Tournament Time

The Icers are enjoying some much-deserved time off prior to Thanksgiving, but lets hope they don't overdo it with the turkey dinner. They'll need to be ready to go this weekend as they take part in the PAL Stovepipe Invitational Tournament in Manchester, N.H.

The Icers are now 14-1-1 on the season, riding a 10-game winning streak after sweeping two from Navy last weekend.

The tournament will be another chance for Penn State to prove they can play with NCAA Div. II and Div. III teams. The Icers open on Saturday at 4:30pm against the host D-II University of Southern New Hampshire.

The Penmen are 2-3-2 on the season following a 3-2 loss to the Suffolk Rams on Tuesday.

Div. II Stonehill College and NCAA Div. III U-Mass Boston play in the early game at 1:30pm. The consolation game on Sunday will go at 1:30, with the championship game to follow at 4:30.

Stonehill is struggling. An 8-6 loss to Nichols College on Tuesday was the Skyhawks' fourth straight, dropping them to 2-5-1. UM-B thumped Framingham 8-3 on Tuesday to improve to 2-1 on the year.

While doing my prep work on Sunday, I stumbled upon a familiar name on the UMass-Boston roster.

Greg Schwind was a member of the Icers, but only briefly. He arrived in Happy Valley in 2004 and stepped right in to Joe Battista's lineup.

On October 22, 2004 Greg notched a hat trick, including 2 goals in 19 seconds, in a 13-1 thumping of Drexel at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

Two weeks later Greg's season came to an end when he suffered a broken leg in a penalty-filled game at Rhode Island.

Road trips to Rhody are usually brutal, but that one was the worst. Personally, it started as we were loading up the bus when Barb called to tell me from Harrisburg to tell me that she'd been hit by a car while crossing an intersection.

Fortunately, she wasn't seriously hurt and she told me to get on the bus. Hey, she's a hockey player -- or at least she's married to one.

The team lost 4-2 to the Rams on Friday night, then skated to a scoreless tie on Saturday despite outshooting URI 38-17.

Schwind wasn't the only Icer to suffer an injury in the Saturday game. Brett Wilson suffered a cut that needed some serious stitch work. After a long wait at a local hospital while the two wounded warriors were treated we finally hit the road in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The situation went from bad to worse when the bus driver made a wrong turn somewhere in Connecticut. After what seemed like hours of traveling down two lane roads we rolled past the sign welcoming us to Storrs, which was definitely NOT on the way home.

At one point, JoeBa and I - sitting across from each other at the front of the bus - looked at each other as if to say "Where the heck are we?"

A little later I was in the aisle of the bus telling the guys that were awake that it seemed like we'd been down every road in New England, at which point Teague Willits-Kelly chirped "Yeah -- every road but the right one!"

Needless to say, we got home a little later than expected. Needless to say, I hope the trip this weekend is more successful - and less eventful!