Last weekend, the #3 Penn State Icers split a pair of games with the fifth-
ranked Goons, er, Eagles of Eastern Michigan.  The Icers won 6-3 on Friday,
and lost by the same score on Saturday.
 
Unfortunately, I wasn't at Friday's game, but I do know that Penn State led
2-0 after one and 5-1 after two.  I did get to hear a "fight" (if you can call
it that) between Penn State's Rich Martha and somebody from Eastern Michigan
(it really isn't important who, they're all pretty much interchangeable) - it
might have been goaltender Rob McClure, but I'm not sure.  Both got 5 minutes
for fighting, and in the end, Jeff Crispino picked up the win for Penn State.
 
Now, on to Saturday's fiasco, er, contest.  Eastern Michigan used the same
goaltender as Friday, while Dennis Magulick was in the net for Penn State.
We should have known we were in trouble immediately when the referees (who,
I was informed, worked the previous nights game and let things get out of hand)
sported only "10" and "14" on their jerseys.  Obviously, unlike the WCHA (I th
think) who uses the numbers as a simplification (I would assume), these guys
were only trying to hide themselves - we later assumed their names were
"Beavis" and "Butt-Head".  These guys were HORRIBLE.  They were making Pierre
Belanger actually look decent.  They allowed EMU to use their "goon tactics"
all throughout the game.  Thus, the Eagles scored early in the first, but
the Icers evened it up at one about midway through the period.  EMU would go
up 2-1 shortly thereafter, but Penn State tied it at 2 on a RARE power play
(there were only 3 PSU power play attempts all night), and that's the way the
first period ended.
 
Unfortunately, the referees didn't get any better, and so Eastern Michigan was
pretty much allowed to hold, interfere, check from behind, and board the whole
game.  The Eagles added the only two goals in the second, and led 4-2 after two
periods of play.  Penn State turned it on in the third - or should I say, tried
to.  Unfortunately, they were stopped several times by EMU's "physical play"
(note sarcasm), and the few times the refs did anything, it was to call Penn
State offside (at least 3 times when the call should NOT have been made).  But
then, should we have expected anything different at this point.  The Eagles
scored again late in the third to make it 5-2, and then the officials finally
woke up.  EMU was called for two quick penalties, and so the Icers had a 5-on-3
with about three minutes left.  Unfortunately, since the momentum had been
stolen from Penn State throughout the game, they couldn't quite connect on the
power play, but did manage to close to 5-3 on a goal with 1:01 left to play.
Was it miracle time?  Well, no, as the Eagles scored an empty-netter with about
30 seconds left, and EMU goaltender McClure celebrated by mocking the PSU fans.
 
At any rate, Penn State is now 10-3-0 on the season.  They will face the Erie
College Icekats of the NJCAA on Friday and Saturday at the Ice Pavilion.  These
will be the last games of the fall semester.  The next games after that will be
in Tucson, AZ to face the #7 Icecats of Arizona in early January.
 
Trust me, this may sound like a biased post, but there's no other way to de
describe what happened here on Saturday.
 
 *****************************************************************************
 *       Jeremy Hall          [log in to unmask]          Penn State Univ.     *
 *                                                                           *
 *                CLARKSON GOLDEN KNIGHTS: 1993 ECAC CHAMPIONS               *
 *                                                                           *
 *                            PENN STATE ICERS:                              *
 *         1992-93 ATLANTIC LEAGUE REGULAR SEASON & TOURNAMENT CHAMPS        *
 *                                                                           *
 *     LET'S GO TECH!!!!                                LET'S GO ICERS!!     *
 *****************************************************************************