McAdam Earns WJAC Spot

Goaltender Eamon McAdam, who is scheduled to join the Nittany Lions next season, has been selected to represent Team USA at the World Junior A Challenge, which will take place from November 5th-11th in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The WJAC is an annual tournament featuring most of the best Junior A players from five different countries (there are six teams in the tournament, as Canada is split into eastern and western sides) - this year, Switzerland, Russia and the Czech Republic will join the U.S., Canada East and Canada West in the tournament.

The American team, composed entirely of USHL players with the exception of EJHL forward Ryan Fitzgerald, will be pretty familiar to McAdam, as five of his Waterloo Black Hawks teammates also got the nod. They include defenseman Ian McCoshen and forwards Taylor Cammarata (committed to Minnesota for next season), Vince Hinostroza (Notre Dame), Justin Kloos (Minnesota) and Zach Stepan (Ohio State). Michael Bitzer of the Fargo Force, a Bemidji State commit, is the other goaltender on the team, and it will be interesting to see how head coach Brett Larson and his staff divides up playing time between the two.

Black Hawks coach P.K. O'Handley believes that playing in the tournament is a huge opportunity for McAdam and his teammates.

“A player can learn from an event like this, skating with top players from other teams and being coached by someone with a different voice. This is also a heavily scouted event and an opportunity for our guys to impress some influential people.”

For McAdam, this is just the latest of several prestigious honors in recent months. On September 29th, he played in the first annual USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game, a showcase for 2013 NHL Entry Draft hopefuls. He was named to NHL Central Scouting's draft watch list earlier last month, and won a silver medal while being named the tournament's top goaltender at the Junior Club World Cup in August. He's also off to a great start in the USHL this season, with a 3-0-0 record, a 1.33 goals against average, a .961 save percentage, and his first shutout in the league on Friday against Sioux Falls.

Team USA will play an exhibition game vs. Canada West on November 3rd before beginning the tournament in Pool B with Canada East and Switzerland. Following a round robin, each team will move on to the championship round, with the two pool winners receiving a bye to the semifinals and the remaining teams playing each other for the other two semifinal spots.

Here's how the U.S.' schedule stacks up:

Monday, November 5th: vs. Canada East, 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, November 6th: vs. Switzerland, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 8th: Quarterfinals, 3:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.
Friday, November 9th: Semifinals, 3:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 10th: Fifth Place/Bronze Medal, 1:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 11th: Gold Medal, 6:00 p.m.

All games will be streamed on FastHockey.com.

Despite being new to NCAA Division I, Penn State already has a decent amount of history with the WJAC. Last year, PSU freshmen Curtis Loik and Luke Juha were integral parts of Team Canada West's gold medal win. In 2010, Reed Linaker scored two goals in five games for Canada West but finished a disappointing fourth, while Juha won silver with Canada East.

Team USA won bronze last year after winning three consecutive goal medals from 2008 through 2010.

Three Stars: October 15-21

Penn State's mastadonic win over RIT Saturday night boosted the Nittany Lions in the meaningless early-season PWR. Photo: Omar Phillips/USCHO

3. Another Great Night in Hockey Valley
(statecollege.com)

Do I put Joe Battista's column in the top three every single week? Sure seems like it. But why wouldn't I?

2. Shaw brings multiple aspects to women's hockey squad
(The Daily Collegian)

I've been very impressed with the work of both the men's and women's writers at the Collegian so far this season, including this feature on freshman women's forward Birdie Shaw.

So how does someone get to be known as "Birdie?"

Shaw was born Samantha Shaw but never went by that name. Shaw said her brother struggled to pronounce her name and it came out something like “Manta-bird.” Her father picked it up and kept referring to her as Birdie since she was three months old.

Is it just me or do a ridiculous number of sports nicknames start with a sibling mispronunciation?

1. Men’s Division I PairWise Rankings
(USCHO)

Eventually, when it's needed (or when I'm less lazy about it), I'm going to write a post explaining the PairWise Rankings (often called PWR) for Penn Staters who are either new to college hockey or only familiar with the ACHA's coaches poll as a method for national championship tournament selection.

The essential knowledge, for now, is that PWR is an objective means used to award NCAA Tournament at-large bids. It takes every team in the country with an RPI over .500 (called Teams Under Consideration or TUC in PWR parlance) and compares them to each other in four different categories: RPI, record against other TUCs, record against common opponents and head-to-head record. The number of comparisons won by each team are then counted up, and the TUCs are then ranked in that order. Here's how that process stood after the games of this past weekend:

Luckily, DIII games don't count towards PWR.

Penn State won 19 comparisons of the 25 possible (there are 26 total TUCs, I'm not showing all of them) to rank seventh in the country. So the Nittany Lions would be in the 16-team NCAA Tournament if the teams were picked right now.

As with many statistically-based endeavors, the PairWise relies on a sufficient volume of data, which simply doesn't exist at this point of the season. Basically, don't take it too seriously - and taking it at all seriously is "too" seriously - it's just for fun right now. But it is fun, so first star to that.

Best of the Rest

Three Rivers Classic
(consolenergycenter.com)

Well, the Three Rivers Classic has a logo. It's black and gold yellow and incorporates a bridge. Didn't see that coming.

Diaper Line Reunites In Dallas
(usahockey.com)

PSU hockey dad Ed Olczyk was formally inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame last Monday, as you probably know by now. He was joined at the ceremony by Dave Jensen, his linemate on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team and yep, another PSU hockey dad. The third member of the line was a guy named Pat LaFontaine.

Nittany Lion goalie Matt Skoff talks about historic first game for Penn State
(Stack the Pads)

A quick Q-and-A with Matt Skoff regarding his experience starting the first game of the NCAA era.

New chapter for Tiger hockey begins with construction of Gene Polisseni Center
(rit.edu)

I've mentioned it a few times already, but one more (with renderings) won't hurt: RIT officially broke ground on their new arena on Friday afternoon, the day before playing (and losing to!) Penn State in their homecoming game. The Polisseni Center will open for the 2014-2015 season, cost $35 million and hold 4,150 fans.

UNO to seek $10 million from city, 'others' toward cost of arena
(Omaha World-Herald)

Meanwhile, UNO looks like they want in on the arena party as well, although they're still way back in the "get the money straightened out" phase of the process.

NCAA Reduces Nic Kerdiles' One-Year Suspension to 30% of Season
(Bucky's 5th Quarter)

I stopped caring about this story at some point last week, but just to close the book on it (since it received an entry in each of the last couple Three Stars posts), Nic Kerdiles' season-long suspension handed down by the NCAA was reduced to 10 games on appeal. He's most likely staying at Wisconsin, as opposed to jumping to the WHL. Oh, and the issue may not have been the blurry photos of Kerdiles holding Sheetz coffee BioSteel tweeted by agent Ian Pulver, it might have been Pulver's paying for Kerdiles' hotel room at the NHL Entry Draft.

Could Nebraska Start a B1G Hockey Team?
(Corn Nation)

Nebraska's SBNation site generated a lot of buzz last week with this roundtable discussion on the possibility of the Huskers starting a DI hockey program which would, of course, play in the Big Ten. Spoiler alert: if you're looking for definitive answers, you're in the wrong place. If you're looking for as thorough of an exploration as you'll ever see on the issue, then click through.

In my opinion, Nebraska will get NCAA hockey eventually, but among Big Tenners, I think Ohio State, Indiana and Illinois are ahead of the Huskers in line.

UPDATE: I'm told Ohio State actually has a DI team already. Sorry for the confusion.



Dylan McLaughlin Goal vs Green Bay- October 13, 2012
(YouTube)

2015 Penn State commit Alec Marsh assisted on this ridiculous goal (he's the center who kicks it wide to McLaughlin), which made SportsCenter's Top 10. SportsCenter, not SportsCentre, so you know it's legit.

Frozen Four 2014: Philly one step closer to also hosting D3 college championship
(Broad Street Hockey)

We're very, very close to making what I'll call the Weekend of Face-Melting Awesomeness (DIII and DI national championships at the same site on the same weekend) official. Philadelphia, as a face-meltingly awesome city, is appropriately in line to host the inaugural edition.

Bucs Forward Commits to St. Lawrence University
(ushl.com)

Fortunately, PSU recruiting misses haven't come up too often to the best of my knowledge. However Michael Marnell, a forward with the USHL's Des Moines Buccaneers who has two points in six games so far this year (as a 17-year-old, it should be said), committed to St. Lawence last week after considering the Nittany Lions.



You Can Play - Miami University Hockey
(YouTube)

Know what would make my year? If Penn State joined numerous other hockey teams in producing a video in support of the You Can Play Project, which promotes acceptance of gay athletes in sports.

Thanks for reading
(Inside College Hockey)

Finally, Sunday night was a sad one for college hockey's internet presence, as Inside College Hockey - commonly called INCH - announced that it was shutting down full-time operations after ten years. The move, while unfortunate, was not particularly surprising. The site had struggled to produce fresh, consistent content for the last couple seasons, to the point where referring to the "Big Three" college hockey sites (as was generally done, with USCHO and College Hockey News being the other two) had become a little generous to INCH. Still, at its peak, the site was unsurpassed in quality, and its podcast was essential for college hockey aficionados.

The writers have set up a new site - inchwriters.com - which will continue to be updated with some content, although "posts (and podcasts) there may be sporadic, at least relative to what you’re accustomed to [on INCH]."

W: Penn State 6 at Sacred Heart 1

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // SacredHeartPioneers.com recap

Daily Collegian recap

Josh Brandwene's primary goal this season is to improve every day, and for the team to be playing its best hockey of the season at tournament time.

Things like "better" and "progress" aren't always easily measured. In fact, as recently as Friday's series opener, I argued that a 2-1 loss to Sacred Heart could be considered forward movement. No rationalization is needed, however, when the Nittany Lions move from that defeat into a 6-1 win the next day to snap a four-game losing streak and improve to 2-4-0 (0-2-0 CHA).

The offensive explosion from a team that had only scored seven times in the previous five games (and just twice after the season-opening 5-3 win over Vermont) was thanks mostly to a suddenly-lethal power play. After going 0-for-19 to start the season, it connected three times in the first 32 minutes of the game to give the Nittany Lions more than enough offense.

That's not to say that the game didn't have a few tense moments, though. Taylor Gross and Shannon Yoxheimer scored on PSU's first two attempts with the advantage to give the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. However, early in the second period, and on a SHU power play...

Casey Stathopoulos (Waltham, MA) knocked in loose puck on a scrum in front of the net, set up by Sara Hanna (Lino Lakes, MN) and Sarah Delaney (Whittman, MA) at 4:03.

Fortunately...

Penn State answered about eight minutes later, once again on the power play, as Jeannette Bateman knocked down a clearing attempt at the blue line and skated in for an unassisted goal at 12:00.

Jess Desorcie and Hannah Hoenshell tallied 26 seconds apart early in the final period to crack the game open, and Jordin Pardoski added a finishing touch with 1:39 remaining. Madison Smiddy and Jenna Welch each had a pair of assists in the contest.

Notably, Nicole Paniccia started in goal Saturday to break up what had been a straight rotation between her and Celine Whitlinger to this point. Paniccia didn't give Brandwene any reason to regret the move, stopping 25 of 26 Pioneer attempts.

While the flood of NCAA-era firsts has slowed significantly six games into the season, this game still provided a healthy share, including:

• As mentioned, the power play goals were the first three.
• Bateman, Hoenshell and Pardoski all scored their first collegiate goals.
• The game was Hoenshell's PSU and NCAA debut after she missed the early stages of the season with a sprained ankle.
• Desorcie's goal was her first at the NCAA DI level.
• Cara Mendelson also made her NCAA debut, and is now able to say that the Nittany Lions do quite well when she plays.
• Lindsay Reihl notched her first NCAA point, an assist on Desorcie's goal.

The Nittany Lions return to the Ice Pavilion Thursday and Friday for what should be a fascinating series with RIT, last year's NCAA Division III national champions who are also playing their first season at the DI level. The Tigers are 3-3-0 following a 3-0 win over Yale at Rochester's Blue Cross Arena Saturday afternoon, just before the PSU men upset RIT in the nightcap.

Penn State-RIT Photo Gallery

Photos taken at the Penn State-RIT game Saturday night, as well as during a side trip to RIT's campus just south of downtown Rochester. Click to enlarge, as always.

---

RIT will open a new arena - the 4,150-seat Gene Polisseni Center - for the 2014-2015 season. They held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday afternoon, although there was no trace left of it and no marker to identify the arena site. However, according to RIT's website, the site "is directly south of the Student Alumni Union and adjacent to the existing athletic turf field." The Student Alumni Union is the shorter building in the right half of the picture and the turf field is just on the other side of the parking lot from where I'm standing. So I think I have it pretty well identified here.

For now, RIT plays in Frank Ritter Ice Arena (other than the annual Brick City Homecoming games, of course), which holds 2,100 and opened in 1968.

The Ritter is a solid looking hockey barn, although undersized for aspirations of major-program status. That's an alumni game taking place on the ice as part of homecoming weekend.

In the opposite corner of the rink from where I took the above picture is this glass case - the trophy for RIT's 2010 Frozen Four appearance is in the middle, and it's flanked by national championship trophies from 1983 (Division II) and 1985 (Division III).

More than anything else it's the little things, like this Penn State banner in a row with the RIT women's program's other CHA rivals, that gives me those "wow, we're in the big time" moments.

Men's head coach Wayne Wilson has an office on the ground floor of Ritter.

Tom Golisano, the man who sold the Buffalo Sabres to Terry Pegula, is an RIT trustee and has the College of Computing and Information Sciences named for him. He has also donated significantly towards the Polisseni Center.

Orange and white balloons were on lamp posts all over what really was quite a nice campus.

Heading into downtown Rochester, here's Blue Cross Arena. Obviously.

I caught this view walking between my car and the arena. Rochester looks like a beautiful city - I wish I could have spent more time there.

RIT's student section is called the Corner Crew because...well, they tend to stand in corners, whether at Ritter, Blue Cross Arena, or somewhere else. Here they are with the school's hockey band. By the way, if you can't read the scoreboard, this was taken 31 minutes, 47 seconds before the game started. The arena was almost entirely full long before that, however.

An overview shot to close things out, taken during the third period.

10/20 Postgame: Gadowsky, Gardiner, Musico

Comments from head coach Guy Gadowsky, sophomore forward Max Gardiner and sophomore goaltender P.J. Musico following the Nittany Lions' 3-2 win over RIT Saturday night.