Icers show variety in weekend thrashings of West Virginia

By CARLA MOTKO
Collegian Staff Writer

Surprisingly enough, the West Virginia hockey team was ranked No. 11 heading into the two games this weekend against Penn State. It had one of the American Collegiate Hockey Association's highest scoring offenses, led by Div. I All-American Mike Sargo.

Seriously, it's all true.

But what was apparent on paper may not have been evident during the two severe lashings the Mountaineers (14-5-1) received at the hands of the No. 1 Icers (18-1) this weekend. The Icers put the puck past Mountaineer goaltender Kevin Gray 20 times to beat them 9-4 Friday and 11-1 Saturday at the Ice Pavilion at the Greenberg Sports Complex.

"We've got a lot of different guys scoring goals, and it's good to see that kind of depth," Penn State coach Joe Battista said. "We're attacking the net, and good things happen when you attack the net."

During Friday's game, the Icers proved that no time was a bad time to attack the net. Penn State's usually dominant power play picked apart the Mountaineers' penalty-killing unit and went 3 of 6 on the night. Forwards C.J. Patrick, Todd Dakan and Joe Bassett each cashed in on the power play.

"Their penalty killing was very non-aggressive," said defenseman Jason Zivkovic, who assisted on two of the power-play goals. "I had a ton of time to set up the play."

The usual purpose of a penalty-killing unit is to hang deep in the zone and play defense. But the Icers' penalty killers weren't waiting around for West Virginia to score. Instead, they pushed up ice and eventually Penn State forward Alon Eizenman scored a short-handed goal to make the score 6-2.

While Penn State was killing penalties, goalies John Sixt and Geoffrey Beauparlant, who shared time in net, only had to make a handful of saves. Neither goalie allowed West Virginia to capitalize on the power play.

The Icers had most of their success at even strength. Zivkovic and Patrick, along with forwards Rob Shaner and Greg Held all scored goals at full strength, while Dakan knocked one in on a four-on-four opportunity.

What made Battista upset, however, was that while everyone was in West Virginia's end trying to score goals, Penn State's zone was left wide open. West Virginia's Sargo and Phil Rock each had two goals on a defense that only lets in an average of two goals per game. Sargo's second goal capped off scoring at 9-4.

"I'm a little disappointed with the way we played team defense," Battista said Friday. "But give Sargo and his linemates credit, they're a terrific offensive line."

Because of the success of Sargo's line Friday, Battista was overjoyed to see West Virginia's first line go scoreless Saturday.

The Icers' power play had more success Saturday, scoring on 4 of 7 opportunities. Dakan, Patrick, Eizenman and defenseman Don Coyne all cashed in on the power play. Coyne's goal came just five seconds into the weekend's only two-man advantage and made the score 5-0.

While at even strength, Patrick, Bassett, Held, Eizenman and Zivkovic each tacked on a goal. In addition to scoring the game's first goal on the power play, Dakan scored two goals in the third period to complete his hat trick and end the scoring at 11-1.

Battista said he saw a drastic day-to-day improvement in his defense. Although still pushing toward the net, he said his defensemen did a much better job covering their end.

And although the scoring totals for the weekend were the highest of Penn State's season against a ranked team, according to Battista, that is no reason to let up.

"The difference in where we stack up to other teams is in our balance," Battista said. "We have a good offense and a good defense. We've been playing some good hockey, but I still don't think we've played our best game."