Icers prepare for ACHA Tournament as No. 2 seed

By CARLA MOTKO
Collegian Staff Writer

Penn State men's ice hockey coach Joe Battista made it known exactly how he would be voting for the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) National Championship seedings.

He would let Iowa State have its day at No. 1, but felt his Icers had proven themselves worthy to sit in second place -- above longtime rival Michigan-Dearborn.

So did the other voters.

Penn State will play as the No. 2 seed for the tournament -- beginning March 2 in Newark, Del. -- below No. 1-seed Iowa State but above No. 3-seed Michigan-Dearborn.

"Michigan-Dearborn is a good team, and they deserve to still be in the top three, but not above us," Penn State forward Ed Bursich said. "Ideally, we should be No. 2."

Battista said he was anticipating a strange alteration between the final ACHA poll, which came out Feb. 5, and the tournament seedings, which came out yesterday. The last ACHA poll read No. 1 Iowa State, No. 2 Michigan-Dearborn, No. 3 Penn State, No. 4 Arizona and No. 5 Ohio. He was hoping the seedings would be altered a bit from those rankings.

Penn State has the best overall record in the ACHA against tournament teams with a record of 13-3-3. Second best is Iowa State with an 8-3-2 record.

"I think we should be at No. 2 and that's the way I'm going to vote," Battista said. "People may try to put a weird spin on things, but the truth is we have the best overall record."

Everyone jump in the pool

Along with the seedings, the ACHA Tournament pools were announced yesterday and may give Penn State a slight edge.

Pool A holds Iowa State, No. 4-seed Ohio, No. 5-seed Delaware and the winner of a play-in game between Eastern Michigan and Illinois. Pool B will include Penn State, Michigan-Dearborn, No. 6 Arizona and the winner of a play-in game between Towson and Western Michigan.

With a 1-3-1 record against tournament teams, Battista said he did not believe Arizona should be so high in the pool, but should instead replace one of the play-in teams. Penn State will face off against the Icecats at 4 p.m. March 4. That will be the Icers' second game of the tournament.

Their first game will be at 1 p.m. March 3 against the winner of the play-in game between Western Michigan and Towson.

Penn State's No. 2 seeding will give it the edge in its games because it will be considered the home team and will be allowed to make the last line change before faceoffs.

Perhaps the roughest competition for Iowa State will be Delaware, which will play the tournament on its home ice of the Fred Rust Arena. The Cyclones will also play Ohio, which until a loss last Saturday to Penn State, had not lost a game since Nov. 6.

The Wolves are on the prowl

The more difficult competition will not come until March 5 when Penn State takes on Michigan-Dearborn. In the past three meetings between Penn State and Michigan-Dearborn, the Wolves have gotten the better of the Icers twice. Most recently, Penn State was downed 4-2 in Michigan.

To the Icers' credit, however, they played with five injured players and two starters did not make the trip.

But since that trip three and a half weeks ago, all of the Icers' starters have returned to the lineup and are working back toward 100 percent.

Penn State defenseman Don Coyne said in last week's win against Ohio, the team turned in its best performance of the year in his opinion. Confident from the win, the team believes it can get the jump on the Wolves.

"Being in the bracket with Michigan-Dearborn might affect us psychologically," Battista said. "Dearborn has had our number the last few years, but I think it's time for that to start evening out."