Icers can't put puck in net, lose two

Problems finishing their chances and clearing the puck out of their own defensive zone plagued the Icers all weekend, as they lost both games of a road swing through Michigan, falling Friday in overtime to Michigan-Dearborn, 4-3, then Saturday to Eastern Michigan by the same score in regulation.

Penn State (15-8, 15-5 ACHA) fired 79 shots in the two games but only could manage six goals for the weekend.

The first game was a typical Penn State-Dearborn contest, with a lot of intensity. The game was very important, especially for Dearborn. And the Wolves played like it.

The host was in danger of dropping out of the top six teams in the ACHA, which would have forced the Wolves to play in the preliminary round of the national tournament.

Penn State was leading, 3-1, with 6:30 remaining in the third period, and Dearborn was pressing hard to get back in the game. John Sixt made three outstanding saves to preserve the Icers' two-goal lead. Penn State coach Joe Battista then called a timeout to try to steal some of the momentum Dearborn had gained.

The move did not turn out as planned. Sixteen seconds after the timeout, Dearborn scored a goal to cut the lead in half. On the next face off, six seconds later, Dearborn tied the score on a long shot from center ice that seemed to handcuff Sixt, dipping below his blocker and into the net.

The Icers had several chances to win the game in overtime, with their best chance coming when Tom Westfall hit the post.

"We had several great chances to win the game, but we just couldn't put the puck in the net," Battista said. "We had trouble all game long getting the puck out of the zone and finishing our scoring chances. We had a power play with 10 minutes to go in the third period, and we had five great scoring chances, including two posts. The kill kind of rejuvenated them and that's when they started putting all the pressure on us."

With a little more than a minute remaining in overtime, Penn State failed to clear the puck out of its zone. It turned out to be a fatal mistake. Dearborn ended up with a two-on-one, with the Wolves' Dan Hunt knuckling a shot over Sixt's shoulder and into the net for the game-winner. It was Dearborn's first victory over Penn State in 16 games.

Penn State outshot Dearborn, 39-29, for the game, but Wolves goaltender Mark Tapp made 36 saves in helping his team to victory.

Icer center Todd Dakan was lost early in the first period with a hip pointer injury, forcing Battista to shuffle his lines for the remainder of the game.

"A couple of defensive mistakes and a couple of fluky goals spells upset," Battista said.

Saturday against Eastern Michigan, despite outshooting the Eagles, 10-6, in the first period the Icers found themselves down, 2-0, on a pair of Eastern Michigan power-play goals. Luck seemed to be on the Eagles' side as Penn State had a goal disallowed and an Eastern Michigan goal was allowed to stand even though the whistle had blown before the puck had crossed the goal line.

Early in the second period, Eastern Michigan scored again to increase the lead to 3-0, but Penn State rallied. A power-play goal by Rich Martha got the Icers on the board midway through the second period. Then late in the second, Andrew Barnes sent C.J. Patrick in on a partial breakaway. Patrick beat Eagles goaltender Russ Andrews, banging in a shot off the post.

With 1:05 remaining in the game and Sixt pulled for an extra attacker, the Icers tied the score after Mike Pietrangelo won a face off back to Jason Zivkovic, who found Jason Dickey, who one-timed a shot past Andrews.

The tie didn't last for long. With 22 seconds left in the game, Eagles defenseman Andy Watson threw a shot at the net that deflected off the shaft of Chris Kadis' stick and into the net.

"(The goal) was so disheartening because we had battled back from a big deficit," Battista said. "We just don't seem to get the bounces of the puck. We dig these holes for ourselves because we haven't been finishing our chances and we hold on to the puck too long."