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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Icers Take Round One

The 'Executive Producer' hit the nail on the head last night when she said:

I feel like I just watched three different hockey games."

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Icers and the Ohio Bobcats treated the packed house at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion to another thrilling battle in their long rivalry, with Penn State coming out on the upside of a 3-1 final score.

The Icers dominated play in the first period, getting goals from Nick Seravalli and Ryan Paradis (on the power play).

The second period belonged to OU. Zack Barbis silenced the Icers faithful when he beat Ted Hume just 16 seconds into the period.

The Icers got off their game and ran into penalty trouble, exactly what the coaches warned them against doing in the pregame meeting.

Fortunately, the penalty killing was outstanding. The Icers were a perfect 6-for-6 on the night, including killing a lengthy two-man OU advantage during the middle frame.

It was 'Kitty-bar-the-door' in the third as the coaches changed the game plan, going into dump and chase mode. The move worked, forcing the Bobcats to go 200 feet almost every time they had the puck.

The Icers finally got some breathing room at 16:44, when George Saad converted a pass from Michael Longo, beating Paul Marshall for the insurance marker.

Longo, the true freshman, centered the fourth line in place of the injured Chris Pronchik and had a strong game that earned him 2nd star honors.

Nick Servalli was the 3rd star, while big Ted Hume was the game's 1st star, stopping 33 shots for his 16th win of the season. The victory was even sweeter for Ted, because his mother was on hand to see him play for the first time this season.

Ted's performance came despite a bizarre start to the 3rd period. As play got underway, I took a quick glance toward the Icers' net and saw a goalie wearing a blue mask.

At first glance, I thought that John Jay was in net, but then realized that unless J-J had suddenly grown about 6 inches between periods, Ted was wearing John's mask.

As Ted explained in the post-game interview, a couple of screws had departed from his mask between periods -- insert joke about all goalies having a screw loose -- and he had to borrow John's mask.

Loose screws or not, all goalies are very particular about their equipment, especially their masks. Ted looked like he was having a tough time spotting the puck, which he later confirmed.

Teddy gave full credit to equipment manager Graham Pepperman for making some lightning-fast repairs. Just another example of the team effort that makes the Icers the premiere team in the ACHA.

With the Icers beating OU and #3 Illinois falling in overtime to Robert Morris College, a sweep of the Bobcats could should move the Icers into the top 2 or 3 in next week's coaches poll.

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