Commit Cycle: December 20 (Women)

Jeanette Bateman

Forward
Colorado Select 19U
5'6", 125 pounds
Greeley, CO
Class of 2012
DOB 5/1/1994


Colorado has completed their pre-holidays schedule and is next in action for the JWHL weekend January 13-15.

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Jill Holdcroft

Forward
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite 19U
5'1", 121 pounds
Pennsylvania Furnace, PA
Class of 2012
DOB 1/29/1994

Darby Kern

Forward
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite 19U
5'11", 145 pounds
Venetia, PA
Class of 2012
DOB 8/28/1994

Stephanie Walkom

Defender
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite 19U
5'7", 130 pounds
Moon Township, PA
Class of 2012
DOB 6/21/1994


The Pens went unbeaten at the Tier 1 Elite Showcase Weekend in Madison, WI, beating Team Illinois 7-0 and the Madison Capitols 4-1 and tying the Minnesota Thoroughbreds 2-2 and the New Jersey Rockets 2-2...Holdcroft scored once and added two assists on the weekend, while Kern also had a goal and Walkom added an assist...the team is now 25-19-5 overall on the season...while body checking is a no-no in women's hockey, one gets the sense that Walkom has some solid defensive genetics working for her, based on father Stephen's recent blasting of Kimmo Timonen.

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Emily Laurenzi

Forward
National Sports Academy (Prep)
5'5", 125 pounds
Townsend, DE
Class of 2012
DOB 1993


For the fourth straight year, NSA finished undefeated at the Deerfield Holiday Invitational... the scores were 6-0 over Kingswood-Oxford and a 3-3 tie against Nichols on Friday and 10-1 over Rothesay-Netherwood and 4-2 over Stanstead College on Saturday... Laurenzi was a big part of the success, scoring twice and adding a pair of assists... the Mountaineers hit the holidays at 15-12-8 in all games... in case you don't remember that time I mentioned that Laurenzi won a community service award, check out the video below on NSA's recycling program (and make specific note of the credits).

Related stories:
National Sports Academy recycling video 2011 (YouTube)



NSA celebrates in the aftermath of the Deerfield Invite

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Celine Whitlinger

Goalie
Gilmour Academy (Prep)
5'10"
Garden Grove, CA
Class of 2012
DOB 5/20/1994

Micayla Catanzariti

Forward
Gilmour Academy (Prep)
5'6"
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
Class of 2012
DOB 5/22/1994

Katie Zinn

Forward
Gilmour Academy (Prep)
5'7"
Coquitlam, BC
Class of 2012
DOB 1993


Gilmour was at Cushing Academy for the Edward G. Watkins Girls Invitational Hockey Tournament over the weekend and very nearly came away with the title...the Lancers swept through the tournament's Fisher Division consisting of New Hampton School (3-0), Northwood School (2-1) and Cushing Academy (1-0) but fell to Iorio Division winner Winchendon School 2-1 in overtime in the final.

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Hannah Hoenshell

Forward
Alliance Bulldogs 19U
5'3", 119 pounds
Plano, TX
Class of 2012
DOB 12/30/1993


The Bulldogs' next games begin on the 26th, when they travel north to participate in the Connecticut Polar Bear Tournament.

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Paige Jahnke

Defender
Roseville (MN) High School
Height/weight unknown
Oakdale, MN
Class of 2012
DOB unknown


Date  Opponent                Score  G   A Pts PIM
--------------------------------------------------------------
12/13 at Edina                T 2-2  0   0   0   0 [box score]
12/15 vs. Woodbury            W 8-1  0   0   0   0 [box score]
12/17 at Forest Lake          W 5-1  0   0   0   2 [box score]

Roseville received their first record blemish via a tie with Edina but won two after that to climb to 8-0-1.

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Taylor McGee

Defender
Connecticut Polar Bears 19U / Taft School (Prep)
Height/weight unknown
Pearl River, NY
Class of 2012
DOB 2/8/1994


Taft School hosted the Patsy K. Odden Invitational on the 15th and 16th but didn't place after losing to eventual champion Tabor 3-1 and Loomis 2-1...the Rhinos recovered to beat Kent 5-1 on the tournament's second day, but it wasn't enough for a spot in the first or third place games...Taft is 2-4-0 at the break.

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Jordin Pardoski

Defender
Detroit Honeybaked 19U
5'5", 145 pounds
Rochester Hills, MI
Class of 2012
DOB 1/4/1994

Birdie Shaw

Forward
Detroit Honeybaked 19U
5'2", 124 pounds
Troy, MI
Class of 2012
DOB 9/14/1992


Honeybaked's next scheduled games are January 14-16 for the Tier 1 Showcase.

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Sarah Wilkie

Defender
Mass. Spitfires 19U / Williston Northampton School (Prep)
Height/weight unknown
Ashby, MA
Class of 2012
DOB 2/26/1993


The Spitfires are next in action at the Connecticut Polar Bear Tournament, which begins on the 26th...in the meantime, Williston Northampton scrimmaged the Polar Bears last Wednesday and then went 1-1-2 at the Harrington Invitational Tournament, with shootout wins following both ties...the loss was 5-2 in the opener against Buckingham, Browne & Nichols...the following day brought a 2-1 win over Milton and a 2-2 draw with Westminster (as mentioned, with a shootout win)...in the third-place game, Williston defeated Lawrence in a shootout after a 1-1 tie to take the final podium spot and finish 2-3-2 overall going into the holidays...Wilkie talked about her decision to choose PSU in an official release from the school:

"I chose Penn State because I loved the campus and the atmosphere there. People love being a part of Penn State and are very enthusiastic about Athletics. I was also attracted to it because they are building a new program, which will be a fun experience for me to be on the first-ever varsity team. My mother and several of my cousins are Penn State alumni, so we're a big family of Penn State fans."

Related stories:
Sarah Wilkie to Play Ice Hockey at Penn State University (williston.com)

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Shannon Yoxheimer

Forward
North American Hockey Academy - White
5'7", 147 pounds
Jackson, MI
Class of 2012
DOB 12/23/1993


Date  Opponent                Score  G   A Pts PIM
--------------------------------------------------------------
12/16 vs. Edouard-Montpetit   W 2-0  0   0   0   4 [box score]
12/17 vs. Edouard-Montpetit   W 8-2  1   1   2   0 [box score]
12/17 vs. Limoilou            T 2-2  0   0   0   0 [box score]
12/18 vs. Limoilou            L 0-2  0   0   0   0 [box score]

NAHA closed out its pre-holidays schedule by hosting a pair of Quebec prep schools...including all games, the team's record is 32-11-5.

Three Stars: December 12-18

3. NCAA suspends $2000 miscellaneous expense stipend
(USCHO)

Maybe the most underrated story in college sports this year takes another turn.

The new rule allowing Division I institutions to give select student-athletes an additional $2,000 miscellaneous expense allowance has been suspended until the Board of Directors convenes in January, according to the official NCAA website.

"Suspended?" Whatever do you mean?

As of Dec. 15, enough schools (125) have called for an override of the legislation to prompt the automatic suspension under NCAA bylaws...the Board will meet in Indianapolis on Jan. 14 and will have several options. It can do nothing, which keeps the suspension in place until an override vote occurs, it can reconsider its adoption and eliminate the rule, or it can alter the proposal in some way to try to address the concerns of those asking for the override.

This shouldn't affect the payments to those who signed with PSU (and other schools) in November while the rule was in force, but obviously, the spending money of those who sign during the regular period in April and beyond could be affected if quick action isn't taken. Or they could just use all the money they're not paying to go to school.

2. Taking It Outside
(B1G Ice Hockey)

I'm fighting every anti-Iowa State instinct in me when I say this, but...here's a blog, written by a Cyclone (one who has hosted the Al Murdoch show, no less), that's quite well done. This post is their preview of Penn State-Neumann, as well as Michigan-OSU, the other upcoming outdoor game involving future Big Ten teams.

1. Christmas Comes Early for Penn State Hockey
(YouTube)

In a little bit of synergy between people covering Penn State hockey, here's an interview about the Pegula Ice Arena with Joe Battista. Conducted on the site, in a nice touch.

Best of the Rest


#sick

@Cmen12
(Twitter)

Your Lady Icers twitpic of the week comes to us once again from Cara Mendelson and shows off the filthy team-issue pumped-up kicks. You know I'm going to be whistling that song the rest of the day now.

Metro Exposure – South Philly Style
(PSU Sports Blog by Lions Pride)

David Pressman's second (known) attempt at writing about PSU hockey didn't go much better than the first, in my opinion. Simply put, guy's a blowhard and seems to have little, if any, respect for the Icers legacy. But hey, it was a slow week.

Rumor: Jimmy John Liautaud could be looking at funding Illinois' jump from club to DI hockey
(illinoisloyalty.com)

Just so I'm not remiss, there's been a rumor floating around out there for a couple weeks that...well, the link pretty much says it. Just something to keep an eye on. Or not, because I'm pretty sure you'll find out if anything comes of it.

@RutgersHockey
(Twitter)

Speaking of program shifting, the Icers' old league apparently has a new member for next season. The corresponding Facebook post looks to have been deleted, however.

Delaware, Rhode Island, Stony Brook (which joined this year following PSU's departure), Rutgers, West Chester, Robert Morris. That's pretty sturdy - the four teams at nationals last year is unmatched by any current ACHA D1 conference, even the mighty CSCHL. Kind of a dumb factoid, considering that league doesn't exist this year, but whatever.

Puck Headlines: Giroux, Chara updates; how Kerry Fraser apologizes
(Puck Daddy)

TYT cracked the mother of all hockey blogs last week. And largely because of that, last Monday's post containing Pegula Ice Arena renderings has something like three times as many pageviews as anything else that's ever appeared on here. On one hand, yeah, it's kind of awesome. On the other, it makes me think everything else I put up is crap...

...then again, the first spike below is Puck Daddy, the third is when PSU's own Twitter celeb, Ben Jones tweeted a link, so maybe I'm assigning credit/blame for that in the wrong place.

Penn State vs. Neumann Tickets
(ComcastTix)

Yet another reminder to buy em up...they even got rid of the stupid need for a code to help you out.

Bo Knows Hockey

One of the difficulties Penn State faces in building an elite program is in recruiting. While Guy Gadowsky and company are trying to fill out an NCAA roster, most good programs with NCAA talent already in the fold are recruiting several years down the road. Every other Big Ten club, for example, has at least one player in their 2014 class already, with Michigan State having three. However, according to the website of the BCHL's Langley Rivermen, via Chris Heisenberg, PSU has joined the club as well, thanks to 16-year-old defenseman Bo Pellah becoming Penn State's first 2014 commit.

Bo Pellah

Defenseman
Langley Rivermen (BCHL)
5'11", 150 pounds
New Westminster, BC
DOB 5/25/1995

EliteProspects.com

Season   Team                   Lge    GP    G    A  Pts  PIM
-------------------------------------------------------------
2010-11  Vancouver NW Giants    BCMML  39    3   17   20   59
2011-12  Langley Rivermen       BCHL   32    0   15   15   31

Despite his slender build, the left-handed shot has had a fantastic rookie season in the BCHL playing against people sometimes four years his senior. The league's media voted him best 16-year-old in the Coastal Conference (with 88 percent of the vote) at the season's halfway point, and he's leading Rivermen defensemen in scoring.

Last year, Pellah wrapped up a great midget run with the Vancouver NW Giants (the same organization that produced 2012 signee Curtis Loik) in the Telus Cup, Canada's national midget championships. At the event Pellah registered three assists in seven games, although the Giants didn't place.

Count the WHL's Spokane Chiefs among those who knew about Pellah before that, as they selected him in the sixth round of the 2010 WHL Bantam Draft. Said Spokane Director of Player Personnel Chris Moulton at the time:

"Bo is a smooth skating, smart defenseman who keeps his game simple and will make a lot of plays."

He's also been described by observers as playing a "steady game" and "composed with the puck." Sounds very Juha-esque. Such knowledge may have come from the 2010 Western Canada Bantam Championships, where Pellah helped his Burnaby Winter Club Bruins squad to a third-place finish with a goal and three assists in five games.

Incidentally, Edmonton Oilers standout rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also played for both the BWC and the NW Giants. Here's hoping Pellah elects to skip the whole "play in the WHL" part.

Fall Semester Review: Ice Lions

Generally speaking, when one of your season highlights is a loss, you're probably not having a great season.

For new coach Josh Hand and the Ice Lions though, it was a loss that unofficially announced their contention for the ACHA Division 2 national championship. On October 8th Lindenwood, the dominant program in Division 1 over the last several seasons, stepped in to fill a vacancy in the Division 2 showcase. This was no stripped-down exhibition-version LU squad (Colin Long and Grant Gorczyza both played, to name two big guns), but the Ice Lions made them wish they kept their scheduled off day by carrying a 5-3 lead into the third period. Some questionable officiating then contributed to four unanswered Lindenwood goals, but still, point made. A letdown defeat to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville followed the next day, but other than those two games, PSU has not lost this year.

PSU's 8-0-0 mark in MACHA games (of 17-2-0 overall) looks even more impressive when you consider that the Ice Lions have not allowed more than two goals against any team in the league and have only scored fewer than four once. That "once" deserves some context though: it was a season-defining 3-1 win against Maryland-Baltimore County.

It would be great enough to beat one of the southeast region's powers, one that has been to the national tournament each of the last two years. But throw in the fact that UMBC is No. 2 in the southeast region with PSU at No. 3 - the top two teams in each region automatically go to nationals, third through tenth play in a regional tournament for two more bids - and the fact that the Retrievers ended the Ice Lions' season last year in that regional tournament, and the win becomes large almost beyond words.

It was former Boston Bulldogs star Creek Lewis who opened the scoring against UMBC with a shorthanded goal, then added an assist to captain Jim Recupero seven minutes later to give PSU what would prove to be an adequate amount of scoring. Leading scorer Lewis and Recupero along with former Icer Joe Zitarelli have driven the offense all season, although the effort has been large on balance with 21 different goal scorers on the team's 123 total, including six with nine or more. Recupero was at the center of probably the most dramatic moment of the season to date - an overtime winner in the D2 showcase against DePaul on October 7.

That's not to write off a defense that has only given up more than two goals twice all season (in the two losses). What could have been considered a thin unit coming in has been ably anchored by Mac Winchester (another name familiar to Icers fans), Tyler Starn, T.J. Laessig, Chris Dinsmore and Steve Aloia. Tom Badali sports a goals against average just north of one, and he's spelled by Ryan Demuth.

Looking ahead, PSU only has eight regular season games left. A home game against Pittsburgh on January 7 opens the spring semester (a return trip to the Steel City takes place on February 3). The following weekend brings a trip to Virginia to play MACHA South schools Virginia Tech and Liberty. Home games against Delaware (January 21), Rowan (January 28), Monmouth (February 4) and Saint Joseph's (February 11) round out the schedule. Of note: PSU has already played each team except Pitt and Liberty, and only November's 4-1 and 3-1 wins over the Hokies were closer than a four-goal margin.

Following that are the MACHA playoffs (February 17-19) and the ACHA southeast regional tournament (February 24-26), although PSU would prefer to not have to participate in the latter event. The national championship tournament will be hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, FL from March 16-20.

Penn State-Neumann: How Big?

When news of Penn State playing an outdoor game first leaked in July, I got in an argument with a friend over the potential attendance. My argument, in a nutshell, was "Don't be blinded by what you see from the games that get the press. Tons of these types of smaller games are played ancillary to bigger ones, and most of them don't draw very well at all. If there are 5,000 people in Philly for Penn State-Neumann, that would be fantastic. We're still a club team, and they're Division III."

The friend remained adamant that the game could fill over half of Citizens Bank Park's 43,647 seats. I thought (and still think) that he was crazy. But he did drop an interesting idea on me during the conversation that I couldn't really counter: they got 33,861 to go to a Pittsburgh Pirates game when THON (PSU's world-famous Dance Marathon, for you outsiders) received a portion of ticket sales. Do the same for this one, and people will show up almost regardless of the product.

Unfortunately, we're probably too far down the road to realistically do that (or, given recent events, a similar idea involving RAINN) now. The game was made official and tickets went on sale last Thursday evening, 27 days before it's to be played. Even after Philadelphia was awarded the Winter Classic on September 26th, it took more than two months for everyone to be satisfied with their slices of the various schedule and money pies related to this tilt. I can only imagine what might happen if someone stepped in now with "hey, we should give a dollar from every ticket away!" In light of the $12.50 in handling and fees I paid on two $10.00 tickets, the explosion of Comcast-Spectacor president Peter Luukko's head may be a part of that.

To be fair, the THON tie-in might not be needed for a solid crowd. In the first few days since the announcement, I've been impressed by what I've heard from fans. Universally, they're thrilled about this game, and many who aren't regulars at every single Icers home game are planning to attend. That's a great start, and I'm confident that the final number will be much better than the disaster of 1,711 for Connecticut-Sacred Heart in Hartford in February or the 2,800 who attended DIII game Adrian-Concordia at Michigan Stadium last December. Really, the x-factor in terms of attendance will be how heavily the Penn State name and almost-DI status resonate with the general Philadelphia public versus "club team vs. DIII team" and "the Winter Classic is over, we've moved on to the next thing." There's just no reference point for that one.

I realize that I probably sounded rather harsh in my post relating the announcement. While everyone else was trotting out the perfunctory release, I was complaining that it took too long to finalize. You probably can't find a single negative word anywhere on the internet about this game that doesn't appear on this blog, and I really hope that people don't get the wrong idea when it comes to my opinion.

Quite simply, I'm pumped for this game and I'm thrilled for the players, coaches and fans who don't get this experience every year. This is new, uncharted and exciting territory for PSU (as opposed to Michigan and their nonchalance about playing outside). And it's going to be a great match as well, one that will test the limits of the Icers' abilities. My only disappointment is that finalizing things wasn't done quickly enough to allow a buildup appropriate of what should be a tremendous hockey game or to allow a more reasonable period to for some to plan travel around the holidays - and no, I don't believe the blame for any of that lies on the PSU side of things. Put it together with the Winter Classic announcement delay and there's a common thread.

There's still a chance to get this thing right, to make it stand out from the litany of games that pop up any time an outdoor rink shows up somewhere. Joe Battista, never one to pass on a good marketing opportunity, is trying to get the game on television. That would be fantastic. What would also be fantastic is seeing some push outside of the usual hockey-centric channels. I'd love, for example, to receive a Nittany Lion Club email talking up this game in between the weekly "don't hate us or punish the student-athletes for Jerry Sandusky" messages and the every-other-day renewal reminders. The idea behind THON involvement, obviously, was to get the event into the mainstream PSU awareness (while also raising money for a great cause). Even if that ship has sailed, a little bit of support from Jeff Nelson's sports information department and a few bucks spent advertising in Philadelphia would go a long way in my opinion.

If Penn State is going to be a force in NCAA Division I hockey, statewide support - like most successful programs enjoy - is going to be vital. What better way to launch that effort than with a bang in Pennsylvania's largest city? That bang is still possible, it's just going to take more gunpowder in a shorter time frame.