Three Stars: October 22-28

3. Men's Hockey Weekly Q & A - Vol. 3
Thursday Conversation: Shannon Yoxheimer
(The Daily Collegian)

I've mentioned before that I've been really impressed with the Collegian so far this year, and one reason why are these interviews that come out of the weekly media availability (unfortunately, the whole Ohio thing keeps me from making them). Here's the men's - with Casey Bailey, since it's not in the title - and women's versions from last week.

2. Shannon Yoxheimer CHA Player of the Week 10-22-12
(YouTube)

Fact: Yox is a stone-cold sniper. Here's her CHA weekly award video, including all of her points from the Sacred Heart weekend.

Coming next week: Nicole Paniccia. Probably.

1. Pegula Ice Arena Construction Tour
(YouTube)

Would've loved to have taken one of these of my own, but hey, StateCollege.com's Ben Jones made his name by hustling. So if I can't do it, I'm more than happy to defer to his work.

Best of the Rest

[Entry removed at the request of the PSU athletic department.]

Robotic Hockey Tournament: Students to compete against each other in robotics contest
(Union College Concordiensis)

Know what else is amazing? Robot hockey. And guess what? If you get to Schenectady, NY on January 11th when the Penn State women's team will be there, you get to see the Union finals during an intermission of the Nittany Lions-Dutchwomen game. The winner will then face the winner of a similar competition at RPI for all the nerd points.

Atlantic Hockey's come a long way in 10 years
(New England Hockey Journal)

Since Penn State is an honorary AHA team this year (13 games against eight of the 12 conference schools, with a 4-1-0 record so far) it seems appropriate to include a nice, fluffy piece celebrating the league's first decade.

Roos Top Assumption At Home
(rooathletics.com)

PSU wasn't the only ACHA Division 1 program from last year moving to NCAA status. Congratulations to the other, Canton, for winning their first home game as a DIII team, 6-3 over Assumption.

Among Neal Price's greatest accomplishments: this goal in the 1999 ACHA national championship game against Iowa State, his pair of goals in a 5-2 win over then-NCAA Division I Wayne State on November 27, 1999 (the reason I'm including this, since it's not completely obvious), and his joining Larry Hendry, Joe Battista, Alon Eizenman and Josh Brandwene as the only figures from Icers history mentioned in the 2012-2013 men's hockey program.

Four New Teams Join Men's Division 1 for 2013-2014
(achahockey.org)

Penn State and Canton may have crossed over, but Colorado, Colorado State, Wayne State and Rochester College (which is apparently in Michigan, not to be confused with former Icers ICHL rival the University of Rochester in New York) have gotten the invite to ACHA D1 for next season.

WSU is a little bit of an interesting case as a school that dropped its two NCAA hockey programs in the last five years (the men after 2007-2008, the women after 2010-2011), just started an ACHA men's program this year, and now will be playing at the highest ACHA level next year.

Vanderbilt club hockey team to take on Division I opponent
(Inside Vandy)

Just because I think stuff like this is fascinating, Alabama-Huntsville will be hammering another SEC school with an ACHA D3 program on January 5th. Previously, the Chargers beat Alabama 12-1 and 10-0 on October 6th and 7th.

Three Stars: May 28-June 3

Curtis Loik was involved in an interesting transaction last week.

3. RMU Hockey
(Facebook)

Robert Morris' Facebook page is running a poll asking who you'd like to see the Colonials play in their opener at the Pittsburgh College Hockey Invitational in December. I have no clue how much influence this poll has over the actual decision (if any), but get on there and vote for Miami. An RMU-Miami matchup would lock in PSU-Ohio State on the other side. You do want to play Ohio State this year, right?

Don't worry about coming off as selfish either. A PSU-OSU matchup stands the greatest chance of drawing out the notoriously light-traveling Buckeye fans, as well as casual PSU fans who would only turn up for a name opponent, and therefore maximizing the tournament's revenue. And from host RMU's perspective, that's a good thing. So is playing someone you haven't already played that month - the Colonials are slated to play Ohio State on December 7th and 8th, followed by the Nittany Lions on the 15th. Technically, they also play PSU on the 2nd. Wait, what?

They mean RMU's ACHA D3 team, a regular opponent of Brandywine's ACHA D3 team, right? If not, that's about the craziest scheduling quirk I've ever seen. Geographically, it makes sense. RMU is at Holy Cross on the 11/30-12/1 weekend, and it wouldn't be an ordeal to swing past southeast PA on the way home. But until the Colonials officially announce their schedule - the source on this is the Atlantic Hockey site - I'm just going to assume it's some kind of amusing error.

2. In hockey or softball, Neuqua’s Meyer thrives on pressure
(dailyherald.com)

Get to know freshman women's goalie Brooke Meyer here. And here's all I need to know:

“I love the pressure — take me to a shootout any time,” said Meyer, who has never lost one. “I love being the last person my team can count on. You gotta love pressure to play sports.”

1. Penticton-Victoria Trade
(Brian's Banter)

In a somewhat curious move, the Penticton Vees have shipped the rights to incoming forward Curtis Loik to the Victoria Grizzlies to complete the January 11th trade in which the Vees acquired Wade Murphy, a 2013 Merrimack commit and a vital component of Penticton's run to the RBC Cup this past season.

In my mind, Loik is the real wild card in the trade as he seems poised to break out as a 19-year-old in 2012-13, but it won't be in the BCHL as he's committed to Penn. State for the upcoming season. I'm thinking the only way he goes to Victoria is at the recommendation of his college team, and that's got to be what the Grizzlies are banking on, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been included in the deal.

TYT has confirmed with Guy Gadowsky that Loik is still scheduled to come to PSU this season, so uhhh...sorry about your luck Victoria. The Grizzlies still do get Zach Urban and Chad Bannor, two uncommitted defensemen who could conceivably help their team this year. And it's not like their shot in the dark at Loik had any risk associated with it. So nice try, I guess.

Best of the Rest

Princeton tough guy stands ready to help Kings
(The Trentonian)

Regular readers of Three Stars know I'm a sucker for a good Gadowsky compliment. So here's one from Princeton alumnus/Kings enforcer Kevin Westgarth:

"Coach (Guy) Gadowsky was there when I was there, and it was a big reason why I got to where I am. I wouldn’t change that for anything."

O'Brien, Crispin, Mitchell And More To Tee Off On Cancer
(gopsusports.com)

...and a check in with Gadowsky's women's counterpart, Josh Brandwene (also known as "and more"), reveals that he played in the Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Tournament on Friday.

@sjchro
(Twitter)

The last Lady Icers captain approves of the first Nittany Lions captain. That's always nice to know.

2012-2013 Recruiting Update
(sundevilhockey.com)

While I'm not paying too much attention to ACHA recruiting as a whole, I really can't imagine that anyone's doing better than Arizona State right now. Their latest adds: USHL defenseman Jordan Young, OJHL defenseman Zach Bayer and forward Faiz Khan, a transfer from NCAA Division III UMass-Boston. All three are Arizona or California natives who apparently agree with my opinion that going to a large and well-known school with a good ACHA program is better than DIII. There's not a huge difference in the quality of the hockey, you're not going to make much of a living playing the game either way and you're not getting an athletic scholarship either way, so you might as well go to a place like ASU instead of a place like...well, UMass-Boston.

The Sun Devils, in addition to this latest group, are also bringing in three Canadian Junior A guys and a transfer from DI Canisius to complement what was already a pretty good roster. Calling it right now: Penn State better not take the games with ASU this year lightly, or the visitors may leave the Ice Pavilion with a story for their grandkids. The Lions will have the better team, but the Devils will certainly be talented enough to punish them if they're less than fully dialed in. PSU, of all schools, should know that an in-transition DI is not necessarily an automatic over a top ACHA. Let's not be the people who don't learn from history, especially when its our own history.

Five members of the Spartan hockey media contingent discuss the coming season with coach Tom Anastos (left) while a camera guy records the proceedings...oh wait, that's just one guy on the near side of the table. So four members.

Anastos Holds Spring Media Briefing
(msuspartans.com)

There's little doubt in my mind that Michigan State gets social media and the public dialog better than any other Big Ten school (I'll exempt Penn State from this statement, since it's still too early to say how things will go once the NCAA program is in full swing). Head coach Tom Anastos is on Twitter, and on the Derek Schooley Scale of Interesting, he doesn't rate too badly. And during Anastos' spring media briefing, the program's Twitter account shot out some of the details. This one's among the juiciest, if you don't want to listen to the whole thing:

Analysis of the 2012-2013 Penn State hockey schedule
(Rome's Ramblings)

Remember last week when I complained about a lack of analysis concerning the schedule? Order up.

I'll pass on a full critique of the critique, but generally speaking, I think this perspective eschews rationality in favor of a "waaaahhhh...I wanna be a real DI team NOW!" attitude. While that's understandable to a point, there are numerous reasons why Penn State couldn't (and really, shouldn't) have a schedule of Denver, North Dakota, Minnesota, Boston College, Michigan, rinse and repeat, this year.

Basically, have some patience. We'll get there, as soon as 2013-2014, when 20 of our 34 are spoken for by the Big Ten. Plus in the non-con, we'll almost certainly have return trips from the likes of Union and RIT (the writer seems to think that reciprocation has to happen in the same year) plus the Pittsburgh tournament.

Hockey back at WSU with new ACHA squad
(MichiganCollegeHockey)

It's good to see the Wayne State men back on the grid. Still, scoreboard.

Staten Island Sanitation worker jumps to his death from Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
(silive.com)

A 54-year-old Sanitation worker jumped to his death from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Sunday morning.

Joseph Battista plunged around 8:20 a.m. from the upper level, according to police.

Passing drivers spotted Battista standing outside the guardrail, pacing in the rain, around 8 a.m., according to a New York Post report. Two officers approached Battista in an effort to talk him down, but the 54-year old Sanitation worker jumped.

You guys better appreciate the amount of stuff I have to sift through to do this. Rest in peace, Joe Battista.

A DI Diary

As some of you may know, I've spent most of the last couple weeks grinding through the all-time schedule and results for the men's program(s). Today, I'm happy to report that the hard part of the project is complete and that I believe I've put together the most complete historical score record of Penn State hockey in existence:

M Results/Season: 1909-present

I won't bore you with my methodology (it's on the page I just linked if you really, really need it), but I will share something that I believe is of general interest - PSU's all time record against current NCAA Division I programs.

The varsity team of the 1940s, as most of you probably already know, played three different teams presently competing at the DI level a total of four times. The fact that they were all road games should be about the least surprising thing ever to anyone familiar with that team.

2/5/1944 @ Cornell, L 1-8
2/26/1944 @ Army, L 3-18
1/18/1947 @ Colgate, L 0-14
2/12/1947 @ Army, L 3-12

The Icers also played Army twice, once in West Point, once in a tournament at Kent State (Army's records omit the first of these two as an exhibition):

11/21/1980 @ Army, L 4-6
3/6/1982 vs. Army (at Kent, OH), L 3-10

The Black Knights, of course, appear on the coming season's schedule, October 26th to be precise.

Alabama-Huntsville claims the first three club national titles ever, in 1982, 1983 and 1984. The Chargers beat PSU in the championship tournament en route to the first two, then three times in the regular season leading to the third.

Another team on this year's schedule is Alabama-Huntsville. The Chargers, much like Penn State, transitioned to NCAA status from a highly-successful club program. While the two have not met since UAH's permanent move to DI, from Huntsville's 1979 formation until their elevation to Division II in 1985, PSU-UAH games were season-defining tilts.

3/12/1982 vs. Alabama-Huntsville (at Boulder, CO), L 3-4
3/5/1983 vs. Alabama-Huntsville (at Huntsville, AL), L 3-4
11/18/1983 @ Alabama-Huntsville, L 3-6
11/19/1983 @ Alabama-Huntsville, L 3-4 (OT)
12/9/1983 vs. Alabama-Huntsville (at Johnstown, PA), L 3-9
12/10/1983 vs. Alabama-Huntsville (at Johnstown, PA), W 5-4
11/16/1984 @ Alabama-Huntsville, L 3-6
11/17/1984 @ Alabama-Huntsville, L 2-4

The first two games on that list took place at the U.S. National Collegiate Club Hockey Championships, and UAH went on to take the title in both 1982 and 1983. The Chargers also claim a 1984 title. Penn State does as well, a reality made possible by the existence of two separate national championship tournaments in 1984 (and 1985 as well). UAH and PSU did meet four times during the 1983-1984 regular season, with three of four meetings going to the boys in (lighter) blue. I'm not giving up our stake in 1984 though, don't worry.

Huntsville went on to become quite successful in DII, taking the 1996 and 1998 national championships. After the first of those, they handed the Icers their worst-ever loss (tied with a 15-0 defeat by Princeton's freshman team in their second year of existence).

10/25/1996 @ Alabama-Huntsville, L 0-15
10/26/1996 @ Alabama-Huntsville, L 1-3

Joe Battista's ninth game as Icers coach was against Holy Cross, a PSU opponent on December 7th and 8th this year.

11/21/1987 @ Holy Cross, L 1-7

One final team on the Nittany Lions' inaugural NCAA schedule is Robert Morris. During RMU's formative years, the Icers earned a split in two games. The win is PSU's only one against a current DI team that came while that team was competing in DI.

10/8/2005 @ Robert Morris, W 3-2
10/8/2006 @ Robert Morris, L 0-6

Legendary Notre Dame coach Lefty Smith - who now has his name on the rink at the new Compton Family Ice Arena - coached against PSU four times.

Notre Dame dropped from NCAA Division I to the non-varsity ranks for a single season, 1983-1984, before bumping back up for 1984-1985. The Irish played PSU twice in each of those years.

2/10/1984 vs. Notre Dame (at Johnstown, PA), T 4-4
2/11/1984 vs. Notre Dame (at Johnstown, PA), L 1-6
11/2/1984 @ Notre Dame, L 2-8
11/3/1984 @ Notre Dame, L 3-10

Northern Arizona was a DI program from 1981 until 1986. It's a little suspect that they would play in the club national championship during that time (the source of the one PSU-NAU meeting), but hey, they were a year away from having 17-year NHL vet Greg Adams on their roster, so whatever. Kent State was a frequent Icers opponent both before and after their DI run from 1986 through 1994, but the teams only met twice during KSU's varsity era. Findlay and Wayne State round out the collection of now-defunct DI-ers (of note: PSU split a pair of games with Findlay during their time in DII immediately before moving up).

3/14/1982 vs. Northern Arizona (at Boulder, CO), W 5-4 (OT)
2/13/1987 @ Kent State, L 2-9
2/14/1987 @ Kent State, L 2-8
11/26/1999 @ Findlay, L 2-6
11/27/1999 vs. Wayne State (at Findlay, OH), W 5-2

Finally, a one-off game with no obvious segue.

10/17/1993 @ Massachusetts, L 2-7

In all (and excluding the UAH games along with the first two Notre Dame games), the Icers were 3-10-0 against DI teams, with a goals for-goals against of 34-85, or 2.6-6.5 per game. Certainly not pretty, but then again, not terrible either, all things considered. I should point out that I've excluded Villanova from that record (and indeed this entire post until now). For what it's worth, the Icers were 6-1-1 with a 49-18 GF-GA against the Wildcats from 1982 through 1998, the span VU was listed as an NCAA Division I program. I think Nova was about as DI as I am a Pulitzer Prize candidate though.

Mercyhurst and Canisius are now Atlantic Hockey rivals, but in another day and another division, they often opposed the Icers.

Before I exit this post, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that some of PSU's most extensive history with current DI programs actually comes via Atlantic Hockey's Canisius and Mercyhurst. The Lakers were DIII from 1987 through 1992, then DII from 1992 through 2000, before finally hitting DI. The Golden Griffins were a DIII program from 1980 until 1998, then jumped straight to DI at that point.

11/14/1981 @ Canisius, L 4-8
1/16/1982 vs. Canisius, W 6-4
1/29/1983 vs. Canisius (at Annapolis, MD), W 7-4
2/22/1985 @ Canisius, L 6-12
11/7/1986 vs. Canisius (at Allegany, NY), L 3-5
11/4/1988 vs. Canisius (at Geneseo, NY), L 2-6
10/26/1991 @ Canisius, L 4-5
2/19/1995 @ Canisius, L 1-8

1/31/1988 vs. Mercyhurst (at Geneseo, NY), W 6-3
11/5/1988 vs. Mercyhurst, L 2-6
12/18/1988 vs. Mercyhurst, L 3-5
1/14/1989 vs. Mercyhurst, L 2-9
1/6/1995 @ Mercyhurst, L 4-5
1/7/1996 @ Mercyhurst, L 4-13

Three Stars: January 30-February 5

The Ice Lions seniors and head coach Josh Hand

3. Gadowsky says identity players are most important for Icers
(The Daily Collegian)

Sometimes it's tough to give the Collegian their due for the great work they're doing this year (on the men's side, anyway) because articles frequently become dated after the games over the weekend and before I run these posts on Mondays. Grinders, shot blockers, leaders and faceoff guys, however, never get dated.

2. Penstone marks decade as Icers’ voice
(Pennsylvania Puck)

PA Puck took a break from writing about the Hershey Bears' use of foam rollers to cover another team beyond the cursory "give the scores on Monday, and Mercyhurst had a couple CHA players of the week." Crazy, I know. The subject: new Icers Hall of Famer Steve Penstone.

1. On the Fly, Feb. 3
(hockeyyall.com)

First star goes to the Ice Lions, who beat Pittsburgh 4-3 Friday and Monmouth 9-0 Saturday to improve to 24-2-0, a record that includes an active 19-game winning streak. It wasn't easy though, particularly in that first game.

The Ice Lions, ranked No. 2 in the ACHA DII Southeast Region, found themselves trailing 3-0 to the No. 12 Panthers seven minutes into the second period. At that point, head coach Josh Hand made a goalie change to Ryan Demuth, and the Lions roared the rest of the way.

Mac Winchester fired a shot into the top corner of the Pitt net to trim the Panthers’ lead to 3-1 and set up another goal as the Lions closed to 3-2 at the second intermission.

Chris Lewis and Austin Wagoner scored in the third period to complete the comeback. No such drama was necessary the next night as PSU rolled to an easy senior night win.

The Ice Lions will next play St. Joseph's at home on Saturday. But more importantly, votes for the next D2 ranking are due that day. The significance of that particular poll is that the top two teams in each region earn an autobid to the ACHA national championships, while teams ranked 3rd through 10th play off February 24th-26th to determine the other half of the sixteen entries. Penn State, given its current position as the southeast's No. 2 team, its recent spotless record, and its head-to-head win over southeast No. 3 UMBC (3-1 on December 2nd) seems to be a lock to qualify for nationals.

Best of the Rest

@Cmen12
(Twitter)

Lady Icer fans Chris Kunitz and James Neal were at Boston's Prudential Center over the weekend. They ran into Jess Desorcie, Cara Mendelson and Tess Weaver, who graciously agreed to take a picture with them.

Former Wayne State women's players find home at Mercyhurst
(goerie.com)

It's nice to know that former Warriors Jill Szandzik and Gina Buquet are able to play out their college careers at one-time College Hockey America rival Mercyhurst. Others weren't quite as fortunate after the WSU program was ripped out from under them last May.

CBS Sports Network Signs Multi-Year Deal with National Collegiate Hockey Conference
(denverpioneers.com)

Well, there you go. The NCHC, the conference formed solely to attract a television deal, will be on a channel I don't get at least 18 games per year. And allegedly, the conference is paying for production costs. Congrats, guys.

More than anything I think, the NCHC was guilty of overestimating its value to broadcasters before nuking the college hockey landscape. Hockey people look at the conference and see some great programs. But most people look at the conference and see MAC teams, branch campuses, schools they've never heard of, and North Dakota. Fair? Probably not. But it's the hard reality of the situation. Hockey on TV in the U.S. has always been an uphill battle. Hockey played by Colorado College and St. Cloud State on TV in the U.S. is close to impossible.

Before you write off my opinion as Big Ten homerism, please note that I've questioned how lucrative hockey on Big Ten Network will be as well.

The Dark Side of Sports: Exposing the Sexual Culture of Collegiate and Professional Athletes
(amazon.com)

Former Icer Nick Pappas wrote a book that promises to be a pretty engaging (and topical) read.

Elite-level athletes are placed upon heightened pedestals in societies world-wide. At the same time, there is a dark side to these glorified competitors that remains hidden from those outside of exclusive athletic circles. Dr. Nick Pappas' athletic background in collegiate and professional sports has provided insider access, enabling him to uncover an array of disturbing sexually deviant and aggressive behaviors, which have silently thrived for decades in many athlete cultures. These findings, expressed through the athletes' own words, are the result of more than 10 years of cutting-edge research involving in-depth interviews with 142 collegiate, minor, and major league athletes from five prominent U.S. sports.

Tambellini Commits To North Dakota
(The College Hockey Blog)

PSU lost out on the son of Edmonton Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini.

Vernon Vipers (BCHL) forward Adam Tambellini took an official visit to North Dakota during the series with Minnesota and liked it enough to the point where he decided Grand Forks was the best place to continue his hockey career. He’ll enroll either next year or in 2013. Tambellini is third on the Vipers in both goals and assists, and picked UND over Minnesota, Michigan and Penn State.

Nichols 5, Western New England 1
(USCHO)

Ex-Icer Tim Carr played in his second game at NCAA Division III Western New England College on January 28th. Starter Eric Sorenson was run from the game early after allowing three goals on Nichols' first seven shots, but Carr settled things down in relief by stopping 32 of 34 shots in 52:35 of action.

@MarkHorgas
(Twitter)

Since it's now the week leading up to Icers alumni weekend, here's Hall of Famer Don Coyne with Jaromir Jagr at the Pittsburgh Penguins' 1999 training camp.

Three Stars: September 5-11

3. Men's Hockey Roster
(GoPSUSports.com)

The official site people followed up their press release introducing Taylor Holstrom, Justin Kirchhevel, Nate Jensen and Bryce Johnson by updating the team's "roster" to include (only) these four players, complete with profile pages. Pretty cool, and just one more thing reinforcing that this all, in fact, happening. That said, I still don't get the point of doing that now and with only those four. Clearly, there are others on the team this year, and there will be others on the team next year, some of whom <gasp> are playing on this year's team. Some order of explanation would have been nice there.

2. Icers Announce Roster for Final ACHA Season
(Black Shoe Diaries)

I have a confession. Whenever IcersGuy and I post on the same topic, I always end up kicking myself because he gets at a couple angles I didn't address. One he hits here: potential captains. In the spirit of conversation, here's one name to keep in mind: Justin Kirchhevel. I know he's new here, but the guy just oozes "captain," trust me on that. If it doesn't happen this year, I'm betting it will next year or the year after.

1. Labor Intensive
(View From the Booth)

I always feel like I short Steve Penstone in these posts, which gives him the slight edge for first star this week. He checks in from the first post-cutdown practice with Tommy Olczyk, Dan Petrick and Guy Gadowsky. I chose the Gadowsky one for the top because, hey, he's the coach. But also because he gave a lot of insight related to how the tryout process played itself out and the type of team we're trying to develop.

"If you can catch this thing, you can catch greased lightning!"

Steve's demon-like efforts this week included dropping in solid efforts with Joe Battista/Gina Kearns/addressing the tragic Lokomotiv crash and Josh Brandwene/Bob DeGregorio.

Best of the Rest

UAH Charger Hockey should soldier on and thrive!
(change.org)

I'm generally pretty skeptical of the effects of these types of things (case in point: I signed one for Wayne State women's hockey...how'd that turn out?). But at the same time, it only takes a couple seconds of your time and doesn't cost anything. Support our brothers in college hockey.

The UAH community continues to have TYT's best wishes in their efforts.

Hockey brings Saad brothers together
(The Daily Collegian)

I have George's pink jersey from last year. So basically, we're boys.

Oh, but hey, Collegian, you legitimate journalists might want to fix this.

Women's ice hockey to join CHA in 2012-13
(The Daily Collegian)

PSU women’s team lands spot in expanding league
(Centre Daily Times)

Probably the two best write-ups concerning the women's team joining the CHA. Not surprisingly, they came from two sources who have an obligation beyond grabbing a couple graphs from the AP story.

Checking In: Former Western Michigan, Wayne State coach Bill Wilkinson
(USCHO)

Speaking of the CHA, here's someone who used to coach in it back when they had a men's conference, and who also made quite an interesting career move when Wayne State dropped their men's program in 2008. By the way, he has a career record of 0-1-0 against the Icers. And no, I don't miss an opportunity to mention that.

Arena plans taking shape in Allentown, Erie and State College
(Pennsylvania Puck)

Nothing you don't already know when it comes to the Pegula Ice Arena, but broaden your horizons a little bit by learning about some of the other exciting arena projects in PA. Incidentally, that event at Hersheypark Arena scheduled for Saturday was ultimately cancelled due to the central Pennsylvania flooding.

Three Stars: June 6-12

3. As Camp Season is About to Begin, Recalling Some of Coach Pappas' Greatest Lines
(StateCollege.com)

JoeBa's column takes third star this week for its entertaining look at former Icer and camp instructor Nick Pappas, a guy who certainly isn't slow on the comeback. He sprinkles in a few of his own PSU hockey camp memories as well, including a very important scientific study involving the microwavability of rubber.

Obviously this year's camps - beginning with the girls June 19-24 and continuing with the boys through most of July - take on a little extra importance in terms of recruiting, so it will be interesting to see if anything comes from it.

2. Saving pucks to saving lives
(The Hockey News)

Marek Polidor's brother Mike, a fighter pilot in the air force, was recently given the Colonel James Jabara Award for Airmanship and the Distinguished Flying Cross. How does one go about receiving such accolades?

Polidor was flying an F-15E Strike Eagle jet fighter in Afghanistan in 2009. During a nearly eight-hour mission, he helped save 72 coalition soldiers who had been surrounded on all sides by 250 Taliban fighters.

“From the second we took off, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and it was intense from the get-go,” Polidor said. “It went by so fast.”

During the mission, the former netminder dropped four bombs and strafed the enemy with gunfire. He refuelled three times in mid-air and performed a battle-damage check on his wingman’s jet. All of this in an area that hampered radio communications and harboured thunderstorms on the horizon.

Prior to being an American hero, Mike was a four-year goalie at the Air Force Academy from 2000-2004. Marek, AFA offer in hand, considered following in his footsteps before enrolling at Penn State instead.

The linked article is slightly different than the one that appeared in the June 2011 print version of the magazine, so be sure to read both.

1. Brandon Saad Is Focused On The Next Step
(HockeyBuzz.com)

Speaking of Icer siblings, another is preparing to be a first-round pick in the NHL Entry Draft on June 24th. Here's a nice piece that both fills in some biographical background while also dropping in a couple mentions of George and Penn State. While his stock slipped slightly from potential top-fiver to mid-first this past season, he's still rated as the top U.S.-born player in many corners, and hey, at least he'll go to a decent organization now.

Additionally, Saad was invited to the 2011 U.S National Junior Evaluation Camp in August, an early step in his attempt to make Team USA for the 2012 World Junior Championships after being one of the final cuts made on the 2011 team.

Best of the Rest

ChasePSU (photo via Twitter user @map408psu)
(yfrog)

Heeeey...look what Guy Gadowsky found:



Wayne State starts online petition, plans to appeal shutdown of women's team
(USCHO)

The grassroots movement to save WSU women's hockey is starting to gain some attention - first from Angela Ruggiero, now from USCHO. Here's the online petition mentioned in the article, and here's a Facebook group created to support the cause.

The Big Ten Tsunami Watch
(Without a Peer)

One of my favorite college hockey blogs (aligned with RPI in case you're doing some pre-click wondering) commences their own take on the imminent conference realignment mess we started. Also, if you're new to this, don't confuse RPI with RIT - they frown on that (sort of like we do when we're called "Penn").

Canadian hockey player verbally commits to UMaine
(Bangor Daily News)

Quebec forward Pietro Antonelli chose Maine over UMass, Princeton and Penn State. The presence of both PSU and Princeton in the second-to-last cut makes me think that Antonelli connected with Coach Gadowsky, but apparently not enough to override the two boarding school teammates of his also headed to Orono.

Thoughts on that decision, Maine hockey pedophile guy?

Brandwene takes Stroemel's spot; Stroemel still part of women's Division I hockey program
(The Daily Collegian)

Christine Newby hits an overlooked angle to the hiring of Josh Brandwene to lead the women's program - the retention of Mo Stroemel in a to-be-determined role.

Olczyk brings familiar name to PSU
(Lions 247)

One gets the feeling that Tommy Olczyk's going to be a fan favorite, especially among the more perceptive who notice the little things. Oh wait, he already is.

Notre Dame AD addresses hockey reaffiliation
(Portland Press Herald)

It seems pretty obvious that the Irish are running for a lifeboat as the CCHA takes on water. Nothing terribly earth-shattering to report this week, but here's where that process stands:

[AD Jack] Swarbrick brought up three points of consideration when evaluating a conference move: Maximizing television exposure, finding a cultural fit for the program and for the school and mechanical issues such as travel and scheduling.

Conference reaffiliation for Notre Dame’s hockey program is still an evaluation process, though Swarbrick said there are some who want the re-affiliation process to move at a quicker pace.

“We’ll get there, but we want to be thorough about this,” Swarbrick said.

The only area where the "new" CCHA wins on Swarbrick's criteria is travel - but there is absolutely no way ND lets a couple hundred miles stand between them, a stable conference and its TV deal.

I really hope Miami is making some phone calls as well.

Wayne State Drops Women's Hockey


Just two days after I dumped on Wayne State a little in my Head Coach Candidate post on coach Jim Fetter, the school has announced that their women's program will now join the WSU men on the scrap heap of defunct college hockey programs (yes, I now feel bad about what I said, in case you're wondering). Here's the press release, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the school's release when dropping the men's team:

Wayne State University will discontinue sponsorship of the women’s ice hockey program effective immediately. The decision was necessary due to continuing reductions in state appropriations to higher education.

“With all the successes we have enjoyed recently with championships, high academic achievement and graduation rates this action leaves an empty feeling and is a disappointment for our women’s hockey student-athletes, our alumni and the department,” stated WSU Director of Athletics Rob Fournier. “This last resort consequence only underscores the economic reality that confronts higher education in the State of Michigan today. In the end, the cost and expenditures of our most expensive operating program determined this difficult decision. Importantly however, the educational objectives of our women’s hockey student-athletes will be protected.”

All current student-athlete scholarships will be honored provided they meet satisfactory progress standards under NCAA guidelines. Releases will be offered to those who wish to transfer to other schools this summer, where they will be eligible to participate immediately as the normal residency requirements of the NCAA are waived.

The Warrior women’s hockey program recently concluded its 12th season and ninth as a member of College Hockey America (CHA), which includes Mercyhurst College (Pa.), Niagara (N.Y.) University, Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, and Syracuse University.

During its tenure, the women's hockey program compiled a 138-209-29 (.406) record. In terms of conference play, WSU recorded an all-time CHA mark of 48-59-7 (.452) in nine seasons, tying for the CHA regular-season title in 2007-08.

WSU had 26 All-CHA recipients (10 First Team and 16 Second Team), plus another nine student-athletes who were voted to the CHA All-Rookie Team. There was one All-American and one CoSIDA Academic All-American in the last 12 years. In addition, there were 81 CHA All-Academic team selections from 2002-03 through 2009-10. The CHA did not recognize All-Academic honorees this past year.

Of the current sixteen (16) sport programs, women’s hockey is the most expensive and has the largest operating budget.

The team, to their credit, isn't taking this lying down and has started a Facebook group in an attempt to fight the decision.

This news certainly affects Penn State, as it was widely assumed that the women's program would join Wayne State and the schools listed above in College Hockey America. But without the Warriors, CHA is down to five schools, even with PSU on board - one shy of the six needed for an autobid. Can you imagine joining a conference with no autobid? Me neither. This is something that could potentially push PSU elsewhere, like Hockey East or the ECAC.

Problem is, the ECAC is locked in at a nice, even 12 teams - the same 12 that are in the men's side of the conference. It doesn't seem likely that they'd be willing to break that structure, even for a Penn State. Hockey East has UConn as a women's-only member (the Huskies men play in Atlantic Hockey), but they're at an even eight teams. And from PSU's perspective, those two conferences would require increased spending in terms of travel and just about everything else, and it's not yet certain how much will be spent towards having a competitive women's program.

Could the four-time ACHA national champs be the key to Penn State's conference alignment?

Before you start worrying about the Penn State women being banished to an Alabama-Huntsville-like purgatory though, remember that a potential savior resides in the west - St. Charles, MO to be specific. Yep, I'm talking about Lindenwood, who recently announced that they were elevating to NCAA Division I in women's hockey as well. While LU will be an independent in 2011-2012, there's certainly a good possibility of the Lady Icers' frequent nemesis joining up with CHA after that to fill the hole left by Wayne State, which puts the idea of PSU being a sixth CHA team back in play.

Here's hoping, because it could be a mess otherwise.

A poster on USCHO raised an interesting idea as well, in the event that Penn State were to hire Fetter.

Purely speculating, but it will be interesting to see if Coach Fetter ends up at Penn State....along with a bevy of his players. Instant team for the Nittany Lions.

While scoring the remnants of an 8-21-2 team might not explode headlines, like I said in my previous post, I think Fetter's a quality coach in a bad situation (this news certainly proves half of that statement right). And some NCAA-level upperclass transfers, even from a bad team, would certainly ease the transition. It's definitely something to keep an eye on as our coaching search reaches its conclusion.

Head Coach Candidate: Jim Fetter

Fetter and former Wayne State goalie Lindsey Park, after the two helped helped the West team win the NCAA Skills Challenge at the 2010 Frozen Four in Detroit

Fourth in a series taking uninformed, uneducated guesses at the candidates to become the first head coach of Penn State's NCAA women's team. Previously: Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti, Lady Icers coach Mo Stroemel, Minnesota-Duluth coach Shannon Miller.

It turns out that I timed this short series perfectly, because with this post, I've officially exhausted the list of names I've seen associated with the Penn State women's job (and this connection is of the particularly weak message board variety). But the good news: according to Mark Horgas, the final interviews are this week, and the coach should be named by this weekend. As we saw on Easter, you can't go on break from 5 p.m. Friday until 8 a.m. Monday, weekends and holidays are fair game for an announcement.

So are any of the four coaches I've mentioned among the final interviews? I have no idea. Unlike with the men's coaching search, this one's been all about jumping on absolutely anything I see, put together with more guessing than even I'm accustomed to. So in the likely event that I haven't posted about the person who gets hired, I'll first post the PSU press release, then follow up by digging a little deeper, as I try to do in these posts.

Anyway, today's subject is Wayne State head coach Jim Fetter, a Waterloo, ON native and 1995 University of Lethbridge graduate who has resided in Detroit since August 2003.

Most men who coach women's hockey can trace their history with the women's game to a very specific point. Fetter's no exception. He got into coaching right out of college with a couple different (men's) midget programs, but quickly grew frustrated and decided to take a year off to evaluate his career choices.

In 1998, after taking a year off from coaching, his alma mater was just starting out its women’s hockey program. For weeks leading up to the new season, Fetter received continuous phone calls requesting he take the position as head coach, yet he refused.

“I kind of wanted to take the year off to evaluate what I wanted out of coaching if I wanted anything out of it, and during that time I was looking to go to major junior,” Fetter said.

Fetter admits he was skeptical about women’s hockey. By late August, Fetter received yet another phone call asking to help run a weekend practice.

“I went out to run practice on a Saturday, it was an hour and a half, and I was kind of impressed,” Fetter said. “Came back the next day designed the practice a little tougher, kind of put on a test physically, mentally and again they rose to the occasion and kind of impressed me.”

He never looked back. After that first year with the Pronghorns, he made one more transition - to U.S. college hockey - as one of Rick Filighera's assistants at Maine in 1999-2000. That turned out to be another single-season stop on the way to Mike Sisti's staff at Mercyhurst from 2000-2003.

We've already seen the tremendous success the Lakers have experienced, and Fetter was pretty close to the ground floor as he started there in year two of the program. More specifically, he was there for the beginning of Mercyhurst's ridiculous (and still active) ten-year streak of winning both the regular season and playoff championships, first in the GLWHA, now in CHA.

It's not uncommon for women's hockey coaches to have experience starting a program in the relatively new sport, but Fetter has helped get two off the ground. Perhaps Wayne State AD Rob Fournier had that in the back of his mind when hiring him from Mercyhurst in 2003. After all, the Warriors had a pretty new program themselves (founded 1999), but original head coach Tom O'Malley stumbled to a 21-86-5 record, leading to the job opening.

On the surface, it was a slow build at WSU - the Warriors lingered around .500 for Fetter's first four years. But underneath, there were signs of progress. In Fetter's third year (2005-2006), he was the CHA coach of the year as the Warriors finished second in the CHA standings, but had a pair of freshmen - Melissa Boal and Sam Poyton - tie for the league scoring title and take home first-team all-conference honors. The next year brought a trip to the conference championship game, WSU's first-ever win against a ranked program, and a co-CHA coach of the year honor for Fetter.

Former captain Lindsay DiPietro

The major breakthrough was 2007-2008 with a 22-9-3 mark. The Warriors snapped a 33-game winless streak against Mercyhurst - and even chipped away at their conference dominance by tying for the CHA regular season title and winning the top seed for the playoffs by virtue of a winning record against the Lakers.

Boal, boosted by playing for an improved team, elevated her game to an even higher level and was named a Patty Kazmeier Award top ten finalist. Boal and linemate Poyton were again first-team all-CHA, along with senior goalie Valery Turcotte. And yes, Fetter was coach of the year for a third straight time. However, the dream of winning an NCAA tournament at-large bid (remember, no autobid for the CHA) ended with an overtime loss to the nemesis Lakers in the CHA championship game.

21-9-2 was the follow-up to that in 2008-2009, but once again, Mercyhurst blocked the way to even greater success - WSU was 0-5-0 against the Lakers, the last defeat again coming in the conference title game. To be fair, Mercyhurst made the NCAA championship game that season, so there are worse teams to go 0-5-0 against.

After that? The bottom completely fell out. 17-39-6 is what the last two seasons have produced. So what happened? You can probably start with losing 2009's senior class, which included Boal, Poyton, captain Lindsay DiPietro and defender Natalie Payne - the team's top four scorers by a wide margin (Payne had 1.6 times as many points as fifth-place Veronique Laramee-Paquette). You can probably continue with the fact that Wayne State isn't the easiest place in the world to win - the school dropped their men's program after 2007-2008, and the team plays at an off-campus public rink with 500 seats.

Basically, the facilities, finances and name recognition at Wayne State aren't bottom of the barrel. The barrel is in fact resting on top of them. The death of former Warrior Brandi Frakie undoubtedly put a damper on this past season as well.

Really, guys?

Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure Fetter didn't forget how to coach overnight. If that was the case, he wouldn't keep receiving calls from Hockey Canada.

In the summer of 2006, he was selected to Hockey Canada's National Women's Program Coaching Pool. Fetter served as an assistant coach for Team Canada's Under-18 squad for 2007-08 and has also worked summer evaluation camps with the U-22 and National women's team. For the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, he was chosen as an assistant coach for the Under-22 team before being selected head coach in 2010-11.

Fetter would be a nice hire in my opinion - one who has been successful, one who could blossom with the chance to be a part of a big-time athletic department, and perhaps most importantly, one who won't cost all that much. We'll find out soon enough if the Penn State administration agrees.