2003-2004
Season So Far
As
of January 18 2004
The Icers' first games took place at the ACHA Showcase October 10th
to 12th. The #1 Icers defeated Iowa State the first day by 8-5,
outshooting the Cyclones 57-26 with goals by Kevin Jaeger, Glenn Zuck, and
Justin Depretis. Sophomore goalie Scott Blackman made 21 saves
in goal during the game.
The Icers won the next day over Arizona State by 6-1 with 4 goals by Glenn
Zuck. Brendan Roache and Jack Weber each chipped in a goal, while outshooting
the Ice Devils 52-29 and holding them scoreless during their 12 power-play
opportunities. Icer freshman goalie Chris Matteo made several spectacular
saves turning aside 28 ASU shots.
Penn
State finished 3-0 at the ACHA showcase with the spectacular 17-3 win
over Mercyhurst College. After a one-point lead in the first period, the Icers
scored 4 goals in less than 3 minutes. During the game Justin DePretis scored
four goals and sophomore Brendan Martin recorded a hat trick. Luc Walker,
Bill Downey, and Jack Weber each chipped in with two goals while
V.J. Nardy and Pat Schaeffer scored their first goals as Icers. Icer junior
transfer Mike Carrano scored his second goal of the season to round out
the scoring. Kevin Jaeger and Glenn Zuck each had four assists
and senior goalie Brian Gratz made 19 saves.
The
Icers faced noted rival Ohio University. The Icers defeated the Bobcats in the
2003 ACHA National Championship and three other games last season. The
first game was on October 17th with a standing room only home crowd of 1200
people. Before the game the 2003 ACHA Championship Banner was lowered and
the Murdoch Cup was presented to University President Grant Spanier, Tim Curley,
and Herb Schmidt of the Athletic Department. The Ohio University Bobcats were
able to get the first goal, but the Icers took charge with two goals
by Kevin Jaeger. The Icers later got a PPG from Brendan Roache and the eventual
game winner goal from transfer junior defenseman Joe Magalque, his first as
an Icer. PSU's Luc Walker scored a PPG to put the Icers ahead 5-1
but OU struck quickly to make it 5-2. Kevin Jaeger fired the puck
in an empty net to complete his hat trick and put the Icers up 6-2. Less than
30 seconds later the Bobcats converted a PPG to get back into the game. Icer
Defenseman Chris Rome stole a puck at the OU blue line and beat the OU defenders
before firing a shot past the goalie to ice the game at 7-3. Chris Matteo
was in the Icers' net.
The
next day the Icers swept the weekend with a 5-3 victory over Ohio. The Icers
led first with a 2-0 lead on goals by Joe Maglaque and Kevin Jaeger. Glenn
Zuck scored a third goal. The Bobcats favor did not score until 8:36 into
the second period during an Icers penalty and eight minutes later they added
another goal to make it a 3-2 score. Kevin Jaeger made a great individual
effort and scored with 10 seconds remaining in the second period by getting
the puck over the glove of the Ohio goalie. Going into the 3rd period the
Icers led 4-2. In the third period Chris Rome scored a goal and
Ohio scored a goal as well to end the game 5-3.
Goalie Chris Matteo only allowed the three goals on 37 shots for
34 saves.
On
October 24th and 25th, the Icers faced one home game versus SUNY
Buffalo and one away game versus Drexel. On the home game versus SUNY Buffalo,
the Icers only allowed one visitor goal and won 10-1. During the first period
obtained four goals from Glenn Zuck, Brendan Martin, Brett Wilson, and Pat
Schaffer while Buffalo did get their only goal of the game. The Icers led
after one period 4-1. The Icers continued dominating the game by scoring three
times in the second period with goals from Vince Nardy, Bill Downey, and Justin
Depretis. An assist on the Downey goal earned Cole Burnham his
first point as an Icer. Going into the 3rd period with a 7-1 lead, the Icers
netted three more goals from Depretis, Brendan Roache, and Downey to end the
game with the 10-1 win. The Icers had an impressive 50 shots on goal during
the game and goalie Brian Gratz had 20 saves during the game. This also turned
out to be Icer's Assistant Coach Mike McNeill's last game with the Icers as
he moved on to an assistant coach's job at Robert Morris (PA). Coach Battista
presented him with a PSU jersey prior to the game.
The next day the Icers faced Drexel at an away game and came back with a close
3-1 win. However, the Icers did command this game by outshooting
Drexel 52-16. Scott Blackman was in goal for this away game.
Coming
into the first weekend of November, the Icers had one home game with Towson
followed by away games at Towson and West Chester. Towson was without six
key players out with injury or suspensions and the Icers dominated the home
game and won 14-1. Within the first half of the first period, the
Icers were already ahead with goals from Jack Weber, Glenn Zuck, and Bill
Downey. A goal by Kevin Jaeger and two more goals by Justin Depretis ended
the period with an Icers 6-0 lead. The second period added four more goals
with one from Vince Nardy, another goal from Kevin Jaeger, and two more goals
in a row from Depretis. On the third period, Nardy scored a goal only 10 seconds
into the period and followed that with another goal. Two more Icers goals
were scored by Depretis and Ron "Boo"
White (his first as an Icer). The Towson Tigers were able to get their only
goal in at 14:04 in the third period. Scott Blackman had 24 saves in
the game.
The
next day, Penn State defeated the 14th ranked Towson Tigers 8-3 to sweep the
home and home series. Penn State jumped out to a 6-0 lead before Towson narrowed
the lead to 6-3 early in the third period. Leading scorer Glenn Zuck scored
3 goals and 2 assists and senior Greg Windsor added 2 goals to help the Icers
to their ninth straight victory.
The
Icers completed a three-game sweep the next day with a convincing 8-0 win
over West Chester. Glenn Zuck once again lead the Icers with 3 goals and 2
assists, and Justin DePretis and Brendan Roache each scored twice. The final
Icer goal was scored by freshman V. J. Nardy. Brian Gratz earned his first
shutout as an Icer with 20 saves. During this weekend Glenn Zuck surpassed
the career 100-goal mark as an Icer.
The
next weekend, the Icers had home games versus Drexel. The first game on November
7th was an Icers 7-2 win. Drexel only had one goal each in the
first and third periods of the game. The Icers had one goal from
Kevin Jaeger in the first period. In the second period the Icers
increased their lead with goals from Kevin Jaeger, Bill Downey, Justin
Depretis, Mike Carrano, and Depretis again with 18 seconds left in the
second period. For the third period neither team scored during the first half
of the period, then there was a goal by Joe Maglaque and one more Drexel goal.
Goalie Scott Blackman made 30 saves.
The next day, the Icers again had an impressive win over Drexel by 8-1. The Icers led the game in the first period
with goals from Joe Maglaque and Justin Depretis. Drexel answered back with
their only goal and Icers' Kevin Jaeger then made a goal ending the period
3-1. Pat Schaffer, Eric Harbaugh, and Brendan Roache added three
more goals in the second period. The Icers then rounded out the
game in the third period with one goal each from Joe Maglaque and Brendan
Martin to get the 8-1 over the Drexel Dragons. In Icers goal was Chris Matteo
(15 saves) and Brian Gratz (4 saves). There was also a total of
73 penalty minutes from both teams for this game.
The
following weekend, the Icers rolled into Newark Delaware to face the Blue
Hens of University of Delaware and their new coach John O'Connor (a former
Icer). For the first time in the season, the Icers did not win and had a 7-1
loss versus Delware despite outshooting them 55-26, the Icers' first lost
of the season. In the first period the
Icers failed to convert on four power play chances and the Blue Hens made
two shorthanded goals. During the second period Glen Zuck scored one goal
but Delaware scored two goals as well. In the third period, the Blue Hens
scored three more times on the power play. It was reported this was the first
Blue Hens home victory over the Icers in the last twenty years.
The
next day, it was a different game with the Icers coming back with a 2-0 win
over Delaware. Kevin Jaeger and Jack Weber scored goals on power plays. Goalie
Scott Blackman had 30 saves during the game and earned his first career shutout
game as well. The Blue Hens did not get any scoring opportunities
during their power plays this game. It would seem that the Icers were coming
back with a one win and one loss at Delaware, but it turned out not to be. The
ACHA commissioner discovered that Delaware had an ineligible player who should
have sat out due to one remaining game suspension, but he was allowed
to play on their 7-1 win over the Icers. This game was then declared
a forfeit and the Icers regained their no-loss streak.
On
November 21st and 22nd, the Icers were home again versus rival University
of Michigan-Dearborn (UMD) and their new coach Josh Brandwere (former Delaware
coach and former Icer as well). On
the first game in front of a standing room only crowd, UMD was able to get
the lead with two goals. It was followed by one Icer goal in the
second period by Glenn Zuck. The Icers were then able to take the lead in
the third period with a goal each from Kevin Jaeger and Mike Carrano. UMD
answered back with one more goal, but Brendan Roache had one goal to end the
game 4-3. With an assist on the first
goal in the 3rd period, Zuck earned the 250th point of his Icers career. Curtiss
Patrick moved up to second on the all time penalty minute list. Goalie
Scott Blackman had 20 saves.
The
next day the Icers came back with a 5-2 win. Jack Weber had the
first goal of the game and UMD had one goal midway thru the first period. The
Icers added one goal each during the first two minutes of the second period
from Kevin Jaeger and Justin Depretis. There was an additional
UMD goal at 4:01 in the second period and no other goals the rest
of the period. Two more Icers goals in the third period came from
Curtiss Patrick and Jack Weber. Chris Mateo had 16 saves in goal.
On
the Thanksgiving weekend, the Icers traveled to the Big 10 Tournament at Indiana
University to play Indiana (D2) and Illinois The Icers first faced Indiana
on November 28th and had a strong 13-3 victory, advancing to semi-finals
avenging a 6-4 upset loss to IU in 2001. During the first period the Icers
jumped to a 5-0 lead with goals from Glenn Zuck, Pat Schaeffer, Luc Walker,
Kevin Jaeger, and Bill Downey. Indiana then had a power-play goal early in the second period but
the Icers followed that with two goals within 15 seconds of each other
for a 9-1 lead. Scoring in the second period were Curtiss Patrick, Jaeger,
Walker, and Zuck. The Icers allowed
an Indiana goal in the third period but then had Icer goals from Brendan Martin
and Pat Schaeffer. Indiana did get one more goal but the Icers finished the
game with goals by Brendan Roache and Mike Carrano. The Icers 13-3 victory
advanced them to face Illinois. Goalie Brian Gratz had 22 saves.
The next day the Icers faced Illinois and was able to come from behind twice
to win the game 3-2 and win the Big Ten Tournament Championship. Both teams
were even matched during the first two periods of the game. Illinois had the
first goal of the game but the Icers were able to tie with a goal by
Justin DePretis. Illinois followed with a rebound goal and left
the score 2-1 going into the third period. Playing on a two-on-two with Glenn
Zuck and Kevin Jaeger, a goal was scored by Zuck to tie the game at 2-2. Freshman
forward Dan McKeen then scored his first-ever Icer with less than 8 minutes
left in the third period. During the last eleven seconds of the game, the
Icers secured their 3-2 win by prevent four shots on goal from getting in. In
Icers goal was Scott Blackman. Icers senior defenseman Curtiss
Patrick suffered a separated shoulder injury during the first period and had
to leave the game.
Eastern Michigan University was then withdrawn from the ACHA due to imposed
sanctions by their university due to a reported hazing incident. This
change affected the Icers' schedule as there were two home games scheduled
with Eastern Michigan and one away game as well. The away game
coming up in late January was changed to another away game with University
of Michigan-Dearborn.
Since Eastern Michigan was out, Niagara was in for the home games on December
5th and 6th. On the first game, the Icers had a 5-1 win. There was one Icer
goal at 16:58 in the first period by Kevin Jaeger and one Icer goal 10:32
in the second period by Teague Willits-Kelly. In the third period there were
goals from Justin Depretis, Glenn Zuck, and Lucas Walker. Niagara's
only goal of the game came with less than a minute left in the game. Depretis
lead the team with 21 goals so far this at this game. Icer forward Garrett
Divins returned from an ankle injury to play his first game this season. Zuck
moved into fourth place on the all-time career goals list at this game with
his 108th goal. The Icers were without the services of key players Curtiss
Patrick, Joe Maglaque and Mike Carrano. Goalie Scott Blackman had 21 saves
for the game and the Icers outshot Niagara 47 to 22.
The
Icers then returned the next day to get another win over Niagara, this time
winning 9-1. The Icers came out strong in the first period with goals from
Jaeger, Vince Nardy, Joe Maglaque, Glenn Zuck, and a goal from Brett Wilson
with less than a minute left. Icers domination of the game continued through
most of the second period with goals from Jaeger, Garrett Divins, and Maglaque.
Niagara's only goal was 18:21 into the second period. The Icers continued to dominate the play in the second period as
they added a second shorthanded goal, this one by Jaeger. Only 44 seconds
later Garrett Divins netted his first of the year to put the Icers up 7-0.
Joe Maglaque scored the Icers third shorthanded goal of the game to make it
an 8-0 Icers lead. However, Niagara scored on a power play to make it 8-1
score after two periods. One
additional goal in the last minute of the third period from Brendan Roache
sealed the victory. Chris Matteo had 14 saves on 15 shots in goal,
and Brian Gratz had 10 saves on 10 shots in goal. During this game,
Glenn Zuck's points moved him into fourth on the all time Icers point
list with 263 career points.
After the winter break the Icers rolled into Athens Ohio for two away games
on January 9th and 10th. Ohio University is well known for having
a strong game at home and this was another rematch between last year's #1
and #2 ACHA Division I teams.
On
the first game after the break the Icers attempted a comeback in the game
but ended up with their first official loss of 4-2. During the first period Ohio had two goals with one power-play goal
and a two on one breakaway goal late in the period. About halfway
into the second period Ohio had another goal but the Icers had two goals in
the last two minutes of the period from Justin Depretis and Bill Downey. Going
into the third period the game was suddenly a 3-2 game but the Icers were
not able to get another goal and one shot hit the post. Ohio won
the game 4-2 with an empty net goal in the last minute of the game. Goalie
Scott Blackman had 20 saves.
The
next day, Ohio was able to get another 4-2 victory. At the end of the first
period, the score was 0-0. During
the second period, Ohio's leading scorer Sean Gallagher scored a power play
goal. Icers' Kevin Jaeger was then able to rebound off a shot from Joe Maglaque,
getting the first Icers goal of the game. Ohio's Brandon Hanley was then able
to get in a goal on a breakaway, leaving Ohio ahead with a 2-1 lead at the
end of the period. In the third period,
Jaeger put in a second goal after Ohio put in their third goal. With 1:42
left in the third period, the Icers were given a power play but lost their
one-man advantage to a penalty. Ohio then added an empty net goal and won
the game 4-2.
Coming back from the two away losses, the Icers faced the number two
ranked and undefeated University of Rhode Island Rams (23-0-1) on January
16th. Turning a negative into a great positive, the Icers won the
game 7-2 against the Rams. Coming out a little bit flat in the first period,
there was only one goal in the first period for Rhode Island. Goalie
Scott Blackman made a huge save on a 2 on 1 as the second period began and
the Icers then got the game going in the second period with goals from Mike
Carrano, Jack Weber, Glenn Zuck, and Weber again. Bill Downey scored one Icer
goal in the third. Rhode Island came back with one more goal, but
the Icers then extended their win with one goal each from Justin Depretis
and Kevin Jaeger. The Icers had twice as many shots on goal (35-17)
and goalie Scott Blackman had 15 saves. Glenn
Zuck continued his climb up the all-time Icers lists.
The next day, the Icers obtained another win over West Virginia University
with a 5-1 win. Despite outshooting them 19-1, the only goal in the first
period was an Icer goal 50 seconds into the period by Mike Carrano. The dry spell continued until 4:48 in the second
period with an Icer goal from Jack Weber. A goal each from Kevin Jaeger and Teague Willits-Kelly gave the
Icers a 4-0 to end out the second period. West Virginia was able
to get their only goal at 7:31 in the third period, and one more goal from
Jaeger gave the Icers the 5-1 win. Brian Gratz had 12 saves and
did not face much of a challenge from West Virginia until the 3rd period.
West Virginia only had 13 shots on goal during the game while the Icers had
45. Glenn Zuck was given an assistant captain’s
“A” following the game as a reward for his leadership over the last few months.
Throughout
the season so far, the Icers have kept the number one ranking in ACHA Division
I.
As of right now:
Glenn
Zuck - Glenn has 270 career points, which puts him three behind
Ross Cowan for third and four behind Rob Keegan for second on the all-time
point list. Glenn also ranked third on the all-time assist list with 160 for
his career, and is only one behind Rob Keegan for third and five behind
Alon Eizenman for second. This season Glenn Zuck leads the team
in assists with 38 and points with 60.
Curtiss
Patrick - Curtiss moves closer to a couple of milestones being 21 penalty
minutes behind Jeff Speece for first all-time penalty minute leader.
Kevin Jaeger - Kevin leads the team in goals with 25 and was ACHA Player of
the Week in late October.
