Icers demolish Towson in first round

By KEVIN BRICKER
Collegian Staff Writer

NEWARK, Del. -- Towson had never beaten Penn State.

The Icers were not about to let that streak end, not in their opening game of the 1999 American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament.

The second-seeded Penn State men's ice hockey team pinned Towson from the start as the it cruised to a dominating 5-1 win at Delaware's Fred Rust Arena. Penn State outshot Towson 59-12 including a 25-3 edge in the first period. The Icers (24-3-3 overall, 1-0 ACHA Tournament) are 8-0-1 all-time against Towson.

"We just wore them down," Icers coach Joe Battista said. "In the second period it looked like there were about five skate marks at our end of the ice. (Townson's) end, you could've shoveled the snow off."

The seventh-seeded Tigers (25-9-2 overall, 0-1 ACHA Tournament) were coming off an emotional 4-3 victory over No. 10 Western Michigan in a tournament "play-in" game Tuesday night. From the opening faceoff it was apparent the Icers had fresher legs than their opponent.

"I give a little of our fatigue to our game last night," Towson coach Marshall Stevenson said. "But you can't make excuses. Penn State's got good players and they move the puck very well. They're not No. 2 for nothing."

Penn State took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a Brad Hamel slapshot and never looked back. On an offensive zone faceoff, forward Travis Dorsey won the draw to Neal Price who fed Hamel at the blue line. The junior defenseman fired a shot that Tigers' goalie Derek Rabold never saw.

Forward Todd Dakan pushed the lead to 2-0 with a little more than 12 minutes to go in the second when he beat Rabold on a breakaway with a high backhander. Then forward Ryan Wick deflected a Scott Curry shot less than six minutes later to notch the lead to 3-0.

After Wick tallied his second goal of the game 7:13 into the final period, Towson finally got on the board. Tigers' defenseman Dan Callihan smoked a slapper past Penn State netminder Anthony Annexy.

But by then, the Icers led 4-1.

"All season long we've had a tendency to let teams back in it," Hamel said. "We haven't had that killer instinct."

Penn State faces sixth-seeded Arizona at 4 p.m. today. The Icecats (22-4-2 overall, 0-1 ACHA tournament) dropped their tournament opener 4-2 to Michigan-Dearborn (25-9-1 overall, 1-0 ACHA tournament) yesterday.

"Tomorrow's going to be more of a run-and-gun game and be a little more evened out," Annexy said.

Battista said senior goalie John Sixt will start against Arizona.

"Anthony (Annexy) did what he needed to do," Battista said. "He gave Johnny (Sixt) another day of rest."