The Penn State Icers dug themselves into a deeper hole on Friday night, dropping a 4-2 decision to the #4 Delaware Blue Hens.
The Icers stumbled out of the gate and were thoroughly outplayed by the Blue Hens in the opening 20 minutes. Despite the decided edge held by Delaware and despite apparently being outshot by a 12-1 margin, the Icers escaped the period giving up just one goal by Chris Volonnino.
I say apparently because the game crew at the Rust Arena did not announce the shots at the end of each period. The numbers were provided after the game by a Penn State parent who had to ask the students for the shots on goal.
Paul Daley drew the Icers even mid-way through the second period, but just 20 seconds later the Blue Hens went back on top when Mark Zeszut beat Mathew Madrazo. Apologies to Zeszut - due to a roster mixup I had him identified as Kyle Drury.
Peter Crampton gave the Hens a 3-1 lead just 2:18 into the third, when he banked a shot into the Icers net off the leg of Dan Petrick. It stayed that way until George Saad scored on the power play to get the Icers to within one, but that was as close as they could get.
Delaware goalie S. J. Broadt shut the door and impressive freshman Christian Tasker finished the scoring at 16:36 of the third. The Icers tried to rally, but they ran out of time, dropping their 8th game of the season.
Unofficially, the Icers were outshot 40-27, went 1 for 5 on the power play and 5 for 5 on the penalty kill.
The game was rather tame, considering all of the electronic chirping going back and forth all week. The Icers showed some flashes of strong play, but the slow start in the first put them behind the 8-ball and they weren't able to recover.
They'll need a strong effort in this evening's wrap-up of the series. As I said during the broadcast, I expect they'll need at least two wins against Delaware and Rhode Island (next weekend) if they hope to stay around the 11th spot in the next rankings.
Anything less, and their tournament hopes could be dashed.
The Icers stumbled out of the gate and were thoroughly outplayed by the Blue Hens in the opening 20 minutes. Despite the decided edge held by Delaware and despite apparently being outshot by a 12-1 margin, the Icers escaped the period giving up just one goal by Chris Volonnino.
I say apparently because the game crew at the Rust Arena did not announce the shots at the end of each period. The numbers were provided after the game by a Penn State parent who had to ask the students for the shots on goal.
Paul Daley drew the Icers even mid-way through the second period, but just 20 seconds later the Blue Hens went back on top when Mark Zeszut beat Mathew Madrazo. Apologies to Zeszut - due to a roster mixup I had him identified as Kyle Drury.
Peter Crampton gave the Hens a 3-1 lead just 2:18 into the third, when he banked a shot into the Icers net off the leg of Dan Petrick. It stayed that way until George Saad scored on the power play to get the Icers to within one, but that was as close as they could get.
Delaware goalie S. J. Broadt shut the door and impressive freshman Christian Tasker finished the scoring at 16:36 of the third. The Icers tried to rally, but they ran out of time, dropping their 8th game of the season.
Unofficially, the Icers were outshot 40-27, went 1 for 5 on the power play and 5 for 5 on the penalty kill.
The game was rather tame, considering all of the electronic chirping going back and forth all week. The Icers showed some flashes of strong play, but the slow start in the first put them behind the 8-ball and they weren't able to recover.
They'll need a strong effort in this evening's wrap-up of the series. As I said during the broadcast, I expect they'll need at least two wins against Delaware and Rhode Island (next weekend) if they hope to stay around the 11th spot in the next rankings.
Anything less, and their tournament hopes could be dashed.
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