Penalty-prone Icers look to change ways

It was a nice, clean, hard-hitting hockey game at the ice pavilion -- until the third period rolled around.

Then, things got out of hand.

Icer forward Mike Pietrangelo placed an open-ice cross-check under the chin of Delaware forward Jason Forte, sending Pietrangelo to the box for four minutes last Saturday afternoon.

Immediately after Pietrangelo served his time, Paul Shuttleworth was sent to the sin bin to serve another four minutes for roughing and an unsportsmanlike conduct minor.

In total, the third period saw 17 penalties, 12 in the last 10 minutes. The Icers committed nine of those third-period penalties, featuring six roughing calls and one unsportsmanlike conduct minor.

Joe Battista addressed what he called "selfish penalties" at team meetings this week.

"We went on about (bad penalties) quite a bit this past meeting," Battista said. "I don't think coach (Scott) Balboni or I left anything to the imagination. We talked about this at great length."

Battista said the different styles of refereeing from region-to-region may be partly to blame for his team's penalty problems.

"It's tough playing the national schedule like we do," Battista said. "In the East, the referees will call everything. Out in the Midwest, you won't get a penalty called unless you practically commit assault.

"Our players are having trouble understanding they need to adapt. We need to adapt to what the referees call because they won't adapt for us."

Penn State's reputation for taking penalties at the most inopportune times has grown throughout the ACHA, causing Icer opponents to attack them when the play is whistled dead and their backs are turned.

"The word's out in the league that if you stick Penn State and do stuff after the whistle and behind the play, we'll lose it," forward Alon Eizenman said. "We have to try to nip it before it begins to be a real problem."

Battista could simply sit the player who is having trouble keeping his composure. But, the Icers' problem is of a much greater magnitude.

"It's not just one guy," Battista said, "It's a wide spread of guys and that's frustrating to me."

In the latter stages of a lopsided game, the Icers have played passively and lacked a killer instinct, which may a problem of self-discipline.

"We tend to slack off," said forward Tom Westfall. "If we want to be a championship team, we have to be a team that puts a fork in the other."

And that is the goal the Icers intend to accomplish. But to achieve it they need to address the discipline issue as soon as possible.

"That's something that could really cause problems at nationals," Eizenman said, "if we don't curb it right now."