everyone was starting from zero, you're probably new to the selection of hockey teams. The silver lining, if you're a sour grapes type of person, is that just in the first NCAA season, Penn State has already beat two of the four WJC camp goalies. On January 11th, Kenny Brooks, George Saad, Joe Lordo and Tommy Olczyk all scored on Demko, with Brooks adding an empty netter in a 5-2 win over the NTDP U18 team. Olson, who is now at Ohio State, surrendered five on 37 shots - two each for Casey Bailey and Taylor Holstrom, one for Curtis Loik - in PSU's 5-4 win over the Buckeyes at the Three Rivers Classic on December 29, 2012.

McAdam, a late-ish 1994 birthday, will be 19 one year from now and therefore still has a shot to get WJC selection on his resume. But for now, both he and Penn State's program (the next PSU WJC nod will be the first, obviously) both have to wait.

Previously, Minnesota head coach Don Lucia was selected to lead the 2014 WJC team, and he'll be assisted by Bob Motzko (St. Cloud State's head coach), Greg Brown (Boston College's associate head coach) and David Lassonde (an assistant at Denver). The Big Ten, beyond Lucia and Olson, will be well represented among the 40 skaters invited to the August camp last week (via USCHO):

Team USA has become a power in the WJC, arguably the biggest tournament in amateur hockey, in recent years. The Americans took gold in January in Ufa, Russia, and have claimed two other gold medals (2004, 2010) as well as two bronzes (2007, 2011) from the last ten competitions. At the most recent edition, BC's Johnny Gaudreau scored seven times and was complimented by Pittsburgh native John Gibson's 1.36 goals against average in Team USA's title effort, capped by a 3-1 win in the final over Sweden.

McAdam will now turn his attention to June 30th's NHL Entry Draft, where he's projected to be a mid-round selection.

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.

Three Stars: April 29-May 5

Scott Wilson, a 2011 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick, may lead his River Hawks into the PIA in the fall

3. Ryan Patrick Named Pegula Ice Arena Hockey Director
(gopsusports.com)

Former Icer Ryan Patrick is the new Hockey Director for Pegula Ice Arena.

Patrick will oversee and implement all aspects of the community's youth, student and adult hockey programs. He will manage the facility's learn to skate and play hockey programs, the youth amateur hockey program and the student and adult hockey leagues. In addition, Patrick will coordinate and organize youth hockey tournaments and high-level independent travel teams.

Patrick, who graduated in 2003, is the son of long-time NHL executive and Miracle on Ice assistant coach Craig Patrick, the brother of former Icers captain and 1999 graduate C.J. Patrick and the cousin of Curtiss Patrick, class of 2004, another former Icer who enjoyed a five-season career in professional hockey. Carrying that family tree a little bit further, Ryan's great-grandfather was Lester Patrick, who has a major trophy named for him and formerly an NHL division as well. Craig, Lester, grandfather Lynn, and great great uncle Frank (Lester's brother) are all in the Hockey Hall of Fame, while those four in addition to great uncle Muzz Patrick (Lynn's brother) have all won the Stanley Cup in some capacity. That's... uhhh... quite a legacy.

That stuff aside, maybe the most striking element to this, at least for me, is how it drives home the idea that a Pegula Ice Arena story no longer automatically equates to a Penn State hockey story, something that initially crossed my mind when that Sara Evans skating show was announced (and the reason this news didn't get a stand-alone post). Basically, that just means that the building is closer than ever to opening.

2. Penn State Selects XOS Digital for Hockey Technology
(PRWeb)

Slow news week when the coaches' video system is your second star? Yeah, pretty much. Still, it's important, and sounds pretty damn cool to boot.

XOS Digital designed both the men’s and women’s hockey video rooms as a one-stop video production center. Once complete, the facility’s video rooms will be fully equipped with edit stations and remote control systems for capturing video directly from the camera systems installed throughout the arena. The control system enables staff to capture HD practice and game footage from these cameras directly into XOS Thunder HD editing system for in-depth analysis.

The XOS Thunder HD platform enables the Nittany Lions to access all game preparation, including video analysis, reports, diagrams and other player development applications from a single interface.

With full audiovisual integration, the Nittany Lions are able to utilize new technologies that provide workflow automation between video editing systems, content distribution and coaching tools. The entire coaching staff will now be able to easily acquire, manage, distribute and display content throughout the facility including the varsity locker rooms, conference rooms, recruiting lounge, team lounge and coaches offices.

“How well we perform is a direct correlation to how well we prepare,” said Head Coach [Guy] Gadowsky. “It’s important to have the right resources and technology to ensure our preparation is efficient and effective. Individual player development is also critical to the team’s success, and our student athletes will be able to utilize these systems to propel them toward their goal of playing in the NHL. We are excited to enlist XOS Digital’s expertise for this project.”

1. 2013 / 2014 PSU Hockey Schedule?
(Blue White Illustrated)

It's just a message board rumor right now, but if BWI poster VaNtyLion is to be believed, 2013 Hockey East Champion and Frozen Four participant UMass-Lowell will be visiting the Pegula Ice Arena this coming season - obviously an instant highlight of the schedule.

Assessing credibility... well, the guy does sound like he knows what he's talking about for the most part. At the very least, he pays close attention, as he is aware of the Three Rivers Classic, the Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff, RIT and Army. Issues? He has Air Force making a "return trip" to PSU when that series will be in Colorado Springs after the teams played at the Ice Pavilion back in November. Also, he states that Connecticut will be in town after January's series in Storrs, but tweets from Huskies hockey voice Will Moran laying out his team's non-conference schedule (1, 2) don't include PSU. It's entirely possible that UConn will visit PSU in 2014-2015 to reciprocate, though - one thing I've learned in doing this is that leaked information is never perfect. The only people who have every piece to the puzzle are the decision makers, and I'm pretty sure VaNtyLion isn't Billy Downey.

Verdict: Thumbs up, I buy it.

Speaking of scheduling things, Union beat writer Ken Schott "fully expects" the Dutchmen's already-known series at PSU to take place over Thanksgiving weekend. Makes sense I guess, since the 2012-2013 games at Union were also over Thanksgiving weekend.

Best of the Rest

Allie Rothman, Katie Vaughan, Carly Szyszko and Mary Kate Tonetti will lead the WIHC in 2013-14

2013-14 Executive Board Elected
(psuwihc.com)

Before parting ways for the summer, the Women's Ice Hockey Club elected its 2013-2014 officers, including Allie Rothman (president), Katie Vaughan (vice president), Carly Szyszko (treasurer) and Mary Kate Tonetti (secretary). Trust me when I say that no organization on campus has a better leadership group.

Wisconsin set for 10 home series during 2013-14 men's hockey campaign
(uwbadgers.com)

Want to know for sure who Wisconsin is playing? Here you go. No dates of course, as the Big Ten's entire schedule, when ready, will likely be released as one giant ball of... something. In other words, we're probably not going to know the dates of any of PSU's conference games before they're on GoPSUSports.com.

PSU looking to extend hockey fan base into area
(Williamsport Sun-Gazette)

This is a poorly written and researched (Penn State didn't play a single home game last year? Really?) article, but leave it to Joe Battista to say something to make me include it.

Aside from the monetary gift provided from the Pegulas, Battista said that they have raised an additional $10 million in private donations.

That's a new number, at least as far as I've seen, one that meets that "additional fundraising" goal set way back when the Pegula donation was first announced. Nice.

Former Penn State assistant athletic director Mark Sherburne hired by Lock Haven University
(PennLive)

It's really old news by now (I meant to throw it in last week and forgot), but long-time Penn State athletic department lieutenant Mark Sherburne has been hired as the new athletic director at Lock Haven. Sherburne, of course, spent ten days as PSU's acting AD during the initial fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal in November, 2011, after his former boss, Tim Curley, went on leave while under investigation for his role in the mess. He returned to his previous post as an assistant AD once the Board of Trustees decided that one of their own - Dave Joyner, who controversially moved directly from the board to the AD office - was better for the job, and was abruptly fired a few months later for withholding documents related to Curley.

And yes, that story is still bizarre, even more than one year later.

NCAA bans hashtagged fields, having solved all other problems
(SB Nation)

While my impression is that the vast majority of you are supportive of my covering the ACHA teams at some expense to the NCAA teams (because while it's not a pure zero sum game, it's close to one - any time I spend on the ACHA teams could be spent on the NCAA teams, hypothetically), I do get the sense that at least a few wonder why I bother. Well this, combined with things like that stinkbomb at North Carolina, offers at least a partial explanation, if you needed one. Really, NCAA? Hashtag legislation? Stick to exploiting student-athletes for billions of dollars, you're better at that.

Anyway, guess we won't be getting #OneTeam in Gretzky's Office at the PIA.

Vulcans hockey is back in good standing

Cal U will begin drug testing hockey players
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Cal (PA), after suspending their entire hockey program - including two men's teams and one women's team - over a massive pot bust involving two now-former players a couple weeks ago, has now restored everything back to normal, but with required drug testing for all players. Seems sensible to me.

The Vulcans' top men's team plays at the ACHA Division 3 level and in College Hockey East with Penn State-Altoona and Penn State-Behrend. The women's team, which competes in ACHA Division 2, was Penn State's first-ever opponent back in October and will join a new conference with the WIHC for next season. Both qualified for their respective ACHA national championship tournaments in 2012-2013.

Utah awarded 2015 ACHA National Championships
(universityofutahhockey.com)

At the ACHA annual meetings on Saturday in Naples, FL (which, as always, coincided with the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings), Utah was awarded the 2015 ACHA Division 2 national tournament, which will be played in Salt Lake City. Provided the Ice Lions don't win their first-ever national title this coming season, they'll win it there, book it.

The 2014 D2 tournament is likely headed to Ashburn, VA after the Northeast Region failed to produce a bid during its turn in the four-year cycle. That hasn't been officially announced, however, and is probably still subject to change.

The women's D2 tournament (as well as those for men's and women's D1) will be in Newark, DE this coming season.

News from 2013 ACHA Annual Meeting
(ouhockey.com)

Penn State is now out of the ACHA D1 game of course, but this can still be filed under "interesting to know:" the top men's division will no longer utilize the controversial coaches poll for rankings and will now rely on computers. Hooray for that.

Also, while the format of the national championships will remain the same, the scheduling will be different. The second round, which involves playing from 16 teams down to eight, will now be spread over two days, and the day off between the quarterfinals and semifinals has been eliminated. The end result is that the tournament (which will run from Thursday-Tuesday instead of Friday-Wednesday) will never have more than four games on any one day. That re-opens the possibility of hosting by facilities with only one sheet of ice, something that hadn't been possible since the tournament expanded from 12 teams to 16 in 2005.

Examining the Big Ten Network and College Hockey
(Western College Hockey Blog)

Possibly the biggest story of the last week was the report that each of the six Big Ten hockey schools will receive an extra $2 million per year from the Big Ten Network, in addition to the rather large annual haul all 12 (soon to be 14) member universities receive.

Undoubtedly, most who follow the Big Ten closely are aware of why BTN has been so profitable since its 2007 launch - its insistence on being carried on basic cable within the conference's footprint and the escalated subscriber rates in those states that make adding schools in large TV markets a smart idea. Still, this is a nice primer for those unfamiliar, and it takes things a step further by looking at the implications of the $2 million windfall (again, it should be said, if true) and even argues that we may be near the ceiling of all of this.

Time to drop college hockey's gentlemen's agreement?
(Bucky's 5th Quarter)

Should college hockey coaches back off of a potential recruit after he verbally commits elsewhere or continue to go full Urban Meyer on him? Here's one well-thought-out and discussion-provoking opinion.

Seriously, thanks again, UConn

Ex-Niagara coach MacKenzie to guide UConn women
(Buffalo News)

Chris MacKenzie will attempt to correct Connecticut's women's program after the ouster of Heather Linstad, as the Huskies have devolved into a dumpster fire over the last few years. One that proved quite beneficial for Penn State, in case you've never seen UConn transfers Nicole Paniccia, Taylor Gross and Jenna Welch play.

MacKenzie coached the women's team at Niagara, his alma mater, from 2009 until 2011. The Purple Eagles, of course, would have been one of the Nittany Lions' conference rivals in College Hockey America had NU not chopped the program in 2012.

USA Hockey takes preemptive strike at scandal
(UPI)

USA Hockey has a shiny new zero-tolerance program for abuse, called SafeSport. And Executive Director Dave Ogrean would like you to know that...

"The catalyst for it is absolutely and admittedly a byproduct of the horror of what took place at Penn State University with the football program and Jerry Sandusky."

Is that right? You sure it wasn't something strikingly similar to that, but slightly closer to home?

On Monday January 24th, 2011 USA Hockey's Executive Director Dave Ogrean received a very disturbing email from the parent of a member describing the extremely deviant sexual behavior of Massachusetts Maple Leafs coach Anthony DeSilva. Instead of following through and contacting local law enforcement authorities, Ogrean and USA Hockey allowed a sexual predator to fall through the cracks.

I realize that Penn State is going to be cited as an example of administrative failure by too many people to count for a very long time (in fact, I recently had to write a case study on the Sandusky reaction in one of my grad school classes, which was obviously rather difficult). I accept that much as the bed made on my behalf by others. What I do not accept is a hypocritical attempt to blame the Penn State bogeyman by someone who, when presented with nearly identical circumstances, apparently did little differently.

Basically, nice try, douchebag.