Freshman surprise big key for Icers

In order to go far in the ACHA National Tournament, a team needs a few essentials: a stingy defense to hold other teams off the board, solid goaltending to make up for any mistakes the defense might let slip through and a reliable sniper to cash in on the chances the offense generates.

The freshman from Westlake, Ohio, has had an extraordinary season. Dickey leads the team in goals with 31 in 30 games. He also is the team leader in points with 57, and his plus/minus (+35) is second only to Don Coyne's +37.

Dickey rapidly is approaching the Penn State record for goals by a freshman. Lynn Sipe scored 33 for the Icers in 1983-84, but at the rate he's going, Dickey should pass that mark sometime Friday night against Michigan.

In his last four games, Dickey has recorded 11 goals and three assists, including hat tricks his last three games. He notched the first "trick" of his career in last weekend's 6-0 blanking of Navy. It didn't take him long to get his second or third of his career, either, scoring three times in both Penn State's wins against Michigan State during the weekend.

"Jason has always been a goal scorer," Penn State coach Joe Battista said. "He's playing with tremendous confidence right now. He's a smart player who sees the ice very well. Right now he's riding a wave. I just hope it continues for the next two weeks."

Battista said Dickey is a very unselfish player as well, as his assist total shows. He has 26 assists on the year, ranking him fifth on the team.

Battista said he knew what kind of player Dickey was after assistant coach Paul Graf and faculty adviser Paul Cohen reported back from Hockey Night in Cleveland, where they saw Dickey demonstrate his touch around the net.

"We knew we had something there," Battista said.

Dickey really has no explanation for his success this season. He said the puck just seems to follow him wherever he goes. He plays excellent positional hockey, getting open and in a position to score.

"They've just been going in for me," Dickey said. "I've been scoring a lot of goals on the power play, so that helps. Scoring goals never gets old."

In the last four games Dickey has scored five power-play goals. But his scoring touch is not limited exclusively to the power play. In that same time span he had six even-strength goals as well.

During the weekend Dickey and Todd Dakan were reunited with center Rich Podulka, who returned to the lineup after missing almost two months with a broken jaw. The combination worked well together, with Dakan scoring three goals and adding three assists on the weekend and Podulka dishing out three assists.

"It'll take them a little time to get going," Battista said. "But they played well."

Dickey also played with both Coyne and Jason Zivkovic with the Cleveland Jr. A Barons and credits the time they spent together in juniors with helping him work so well together.

"The extra time together definitely helps," Dickey said.

With Dickey scoring goals like there's no tomorrow, the Icers will have a good chance to go far in the national tournament in early March. And with Dickey being so young, one can anticipate he'll only get better.