Desperation ends in Icer defeat

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-- Penn State's bid for a national championship was derailed by Iowa State, as the Icers fell to the Cyclones, 5-4, March 7 in a game that was in doubt until the final buzzer. Penn State, needing a tie or a win to advance to the championship game, put on a frantic rush for the tying goal in the closing seconds but could not get the equalizer.

"I'm so incredibly proud of these guys," Penn State coach Joe Battista said. "They left it all out there on the ice. We got through this game on heart and character."

The Cyclones got on the board early in the first period. Just 46 seconds into the game Darcy Anderson scored on a rebound of Chris Poli's shot. Penn State got a power play at 8:37 of the first after Iowa State's Sean Weaver was called for goaltender interference.

But instead of getting the tying goal, the Icers fell behind by two goals when Cyclone Mike Ogbourne scored a shorthanded goal at 9:11 of the first period. Ogbourne fought off the Icers' Rich Martha and slid a backhander past John Sixt to put the Cyclones up 2-0.

Penn State answered 28 seconds later on the same power play, as Jeff Adams picked a loose puck out of a netmouth scramble and put a shot past Iowa State goaltender Rob Howitt to cut the lead in half.

The Cyclones regained the two-goal lead when Poli sidestepped a check by Icer defenseman Eddie Kmit, carried the puck down the left-wing boards and found an open Brian Paolello, who slid the puck into the empty right side of the net.

Kmit drew the Icers within a goal at 6:10 of the second period on a power play. The senior captain picked up the rebound off a shot by Mike Pietrangelo and roofed his first goal of the tournament to make the score 3-2. The Icers were 2-of-7 with the man advantage.

The Cyclones scored a power-play goal of their own, as Darren Anderson banged a loose puck through Sixt's pads to restore his team's two-goal margin. Adams then scored his fifth goal of the tournament and 28th of the season to again draw Penn State to within one at 11:41 of the second.

The Icers entered the third period down, 4-3, but the Cyclones scored another power-play goal 30 seconds into the period to jump back up by two. Poli corralled a rebound and put home what turned out to be the game winner. Poli finished the game with a goal and three assists.

With his team trailing by two and time running out, Battista called a timeout with 3:17 remaining. Immediately after the timeout, Icer defenseman Jason Zivkovic picked off a clearing attempt by Iowa State, carried the puck toward the goal, faked the defenseman to the ice, skated around him and tucked the puck between the nearside post and Howitt at 16:58.

Battista then pulled Sixt for an extra attacker. Kmit had a shot from the point miss the net by inches, and Rich Podulka chipped a shot just over the crossbar. The Icers came close, but Howitt was able to weather the storm and keep Penn State off the board.

After the game Battista was anything but upset about the loss.

"I'm so proud of the effort that we got out of these guys," Battista said. "I've been coaching Penn State for 10 years and that was one of the gutsiest performances I've ever seen. We took the No. 1 ranked team right down to the wire. That was one of the greatest hockey games we ever played."

Kmit was proud of the way the defense performed missing two key performers. With the injuries to Shuttleworth and Coyne, the Icers were forced to rely on Kmit, Zivkovic, Loren Remetta and Jurgen Cautreels to carry the majority of the load.

"A lot of the guys that got thrown into the fire did a great job," Kmit said. "It just wasn't in the cards. Losing those players hurt, but everyone else stepped it up. Unfortunately, we didn't pull it out. Being in this situation, I expected to be upset, but you almost can't be with how well everybody played."

With hopes of a national championship snuffed out by Iowa State the day before, fourth-ranked Penn State took to the ice against No. 2 Arizona in the consolation final.

The Icer power play went a perfect 3-of-3 to power them to a 4-2 victory over the Icecats and a third-place finish in the tournament. Pietrangelo scored twice, and Jason Dickey had a goal and two assists for Penn State.

After a scoreless first period, Dickey opened the scoring for the Icers. Icecat goaltender Beau Lemire had stopped Dickey twice in the first period, but Dickey finally was able to beat Lemire as he picked the puck up at the blue line, skated toward the net and put a snap-shot past Lemire for his team-leading 36th goal of the season and a lead Penn State would never relinquish.

Dickey then teamed up with Pietrangelo on the power play to stretch the lead to 2-0. Arizona answered 1:27 later with a power-play goal by Ben Ruston.

Andrew Barnes then scored the final goal of his Icer career, the game winner, on the power play. Barnes picked up a rebound off a shot from the point and put home his second goal of the tournament.

With a little less than one minute remaining in the second, Penn State's Todd Dakan and Arizona captain Peter Scott were both given five-minute majors and ejected from the game. The two had tangled earlier in the first period and were given coincidental roughing minors.

Arizona cut the Penn State lead to one as Ruston scored his second of the game at 1:52 of the third. But Penn State struck again on the power play as Pietrangelo scored his scored his second of the game to restore the two-goal lead.

Sixt, who made 34 saves in the game, held the Icecats off the board for the final six minutes of the game to seal the Icer victory.

After the game Battista was proud of his team and his coaching staff.

"To lose 11 guys from last year and we didn't lose any ground," he said. "I'm very proud of the boys on the team and the coaching staff worked very hard this year as well. Just a super, super effort by the entire team."

Notes:

• Zivkovic and Adams were named to the ACHA All-Tournament team. Adams led the tournament with five goals in four games, including two two-goal games. Kmit, Barnes and Pietrangelo were honorable mention selections.
  

  "We were here to win a national championship, and we fell a little bit short of that. That was our big goal," Adams said. "Individual honors come after that."
  

• Zivkovic recorded an assist in the finale to tie the Icer record for points by a defenseman in a season with 53.
  

  "I was really fired up to play well this year after missing last year," Zivkovic said. "Last year it was horrible sitting in the stands watching. I had a lot of fun playing out there."
  

• The Ohio Bobcats defeated Iowa State, 2-1, in the championship game for their third consecutive national title.