Weekend Observations: Delaware

Collegian weekend recap and sidebar // Friday box score // Saturday box score

I'll be honest, I have no idea how to write this post. Generally, I'll try to handle both games simultaneously while looking for common themes and storylines. However, Saturday's game was pretty much the exact opposite of Friday. In a sense I guess, the Icers tied the weekend. They say a tie is like kissing your sister, but I've never bought that expression, because the implication is that kissing your sister is part good.

It almost feels like I have to veer in one direction or the other, and in this case, I think it's okay to keep it generally positive. I admittedly would have been okay with a split coming into the weekend, and a split is what we got. Consider that:

• Delaware hasn't lost in regulation all season. They're ranked No. 3. They have quality players up and down their roster.
• The last time Penn State played a top 10 team, the results were historically bad.
• A Blue Hens sweep would have been an unmitigated disaster, and PSU avoided that catastrophe.

One huge positive that extends well beyond these two games: the return of all injured Icers.

"George is our best player." - Assistant Coach Josh Hand

"George," of course, is George Saad, the extremely talented but frequently injured forward. He made his return to the lineup from a deep thigh bruise this weekend, and it was clear pretty much from puck drop Friday that this was not to be a token appearance. Saad made the effort plays early on - diving to clear the zone and stripping the puck at the blueline and dumping it back to allow a line change that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Then the offense started. First, it was a nice pass from the corner to a driving Taylor Cera, a fellow injury returnee, for the first goal of the game. Later on, Saad came in one-on-one with freshman Delaware defenseman Kevin Redmond, who might as well have not been there. Saad knocked Redmond over, regained control of the puck and scored. He added points on both Icers goals Saturday as well, including a goal when a Rich O'Brien blast went wide and rebounded from the end boards on to his stick.

Despite Hand's comment and Saad's play, Tim O'Brien showed that he has no plans of relinquishing any "best player" titles, at least not until he graduates. He made a great individual play of his own, a steal that ended up Delaware goalie Nick Casella after he circled around to the slot and fired it home. Then, he spent the next eight seconds of game time winning the faceoff, cruising down the ice, taking a pass from Eric Steinour, who won a battle along the boards, and scoring again. We now call that Pulling a Longo.

Just about the only thing O'Brien did wrong Friday night? His awkward-looking goal celebration after his first goal. Whatever  you think of Alex Ovechkin's cellys, it's clear that the yellow laces are not the culprit behind his mojo. Still, O'Brien remains one of the most entertaining players ever during stoppages, whether he's dancing to the Penn State version of Rock 'n Roll as performed by Section E or chirping from the penalty box.

Sometime late in the first period Saturday, I thought I had the goaltending situation all figured out. Matt Madrazo got the shutout Friday, his second in a row after blanking Towson on November 19th. He was great early on Saturday, playing his usual aggressive style. I started to get it in my head that I was going to use this platform as a coronation for the freshman.

Then, right as I decided to head down to the lobby to angle on Saad's pink-and-black jersey (can you tell I like the guy?)...bang, Chris Galgano pounces on a loose puck in the slot to tie it at 1. Then three minutes later, Brandon Weiner scored through a massive crowd in front. I actually had taken a position directly behind Madrazo for that goal, and trust me, he couldn't see a thing - credit Delaware with a tremendous screen. Then the second period started, and a bad outlet pass and a blown coverage later, another one is behind Madrazo. Seconds later, yet another, and still another after that. Three goals in 35 seconds, five in 6:46, and Madrazo found himself at the end of the bench.

Hume finished out a game that was already lost, and did fairly well (16 shots, 14 saves over the final 37:50), but not enough to stop the regression of the battle between the pipes back into muddy waters.

Defense-wise, it's a little frustrating. I think the group as a whole has made progress from the beginning of the year, but then you take a guy like Kevin Miller, who has been pretty steady all year, yet had a weekend he'd probably like to forget. On the other hand, you have the tandem of Rich O'Brien and Dan Loucks (the injury returnee I haven't mentioned yet) teaming up to prevent what looked like a sure goal on Delaware's first power play Saturday, when the game was 0-0. Carey Bell looked good to me as well. That seems pretty typical of the group to me - it's very up and down right now. Which is better than mostly down, as at the beginning of the year, I suppose.

Back to the positives. I have to say that in the face of an ugly game (both on the scoreboard and after the whistles) I was impressed with the Icers' refusal to quit on Saturday. In what was a 5-1 game late in the second, Penn State generated a lot of positive momentum, resulting in Saad's goal. Delaware's Nick Lepore crushed the comeback in its infancy with an answering marker shortly after, but still, guys like Loucks, Mark Polidor and Chris Pronchik in particular kept the energy going in a time of great distress. That will serve Penn State well somewhere down the road.

Finally, I might as well show off my haul from the jersey auction. Little kids and hockey moms beware - I will snipe you.

Saad owns you. What owns me? The reek from this thing in the hotel room Saturday night.

DeLo's a personal favorite too.

NCAA Status Check

Great article by The Collegian's Tony Barton this morning on two items that have been flying a little under the radar for the last few weeks: the coaching search and the Pegula Center. Relax, I said "a little." I'm perfectly aware of my obsession with every tiny detail regarding the building of the NCAA program. Anyway, coaching search first. What are you looking for in a coach, Joe Battista?

“Key items we’re looking for are their ability to recruit top student athletes, to run the program the Penn State way, and their track record for success at the highest levels of hockey in North America,” Battista said. “Those are all the kinds of criteria we’ll be looking for as we move forward.”

Battista also mentioned that the search will accelerate starting in January. In the meantime, feel free to peruse my baseless speculation on the subject. I started with Icers coach Scott Balboni on Wednesday and will continue with others every second Wednesday. Mark Johnson, Mike Kemp, Tony Granato and George Gwozdecky are already scheduled, and I'll keep it going through the Frozen Four, or until something breaks. As I write them, I will keep Battista's criteria in mind as well - GSRs in the 50s need not apply.

Meanwhile, Mortenson Construction in Minneapolis has been chosen as the construction firm. As you might expect based on their location, Mortenson has built a number of ice facilities including, notably, Minnesota-Duluth's AMSOIL Arena. It's not exactly shocking that Penn State grabbed someone connected with that facility. Battista's certainly a fan, and I have to assume Terry Pegula and others are as well.

“I liked everything I saw here – all of the amenities, the suites, the press box, the site lines. It’s the perfect size for us. I’m going to make it a point to get our (hockey) donor here to look at the building.”

Unfortunately, the full article with that quote from the Duluth News-Tribune was moved to a pay archive.

Finally, I wanted to highlight another Battista quote, this one about Pegula during the first of what will be monthly arena meetings on Tuesday.

“I think it was important for everyone to hear him and hear the passion in his voice."

At first, I liked Pegula because he handed Penn State $88 million. Now I like him even more knowing the guy behind that commitment. No wonder Buffalo sports fans are giddy at the idea of him owning both of their major league teams.

Hen-d of the Semester Showdown

After getting an extra week off to enjoy the complete destruction of Towson (and that's exactly why it was there, don't let any Thanksgiving extremists tell you otherwise), the Icers are back at it tonight and tomorrow for the standard Ice Pavilion series against No. 4 (and possibly moving up later today) Delaware, also known as "the school with the exclusively female nickname." Yeah, okay, it's the state bird, and there's some interesting history to it, but amazingly, Penn State avoided being the Ruffed Grouses. Why not take advantage of something else the state has to offer instead, like...ummm...

Ohio serves as the Icers' most intense rivalry, yet the Delaware rivalry goes deeper than that in a sense. The teams operate in the same recruiting circles, with many former high school, minor and junior hockey teammates ending up on opposite benches. Sometimes siblings do too, as John and David Conte can attest. Penn Staters have gone on to coach at Delaware, including current assistant and former head man John O'Connor, and former head coach Josh Brandwene (Icers Hall of Fame, class of 1996).

Delaware even has their own Kevin Miller who plays a prominent role on the team, although theirs is a high-scoring forward, and ours is a top-pair defenseman on a team where the forwards do a disproportionate amount of the scoring.

Another similarity, this one also of the quirky coincidence variety: the Saturday game is the Icers' annual 3rd jersey auction, benefitting Relay For Life. The Hens actually have some recent experience in the area of jerseys for a cause, as they had a Military Appreciation Night on November 19th, complete with camo.



I can't see Kevin Miller! Can you, Kevin Miller? Photo: Delaware official site

The off-ice rivalries have slowly but surely led to an on-ice rivalry as well. Penn State flat-out dominates the all-time series at 78-13-3-0, yet four of those losses have come since the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, and three of the Icers' 10 wins in that time came via the shootout.

Similarities and rivalries aside, these games are huge. Especially for the Icers, who desperately need to collect some poll-influencing wins to gather the kind of momentum you just can't get from splattering Towson and also remove themselves from the ACHA tournament bubble. If all of that is to happen, however, Penn State will have to get through a team that is absolutely rolling.

The Hens' success thus far has also been driven by a team-wide sense of confidence, something [senior forward Dave] Lombardi said they know they will need when adversity strikes. 

"Moving forward, we know we will have a forward net a goal, a defenseman make a big hit, or our goalie bail us out with big save when the time calls," Lombardi said. "Also anyone can step into the lineup if a player is forced out by injury." 

Lombardi said the team dynamic is strong.

"To have this kind of confidence in your teammates is extremely comforting," he said. "It creates camaraderie and chemistry in the locker room."  

Delaware sits at 16-0-1, the lone blemish on the record coming in a shootout at Rhode Island on October 30th. Among the 16 wins: nine against the ACHA's top 20, including in the other half of the URI series, and two at Liberty, always a tough venue.

Really though, the schedule overall hasn't exactly been a murderer's row. The Rhode Island games stand out as being the only ones against a team that can pencil in a trip to nationals - really, does a ranking of 15-20 in the ACHA impress anyone? "Balanced" is probably a pretty fair description. And other than a narrow escape against Drexel, the Hens have blown out the teams they're supposed to blow out.

Much like the Icers, Delaware's forwards come in waves. Along with leading scorer Miller (12 goals, 11 assists), Ryan McDonald, Vince Pontrello, Andre Menard, Nick LePore, Chris Tasker and Mark Zeszut all average a point per game or better. Freshman forward Chris Volonnino, another in that group, is a breakout star with NAHL pedigree. The former Janesville Jet has 11 goals in 11 games, and at 6'2", 225 pounds, the size to grind down a defense. Defensemen like Jason Michaud and captain Brandon Weiner do an effective job getting it out and getting it up, as their 25 combined assists attest. Josh Weiner, Chris Galgano, Zack Reubel and the aforementioned Conte also contribute to a deep, experienced corps of blueliners.

I've talked a lot about similarities in this post, but one important difference between the teams right now is the goaltending the Hens are getting from Nick Casella, spelled by SJ Broadt. I could go through the stats like I usually do, and they're impressive enough (goals against averages of 1.97 and 1.40, respectively), but the essential point is this: Delaware has only allowed more than two goals in five of 17 games this season. Translation: Penn State will probably have to bring a strong defensive effort to win these games, because we're not likely to bust the cheese count on these guys.

If the games last year, combined with the large number of returning players on both sides, are any indication, this could be a lot of fun. Tight-checking, competitive games with an edge and a high talent level. And something on the line in December. Buckle up.

Outside Reading

View From The Booth talked to Kevin Miller (the good one) and coach Scott Balboni. Balboni played off any perceived issues and even said that we're underranked. I have a tough time going there, considering our 2-4-0 mark against teams that can even think about booking a hotel in Delaware in early March (1-3-0 against teams in at this moment). But hey, I know one way to change my mind about that....

The Collegian's Tony Barton reports the following:

“Right now we have everyone cleared from injuries for the first time all season,” Balboni said. “I probably could have played [Cera, Loucks and Saad] against Towson but I wanted to give them extra rest with the break. They all look good and they all look strong and will be in the lineup this weekend.”

Not a moment too soon, either. I'll be interested to see how Saad and Cera fit into forward lines that seemed to click two weekends ago. Saad in particular is a high-end talent that needs to be on a scoring line, but at whose expense?

Head Coach Candidate: Scott Balboni

First in a series looking at potential head coaches for Penn State's NCAA team.

This series, by its very nature, is pretty unfair to the guy who already holds the title of "Head Coach, Penn State Hockey," and I sincerely feel bad about it. But that said, this series is really just a snapshot of a pretty unfair situation. Because to be brutally honest about things, guys who donate $88 million to start an NCAA hockey program don't do so with the idea that the school is just going to promote the head man of its existing ACHA team. They're going to want to make a splash, for the recruiting, for the PR, and for the perceived guarantee of success that comes with hiring a guy who has had success at that level. All of which probably makes Balboni a longshot in this race.

It has to be pretty tough for him, because if I know that, he has to know it too. The Icers' on-again, off-again struggles so far in the only season between the NCAA announcement and the naming of a head coach can't really help things either. But to his credit, he has the right perspective:

Current Icers head coach Scott Balboni said he definitely would throw his name into the coaching search if he was asked.
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“It’s a dream job,” Balboni said. “It’s going to be the premiere job in the country and that’s something that I would consider.”

Balboni, as anyone who's read an Icers program before knows, played collegiately at Providence College. Since I was a lot busier caring about the Hartford Whalers than anything going on in Hockey East at the time, I popped "scott balboni providence" into Dogpile to see where it would take me. One place was HockeyDB.com:

Scott Balboni
Defense
Born   -- Salem, NH
Height 6.00 -- Weight 215

Season   Team                     Lge    GP    G    A  Pts  PIM
----------------------------------------------------------------
1992-93  Providence College       H-Eas  35    3   10   13   32
1993-94  Providence College       H-Eas  32    2    3    5   65
1994-95  Providence College       H-Eas  33    4   11   15   57
1995-96  Providence College       H-Eas  38    4   17   21   44

Go a little further and you'll see that Balboni led the team in penalty minutes in 1993-1994 and was second in 1994-1995. He played in all but 10 of the Friars' games over his four years, an impressive record. He capped his career with a Hockey East tournament championship and the NCAA tournament appearance that goes with it in 1996.

Unfortunately, he just missed being teammates with pro hockey player Fernando Pisani, although he did share the blueline with notables Hal Gill and Chris Therien.

The program of Lou Lamoriello and Brian Burke hasn't been in such great shape since Balboni left, so maybe there's something to that. But while you may not have known that the Friars have had a rough decade and a half, we're all pretty familiar with what Balboni's been up to in that time - two separate stints as an Icers assistant, followed by taking over the top job in 2006 after Joe Battista worked his way into positions at the university that would allow him to raise obscene amounts of money more effectively (in hindsight, anyone doubt this?).

You probably don't need me to re-hash the last four and a half seasons for you, but for the sake of completeness, the Icers have compiled a 138-27-8 record under Balboni and have remained one of the ACHA's flagship programs. What's changed: Penn State now makes earlier exits from the ACHA championship tournament than was once thought possible. In Balboni's first year, the Icers made the championship game, falling to Oakland. It was the team's 10th straight title appearance. However, PSU hasn't been back since, the closest run ending in a shutout semifinal loss to Illinois in 2009. But contrast that with this:

2001-2006, under Battista: 146-28-7 (0.826)
2006-present, under Balboni: 138-27-8 (0.821)

So where do you place the weight when evaluating the coach that could be described as "intimidating" or "scary" by his players? With a series of one-game seasons in March against an ACHA that is light years ahead of where it was in the past or with the much larger sample of season records against a similarly-improved ACHA? Have the Icers grown with the competition, or have they stagnated and been caught by it? Or is there a glass ceiling on the growth potential given the limitations of non-varsity programs? Is he riding Battista's coattails, or did he forge his own way, resulting in a similar record against tougher schedules? How do you factor in Balboni's work with camps, a crucial element to recruiting?

If the answers seem ambiguous, it's because answers to these types of questions usually are. If they weren't, we could just let EA Sports assign everyone an overall rating and be done with it. Ultimately, your opinion of Balboni as a candidate probably has a lot to do with how you answer those questions. And hey, I can't do that for you.

Regardless of where things end up, Balboni is to be commended for his record and for having achieved it the Penn State way. He's a true asset to our hockey program, one that I hope doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

A Second Hockey Team?

The internet (well, the parts I look at, anyway) exploded over the weekend with wild speculation (and yeah, that's pretty much what it is at this point) that Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano is looking to sell, and that one name in the mix of potential buyers is none other than Terry Pegula, whose days of spending large amounts of money on hockey may not be over. Here's a quick roundup of the commentary, starting with the Boston Globe:

Getting vibes once again that Sabres owner Tom Golisano is poking around for a prospective buyer for his Lake Erie stick carriers. Over the summer, Golisano had the locals all aflutter when he noted on local talk radio, “Nothing is written in concrete, but at this point I would say I’m probably going to be the owner of the Buffalo Sabres in five years, maybe 10 years.’’ The name that comes up in all NHL club sales talk is RIMM guru/hockey lover Jim Balsillie, who made himself no friends among NHL owners when he tried to pirate the Phoenix Coyotes away to Toronto’s outer suburbs. But the key name to keep in mind if this heats up: Terry Pegula. He’s the guy who forked over the $88 million gift for Penn State to build a rink and fund scholarships for Division 1 hockey. Pegula’s wife, Kim, is from suburban Buffalo, a good sign for the locals. No one ever wants to leave the Buff.

Pro Hockey Talk had this comment on the Boston Globe story:

Seeing Terry Pegula’s name getting dropped in this is interesting. Pegula dropped a lot of money to essentially found Penn State University’s Division I varsity hockey program. Just tossing around $80 million to build two on-campus hockey rinks including a main building meant to watch college hockey in, and ensure that a major university can start their own program is no small amount of change. The Pegulas are big hockey fans and they’ve worked to get the Penn State deal done for almost five years. It’d be fascinating to see them potentially get involved in the Sabres and we’re sure that Paul Kelly of College Hockey Inc. would love to have such a big supporter of U.S. college hockey end up on the Board of Governors.

It seems like all of the reaction out there is to the Globe piece, but I actually saw it first in the Edmonton Journal:

If Sabres’ owner Tom Golisano decides to sell and he’s made noises of that, Jim Balsillie and his kazillions from BlackBerry might be in the picture but there’s also a fellow named Terry Pegula who just gave $88 million to Penn State to build a rink for NCAA Division 1 play and fund scholarships there. His wife Kim is from suburban Buffalo. Pegula’s made his money in natural gas business.

Balsillie's name always comes up when a team is for sale, but if the Penguins, Predators and Coyotes situations gave any indication, the NHL will use any and all measures available to stop Balsillie from buying the Sabres just so he can move them 70 miles up the road to Hamilton, or maybe 30 miles past that to the Greater Toronto Area. Which leaves Pegula as the only viable candidate being name-dropped for the sale that has yet to be made public, if it even happens.

I'm hopeful it plays out, if only because it would give this nomadic fan who has yet to pick a long-lasting new favorite NHL team since the demise of the Whalers a solid reason to jump on Buffalo.

UPDATE 1, 9:14 a.m. 11/30: The Buffalo News finally jumped on this train. I wouldn't go through the trouble of editing my post just to copy/paste a similar-sounding comment - but the News makes it sound like things are heating up:

Sources confirmed Monday that his interest picked up in recent weeks, although an agreement did not appear imminent. Any sale could take several months, assuming he doesn't lose interest or have negotiations fall apart.

UPDATE 2, 10:07 a.m. 11/30: Pegula has signed a letter of intent to buy the Sabres for $150 million, according to Ken Campbell of The Hockey News.