Icer seniors pushing for intense play

By KEVIN BRICKER
Collegian Staff Writer

Nearly every week the Penn State men's ice hockey team holds a closed-door, players-only meeting. Monday's session had an extra installment.

After all the younger players had cleared the room, the Icers seniors held their own seniors-only meeting.

"I kind of came out of the meeting saying, ‘More of us got to give the rest of the guys a kick in the butt,' " senior forward Ed Bursich said.

Mired in a three-game winless streak, the Penn State seniors are taking it upon themselves to end the team's slump. It is their last chance to exercise their leadership role in a season that has suddenly drifted awry.

"This is our last hurrah," senior defenseman Don Coyne said. "If we all step up our games we can get everybody going."

The No. 1 Icers (19-3-1) have fallen victim to sloppy play against three top-10 American Collegiate Hockey Association squads during their recent struggle. In those games -- losses to No. 2 Iowa State and No. 3 Michigan-Dearborn, and a tie with No. 10 Eastern Michigan -- the Icers made costly errors.

"Against top teams when you make a mistake teams capitalize," Coyne said. "It's just a matter of making everything click. For the most part we're putting in the effort."

But Penn State's recent slide is not cause for alarm. Bursich believes the adversity will ultimately benefit the club.

"We're not hitting the panic button," he said. "We can use this as motivation. We haven't caught the breaks we have in the past and the harder we work, the more bounces are going to go our way."

Still the one?

At the start of the season, Battista set two goals for Penn State -- successfully defend its ACHA Championship and put itself in the best position to do so. Translation -- attain the No. 1 ranking heading into the tournament.

It appears the latter is in jeopardy.

The poll that determines the seedings for the ACHA Tournament will be released Friday and it seems likely the Icers will lose grip of the top spot for the first time since November. Iowa State's victory at Penn State last week and its two victories at Illinois may have secured the Cyclones' No. 1 ranking.

All three of Penn State's losses have come to teams in the top three. It lost twice to Michigan-Dearborn and once to the Cyclones. The Icers could fall to third in the poll.

While losing the top spot would destroy one of Penn State's preseason goals, it does have its advantages.

"It's nice to have the No. 1 ranking," Bassett said, "but it's good to have that target off our chest."

Shutt-down

When Penn State steps on the ice for this weekend's games against Delaware it will be without senior defenseman Buff Shuttleworth. The Icers captain was suspended for two games after spearing Eastern Michigan's Sean Kass last Saturday.

Shuttleworth was called for a five-minute major for spearing and given a game disqualification. Since it was his second disqualification of the season, he must serve the two-game suspension.

"It was a stupid play by me," Shuttleworth said. "(Kass) gave me a stick going up the ice and I turned around and gave it back. I lost my temper. Coach was upset at me and rightfully so."